Credits:
Produced by: Gatherer Media
Curator: Deborah Tout-Smith
Interviewee: Ken Hubbard
Narrator: David Field
Reginald Hubbard voiced by Richard Vette
Script: Tim Stone
Camera: Tim Metherall and Tim Stone
Sound Recordist: Stuart Thorne
Hair and Makeup: Marlene Olsson
Sound Design: Adam Milburn
Graphics: Aya Hatano
Historical Images and Footage Courtesy of: Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Museums Victoria
Special Thanks: Richard Greenhalgh, Michelle Stevenson, Carmel O’Keeffe

Wartime Stories from Melbourne's Exhibition Buildings:

Reg Hubbard and Dorothy Quinn

Dorothy L. Quinn’s dog tags belonging to were discovered under the floorboards of the second floor balconies during building restoration works in 1989. But it wasn’t until her son Ken Hubbard stumbled across Dot’s tags on Museums Victoria’s website that the remarkable tale of his parents WAAAF Dorothy Quinn and RAAF Lieutenant Reginald Hubbard came to light. 

Originally from Perth, Dorothy L Quinn was stationed at the Exhibition Buildings from 1941 to 1943. And it was here she first met Reginald Hubbard on Friday 7th October 1942 at a dance for service men and women held in the Palais Royale, immediately adjacent to the Great Hall. 

Reginald ‘Reg’ Hubbard was a Wireless Air Gunner with No 23 Squadron based at Lowood in Queensland during WW2. When Reg was on leave, as he was when he met Dot, he would stay at Osbourne House, a boarding house on Nicholson Street owned by his family and just a short distance from the Exhibition Buildings. 

Throughout the war, Reg kept a diary, recording the moments, big and small, that impacted on him. From the loss of friends during combat and training, to his marriage to Dot and the birth of their son Ken. Reg’s diary paints a vivid picture of his life during the war years. For Ken Hubbard, Reg’s son, his father’s diaries also reveal a side of his father that he rarely saw. 

“I never knew my father to show too much emotion, but the emotions he put into that diary after meeting my mother – amazing”, Ken Hubbard. 

Credits:
Produced by: Gatherer Media
Curator: Deborah Tout-Smith
Interviewee: Paula Hyndes
Narrator: David Field
Francis ‘Frank’ Walsh voiced by Adam Grossetti
Script: Adam Grossetti and Tim Stone
Camera: Tim Metherall and Tim Stone
Sound Recordist: Stuart Thorne
Hair and Makeup: Marlene Olsson
Sound Design: Adam Milburn
Graphics: Aya Hatano
Historical Images and Footage Courtesy of: Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Museums Victoria
Special Thanks: Richard Greenhalgh, Michelle Stevenson, Carmel O’Keeffe

Wartime Stories from Melbourne's Exhibition Buildings

Frank Walsh

Frank Walsh was a school teacher from Bridgwater-on-Loddon in Central Victoria when he enlisted in the RAAF as a wireless trainee in 1943. While stationed at the Exhibition Buildings, Frank’s wife Rene and their young daughter Paula, took up residence in a boarding house at 62 Nicholson Street, just across the road from the Great Hall. 

Frank struggled with the Wireless Trainee course, and in late 1943 transferred to the RAAF Medical Unit based at Point Cook, there he retrained as a medical orderly before he joined the Number 5 Medical Receiving Unit (5MCU) on Good Enough Island just north of the New Guinea mainland in the South West Pacific. 

As a Medical Orderly with the RAAF, Frank’s unit provided critical medical support to pilots and ground staff – he was constantly on the move. After a short stay at Good Enough Island,  Frank was transferred to Biak in the Dutch East Indies, then to Morotai Island, and finally Labuan Island off the coast of Borneo.
Frank also kept a diary, and much of what we know about his time in the Pacific comes from diary entries and letters now in the posession of his daughter Paula Hydnes. 

Credits:
Produced by: Gatherer Media
Curator: Deborah Tout-Smith
Interviewee: Richard Desmond (Dick) Thompson
Narrator: David Field
Script: Tim Stone
Graphics: Aya Hatano
Sound Design: Adam Milburn
Historical Images and Footage Courtesy of: Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Museums Victoria
Special Thanks: Richard Greenhalgh, Michelle Stevenson, Carmel O’Keeffe

Wartime Stories from Melbourne's Exhibition Buildings

Dick Thompson

Richard ‘Dick’ Thompson enlisted as a Trainee Wireless Operator with the RAAF and in December 1941 was stationed at the Exhibition Buildings while he trained in morse code and telegraphy at nearby Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT). As one of more than 2000 RAAF and WAAAF personnel stationed at No. 1 School of Technical Training (1SST Exhibition), much of what we know about life in the Exhibition Buildings during the war is through Dick Thompson’s recollections. 

Sometime in 1992, Brisbane-based Dick made an impromptu visit to the Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne. While there he shared stories with staff of the time he spent there, and an interview was hastily recorded. In the recording Dick shared vivid descriptions of cold winters and unbearable summer heat; marching at all hours of the day; nightly concerts and barking seals in the adjacent aquarium.  Dick’s recollections help connect the hundreds of objects uncovered during building restoration works in 1989 to the lived experience of the men and women stationed there from 1941 to 1946. 

