Introduction by Julie Goodsir: Geoff Browne has been associated with Middle Head from when he was a young boy, he served 31 years and has a long association with 10 Terminal. Following his time in the Army Geoff then became Head of Education at ASOPA right next door to 10 Terminal. He has great qualifications to speak to us tonight.
Col Geoff Browne: Good evening ladies and gentleman, can you hear me? You can't hear me, all right.
10 Terminal Building Middle Head
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Above: Col Geoff Brown as a bugle boy (far left) and his father.
When I was six years of age, here's where I stood. Right outside Ten Terminal regiment, and it was a corrugated iron hut, and I was there at six, so that's about 82 years ago, and my father was the battery Sergeant Major, of 1st 88th battery at Georgia's Heights. But we trained down there. And for 40 cents, four shillings, we lived there for four days, all on rations, it's on with the Army Cadets, and I was there, I was eight years of age.
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1798, from 2004 then, my maths is not good but I think that's 226 years of military heritage at Middle Head, and Georgia Heights. And let me add, it is still continuing, because [inaudible 00:02:18] is currently operating. So there's no lack of military inheritance in that area.
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The Middle Head area was of much interest to Captain Phillip. Now, you might know there was a very able Corsican who got Captain Phillip interested. Now you all know who the Corsican was, don't you? His name was Napoleon. He was born in Corsica, and he was in the middle of the Napoleonic wars, and many countries over Europe were worried. Britain was worried that he might have an invasion force to go into Britain, but they knew the Royal Navy would murder any attempt to cross, just like we know in about 1944.
So Captain Phillip sent a group of Marines, Royal Marines, to Cobblers beach, three days after he landed at Sydney Cove. So that's 1788, that's when it started. Now the entire area of Middle Head, Chowder Bay, and Georgia's Heights was historically significant as an important location of major defence-works for the defence of Sydney Harbour and Port Jackson. During the 19th and 20th century. When I was that little boy, I had the safeguard, Sydney Airways. My father put me on an outpost on the parade ground, I was eight, and because I knew the aircraft, I had great knowledge of aircraft, I was on the observation post on the parade ground with field glasses and a notebook tracking every plane that came across. Now I wasn't there on the big night, you know the invasion night, but my father was there firing guns.
Now, some of the military units that served in that area, you won't remember them, I can't, but were, the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the submarine miners, coastal artillery, the 1802 battery at Georgia's Heights and Middle Head, muzzle loaders of course, stuck it in the front end and got off of the road, the 1870 batteries at Middle Head and Georgia's Heights, because as you know, the British Army, British Navy as son on, left Australia to look after itself in that period.
The Army Maritime school at Chowder Bay, and when I was a little boy my father said, you can't go near that army signal depot, because everything is secret. So I walked around the road, never went near it, I was a good boy. The AWAS, Australian Women's Army Service, the school of military engineering, which ripped into the Ten Terminal building, which wasn't built until 1941, and the first people to occupy it were the school of military engineering. Generally, movement and transport and so on.
The army intelligence centre was in the back area of the side, and then Ten Terminal regiment went to the red big building that is of interest. Now there's some argument on the building notice. I went down yesterday, I go down every week by the way, but I went down yesterday and saw that it was built in 1958 on the notes. It was built in 1941. Ten terminal regiment, which is RAASC which I was a Colonel in that Corps or became, the Royal Australians Corps of Transport later on, and the Royal Australian Electrical Mechanical Engineers who ran the workshops.
So you can see that it has a long inheritance of military history and I'd like to think that it'll stay nice and open as it is now.
Shot mariners, miners, submarine miners, down at Chowder Bay, the hospital at Georgia's Heights in World War I was a hospital, part of a hospital. The guys in the hospital, no women in the services then, of course, but now, OK, the cadets my father taught, and that's 1936 when I was in utero. That is my father right there, the battery Sergeant Major, left for dead at the battle of [inaudible]. In a shell hole, for the war in Bavaria. He was there, left for dead with a sign around his neck, pinned on, which I have at home, dying, still honoured, they left him there, with the war in Bavaria.
And three days later, British stretcher bearers picked him up, and it was a long time in hospital, and the person first to see him naked was King George V. Naked in the bath because he was the first soldier to have the saline solution put through. And I have a photograph of King George looking at him, and there's my dad, cold.
That’s the cadets, there, and they won the Australian Gold Championship in 1935, 1936. My father, that's the Ten Terminal.
Oh, by the way, that's the Ten Terminal, that's the building where the Ten Terminal regiment is today, and that's where for four shillings, 40 cents, we lived in that building. I sat with the guys, my father, who was a battery Sergeant Major, sat somewhere else, but there is my father there. He re-enlisted and served in World War II after he consulted with the commanding officer, and they put his age down 15 years.
And he served until 1946. There he is, a boy. [inaudible] That’s the Sergeants mess, that's me there, but it shouldn't be about me, there's Ten Terminal regiment, the red building, built in 1941. Special tiles, special rig, Marseille tiles and so on. So it's a special building, even with the wartime restrictions. That's the front of the side of the building, and that's the side that's special I think, there, and part of the officer's mess is down that way. That is still there, I looked in the windows yesterday, Ten Terminal regiment, World War II, and that moved later to Townsend.
In the officer's mess, I looked in yesterday, all there. We used to sit by the nice fireplace heat. The officer's mess, Ten Terminal regiment, co-lines of communication, AWAS, in a different area. Supplies, the army intelligence, the army intelligence operated for the Vietnam war, and I think the Korean war. Army Intelligence, [inaudible] That's down at Chowder Bay, ah, down at Middle Head. And then I was the guy in charge of education in the '60's.
There's the buildings for ASOPA, and the intelligence centre, and barracks generally, and then the Italians, prisoners of war. In light of the...[laughter] Now Hallstrom, maybe you've, from Hallstrom, the refrigerator, the silent nightmare.
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Now, current conduct. For the Korean war, officers went through particularly, [inaudible 00:12:58] went through the code of conduct down at Chowder Bay and down at Middle Head in the dungeons. Very hard training, terrible training. Taken away, [inaudible 00:13:12], kept naked, and so on. Because in the Korean War, a lot of information was coming from captured prisoners to the Koreans. The only country that did not have a prisoner leak to the Koreans, does anyone know? Turkey. Mainly because of the very hard upbringing the Turks had.
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But one of our classes, we operated lots of classes for officers in logistics at Chowder Bay and at Middle Head. They went on for years and years until the terminal regiment went and forgoed it. I was an instructor then [inaudible 00:14:03]. Again, ten total engineers, ducks, you know the ducks? They're up at Surfers Paradise these days, the ducks – great, great vehicles. And workshops, writing, [inaudible] electrical, mechanical engineers, did the repairs right there. Engineer doing something.
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in 1997, the Ten Terminal regiment marched down military road, down by the Buena Vista Hotel, and got the freedom of [inaudible]. I was there, but I was on the sideline. I was there yesterday, I stopped in here, looked in the windows, that was the officer's mess, where I spent a lot of time. Lovely spot, and looks out on a lovely room, and it's look over Sydney Harbour.
I think that's all I have to say. Thank you.