These
pages are dedicated to the many thousands of boys
who passed through the gates of JRTE at
HMAS Leeuwin between 1960 - 1986.
HMAS
LEEUWIN opened as a Junior Recruit Training Establishment
on 13th July 1960.
The aim of the JRTE is to train young
men so that :
(a) They will regard the Navy as their vocation
(b) They will develop a high standard of discipline, trustworthiness,
initiative, courage and endurance
(c) Their educational standard will be such that they can assimilate
their subsequent professional training
(d) In due course they will be and important source of supply of Petty
Officers, Chief Petty Officer and Special Duties List Officers.
The Junior Recruits passing out today joined this Establishment on
the 8th January, 1969, and are the twenty-sixth entry. The results
of the Junior Recruits training in this Establishment cannot be judged
for some years, as it is merely one stage in the comprehensive training
they receive.
After
leaving this Establishment they will carry out twelve months sea training
to be followed by technical courses of from 8 to 44 weeks’ duration
in one or other of the Naval Establishments in the Eastern States.
On successful completion of their technical courses these sailors
will return to sea as fully-trained and active members of the Royal
Australian Navy.
In
January, 1963 the role of J.R.T.E. was expanded by the introduction
of the Top- man Scheme which provided a further year of intensive
academic instruction leading to the W.A. Leaving Certificate and Matriculation
Examination, successful completion of which qualified Topmen for selection
as Cadet Midshipmen and entry to the Royal Australian Naval College.
This scheme has developed to the stage where now, selected Junior
Recruits, Apprentices from H.M.A.S. NIRIMBA, and Upper Yardmen from
the Fleet undergo this course of instruction before appearing before
the R.A.N. College Selection Board. In 1969, a further Officer Candidate
Training Course was introduced. This course is con ducted to qualify
senior sailors educationally for commission on the Special Duties
List and ex Junior Recruits and sailors from the Fleet for Supplementary
List Commissions.
The
text above is from the 26th Intake Passing Out Book, the cover of
which is pictured left. (Special thanks to my mother who has hoarded
this and other paranphenalia for so many years)
The
original 'TINGIRA' was at one time the RAN Boys Training Ship (1920's)
and all Leeuwin JRs wore a 'Tingira Flash' conspicuously sewn upon
the upper right shoulder of their uniforms to let the local population
know that we belonged to JRTE and JRs or boy sailors were below the
legal drinking age, which at my time in Western Australia was 21.
If you look at the photo below you will wonder really why I needed
to.
Not
Just a Job - An Adventure
Since
my retirement from the RAN I have encountered many people who find
it rather incredible that up until as late as 1986 boys were voluntarily
enlisted, as seamen, into full time, permanent service, in the R.A.N.
at the age of 15. Recruiting continued unabated throughout the Indonesian
Confrontation and the entire duration of the Vietnam War and it was
not unusual for boys, not yet 17, to be sent to a war zone on completion
of their 12 months in Leeuwin.
Like the OIC Recruiting, Melbourne (Lieutenant Commander Wilkinson)
told my mother of my acceptance for the navy, in the latter part of
1968, he said "Mrs Graystone, look at it this way, you have not lost
a son, you have gained a navy!".
The
enlistment of 'Boys' or 'Boy Seamen' was a British, Royal Navy institution.
Streaming
(.asf) Video of Boy Cornwall, VC, RN 300Kb
(HMAS Leeuwin being the Royal Australian Navy equivalent of HMS Ganges
which is on my links page). It must be stressed that at this time
in history even though the US built DDGS were entering service in
the Australian Navy, the RAN was virtually a British, Royal Navy Clone,
and lets face it the Brits didn't mind putting kids to work, just
ask Charles Dickens.
Enlisting
boys at this highly impressionable age was a bonus for the RAN for,
according to them, we had not been around long enough yet to learn
any 'bad habits', or, learn about anything else for that matter. Had
alot of the boys done so they would have certainly avoided this place.
We were moulded - as opposed to brainwashed - we didn't run about
chanting Kill, Kill, Kill or singing songs about napalming babies
but we did run about, quite alot, and we were trained to fear tardiness,
slovenliness, laziness and disobedience. And to loathe thieves, malingerers,
dobbers, the unwashed, civilians and naval discipline. Today I still
suffer anxiety attacks if I am running late for ANYTHING! Be it work
or even a social engagement. The Navy hated sailors being ADRIFT,
or absent from their place of duty and punishment was as swift as
it was harsh for habitual offenders. Skulking, (deliberately avoiding
work) was worse though and punishments for this were always most severe.
Leeuwin, like the rest of the Navy, ran by the clock and the iron
fist..
What was formerly, HMAS Leeuwin, now Leeuwin Barracks, lies on the
banks of the Swan River in Fremantle, Western Australia. It is a very
picturesque piece of real estate; however despite its idyllic location,
it was, to thousands of boys who voluntarily enlisted from just about
every city, town
and village in Australia a journey into the most physically and mentally
demanding environment they were ever likely to encounter in any peacetime
activity. A place where discipline was
often
swift, harsh and unforgiving and where three aspects remain forever
fixed in my mind - Tiredness, Hunger and Fear. What made the situation
worse was that this period of training was to last for 12 months not
the universal period of three months as was the case with most service
'recruit' training. We were at the very bottom of the ladder both
militarily and socially, lower than the basic wage, and that's a fact!
The only way to go from here had to be up.
Apart
from studying Naval Subjects such as, Seamanship and boatwork, Naval
Indoctrination, ABCD/NBCD, Physical Training, Parade Ground Drill,
Small Arms, and First Aid we also attended Academic Classes on a daily
basis which included Maths, English, Navigation, Physics, Geography
and History. When we weren't doing these things we were generally
scrubbing or cleaning something, running somewhere, under punishment,
playing compulsory sport, or performing some other physically demanding
chore.