In addition, Dick also shared his experiences of the war. On the 19th February 1942 he narrowly survived the first bombing of Darwin: "You could see the bombs falling out of the aircraft and the sun flashing on them," Thompson said. In 1944 he returned to 1SST Exhibition to retrain in VHF transmitters and receivers, before joining the Mobile Fighter Control Unit (MFCU) on the Admiralty Islands. Later he participated in the Australian-lead Battle of Tarakan, and after the war helped re-establish communications systems on war-ravaged Borneo. 

Credits:
Produced by: Gatherer Media
Curator: Deborah Tout-Smith
Interviewee: Christine Garth
Narrator: David Field
Script: Tim Stone
Camera: Tim Metherall and Tim Stone
Sound Recordist: Stuart Thorne
Graphics: Aya Hatano
Hair and Makeup: Marlene Olsson
Sound Design: Adam Milburn
Historical Images and Footage Courtesy of: Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Museums Victoria, Garth family
Special Thanks: Richard Greenhalgh, Michelle Stevenson, Carmel O’Keeffe

First to receive the news the war was over

Norma Hornby and Edward Garth

War was already raging cross the world when a young Norma Hornby joined the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) in September 1942. The 18-year-old from Katoomba, in New South Wales, had been trained as a clerk and her WAAAF assessors considered her ‘keen and alert’. She was mustered as a teleprinter operator at the rank of ACW1 (Aircraftwoman) and was soon posted to Melbourne. She was based at Frognall—a large home in Canterbury that had become a Wireless Transmitting Station and one of the largest Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) signals stations in World War II.

The work was important but sometimes challenging due to the stifling heat in summer. The WAAAF women worked in a shed in the garden and slept in huts nearby, which did little to help matters. Norma and her friends did find time to have fun—enjoying picnics, the pictures and holidays in regional Victoria. Norma remembers going to Melbourne’s Exhibition Buildings, used by the RAAF as a training facility, where there were regular dances at the Palais Royale in the eastern annexe of the complex. An aquarium, also on the site, was one of Melbourne’s main attractions.

One trip to Mt Donna Buang, east of Melbourne, was particularly fateful. On the train journey home she met a handsome young RAAF telegraphist, Edward (Ted) Garth. Ted was soon posted up to Darwin but he and Norma kept in touch by writing letters, some of which Norma even read out to her WAAAF friends.

The most important moment of Norma’s military service happened the day she received the message that World War II was over. Norma couldn’t contain herself—she squealed in delight and told everyone around her. Norma later heard that the senior staff were not happy that she had let anyone else know first!

Norma served with the WAAAF until March 1946, then returned home to Katoomba. She and Ted married in 1948 and welcomed three children. 70 years later, she still vividly remembers her years with the WAAAF.

Credits:
Produced by: Gatherer Media
Curator: Deborah Tout-Smith
Interviewee: Ken Hubbard
Narrator: David Field
Reginald Hubbard voiced by: Adam Grossetti
Script: Adam Grossetti
Camera: Tim Stone
Sound Design: Adam Milburn
Graphics: Aya Hatano
Historical Images and Footage Courtesy of: Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Museums Victoria
Special Thanks: Richard Greenhalgh, Michelle Stevenson, Carmel O’Keeffe

Fleeting war-time love: Royce & Roma

Royce Phillips

He was just a teenager from Adelaide—a yard hand who dreamed of going to sea. But in December 1941, Royce Phillips’ life changed forever. Pearl Harbour had just been bombed and Australia declared war on Japan. The next day, Royce signed up with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

The threat of war was very close to Australia when Royce’s train pulled into Spencer Street Station in December 1941. He was headed for Melbourne’s Exhibition Buildings, where thousands of RAAF and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force personnel would be based for technical training. Royce was soon studying to become a fitter.

Life in war-time Melbourne had many attractions for Royce—ice skating, drinking, flirting with girls. One girl fell madly in love with him. Roma Wright wrote him passionate letters and rushed out to see his unit marching by on their way to training. One of their dates, she said ‘was the happiest night I have ever spent in my life’.

‘Gosh I don't know how many things I've done wrong today (or supposed to have done). I upset a bucket of water all over the kitchen floor, broke the hose, spilt a kettle of boiling water, someone said it’s because I'm too much in love.’

It wasn’t to last. Royce pushed her letters through gaps in the floorboards of the Exhibition Buildings and soon took up with a new girl. His father was worried and sternly warned, ‘you have to be very careful with who you mix with over there’. With all these distractions, and a bout of ill-health, Royce was soon struggling with his studies. He failed his basic fitting course and was remustered to Aircrafthand.

Yet Royce was determined and, despite his early setbacks, he was promoted to Leading Aircraftsman. By July 1945 he was a Flight Mechanic. Royce served at air bases across Australia during the war, including at Darwin in 1942—too close for comfort to Japanese bombing raids. Fortunately, Royce survived unscathed.

After the war he returned to Adelaide and settled down to life in the suburbs. Roma’s letters were rediscovered under the Exhibition Building’s floorboards during renovations in 1989, along with many more of Royce’s possessions. Roma’s story remains unknown.

Wartime Stories from the Exhibition Buildings drew extensively from the collections of Museum Victoria, Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria, Library NT, National Film and Sound Archive, Cinesound Movietone Productions, Getty Images and where they existed the private collections of photos and diaries of the veterans and their families.