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[Page 61]
to rise again. We fell in for parade & the roll was called. He will never see the Dardanelles, poor chap, but perhaps it's just as well.
At noon on Friday, 16th July we berthed at Port Melbourne Pier. Here we stayed, wondering if leave would be granted, till the following day at noon. On Friday about 2.30, the advance guard of a band of Royal Australian Artillery come on board. As they approached the colonel came to the well deck & ordered no cheering. But a soldiers welcome is never done by halves & we gave them three good ones, & they responded. For this we were ordered below for an hour. If you only knew how we hated the below decks, you would understand how we resented this. But the picket pitied us, and long before the hour was up we had sneaked up on deck again. There was a real Melbourne fog hanging over the bay and little to do and nothing to see. But at 4 o'clock the fog lifted & we could catch a glimpse of the shore. I must say there is something cold & foreign about Port Melbourne, something quite un-Australian about it. I can't explain what it is, but that is how it impressed me. It became quite evident that no leave would be granted & that evening, quite as evident that the Infantry intended to take it. At about 7. oclock a disturbance occurred on the gangway and the sentry was pushed aside. We heard the clatter of boots on the steps and then crowd streamed onto the pier and shouted to their more timid friends to join them. A great crowd went off. But the affair which might easily have become serious, was checked in short time by an officer who jumped to the head of the