Joining
the fold.....
So it was at 1800 on the 8th January 1969 the Victorian contingent
I was with was sworn in at HMAS Lonsdale, Port Melbourne. We were
then spirited away to Essendon airport to board a TAA Vickers Viscount,
chartered aircraft, bound for Perth.
Victorian
Boys of the 26th Intake on the flight to Western Australia Jan 8th
1969
photo supplied by Bill Furey
The
6 hour flight to the west was uneventful as the boys weighed up one
another and put on an air of confidence and false bravado as their
destination to the unknown drew closer. Taking off at 2000 we arrived
in Perth at Midnight - a carefully conceived navy plan no doubt designed
to disorient us. The mood of the navy now changed. On alighting from
the aircraft a squad of maniacal Chiefs, Petty Officers and Leading
Hands met us upon stepping on to the tarmac and they were nothing
like the nice chaps in the Recruiting Office back home. They formed
us up into squads amid the screaming of abuse, threats and curses,
a push here, a shove there. Once fallen in and silent, names are called
and checked off. We are then marched (sort of) to an area where the
pale blue and white 'pussers buses' are waiting for us.
You begin to learn
about falling in, standing to attention, standing at ease, marching,
halting etc., very, very early in your military career and it starts
from your first step off the bus or plane and you also learn very
early what a worthless heap of crap you really are and to be any good
to anyone at all you will have to be 'made' into a sailor but they,
the instructors, have grave doubts about that! These Recruit 'receptions'
are universal and standard practice and has a purpose the civilian
mind has trouble comprehending. It wasn't too bad for me being an
ex-cadet but for the totally uninformed it must have been a bloody
nightmare.
By the time we are
herded aboard buses to make the trip to Fremantle we are confused
and disoriented, the totally unfamiliar midnight bus ride is undertaken
by all in silent darkness. Trepidation is evident upon many faces
more so than looks of funfilled excitement. Most of these blokes have
probably never been spoken to like that in their lives before. I know
because I learnt some new words the minute I got off the plane.
On arrival at Leeuwin
we are driven to, where else, the Parade Ground. Parade Grounds are
sacred places and this one is to become the hub of our lives for the
next 12 months. Off the buses, fall in, roll call! We are then marched
off to the dining hall and given a cup of 'Kai' or cocoa whilst pretending
to pay attention to the myriad of verbal instructions being delivered
by an orchestra of instructors and Divisional Staff. Don't ask how
we do it but we actually, by about 2am, find our Accommodation Blocks
and in turn our stark, bare cubicles. The Bedding folded up and laid
out upon the two double bunks. The four of us, unknown to each other
at this point, immediately begin learning about teamwork because 4
blokes each can't make their bunk at the same time, not enough space,
and we only have a few minutes before lights out and the threat of
grievous bodily harm if we are not in them by that time..
In the darkness
some sobbing is heard, someone whispers and the Duty Blocks Able Seaman
threatens the offender with a crushed skull or to rip his limbs off
and beat him over the head with the soggy ends. Believe me he sounded
extremely genuine. He is still yelling abuse even after we have drifted
off into an uneasy sleep. I will leave it to your own imagination
to figure out what 'Wakey Wakey' was like at 0630 the next morning.
Certainly a brand new experience for all and in a word - Traumatic.
Leeuwin
at this time (January 1969) was admitting four intakes of JRs per
year, January, April, July and September. January and July intakes
consisted of approx. 200 boys each and April and September intakes
were of approx. 100 boys each. Our Mothers and Fathers, rightly or
wrongly, were informed by the navy that we were "The cream of Australian
youth". These
four intakes of boys soon found their own 'class system' and the four
annual intakes were referred to, in order of seniority as, New Grubs,
Grubs, Shit and Top Shit.
The
New Grub
The
Author, a brand new JR, circa, February 1969. For the salty among
you, you will notice the incorrect position of my Cap Tally Band.
Typical of an OD, although I wasn't to be promoted to Ordinary Seamen
for another 18 months. One had to be 17 years of age to be an Ordinary
Seaman and to start on the bottom of the ladder. As yet we wern't
on the ladder.
Upon
arrival at Leeuwin we were informed by the Staff and higher intakes
alike, in no uncertain terms, that we were indeed "the lowest form
of human existence on the planet" absolutely there was nothing as
low as a JR, especially one of the newest intake. This was reinforced
by the local populations of Fremantle and Perth whose youth never
missed an opportunity to give the 'Seaweed Suckers' a mouthful of
abuse or even a belting if and when the opportunity arose. We had
to swiftly become familiar with a whole new language, a language peculiar
to the navy and even more so to JRTE itself.
The
first week is used for intensive parade drill, kitting up (first 2
days), medical & dental checks,innoculations, indoctrination,
learning jargon and routines, instruction in washing, ironing and
general husbandy duties, learning how to scrub decks properly etc.
On
our first day at JRTE we learnt the term and practice of 'Jacking'
or 'Jacking In'. This system was complex and needed to be understood
quickly or one could find oneself being 'filled in' (bashed) very
early in his career, as with my old school mate Tony Newlands was
to find out on his very first day. We were standing in line at the
canteen, still in our civilian clothes, waiting to buy cigarettes,
for we were all permitted to smoke, and this bloke dressed in navy
working dress (No. 8's) with his name in block letters stamped over
his left breast pocket, 'Lucas', calmly and boldly marched past us
to the front of the queue, Tony grabbed him and said "Hey Mate, where
the fuck do you reckon you're going!". Lucas looked at him in bewilderment
shrugged him off and continued with his order. Then he turned to Tony
and ordered him to be at the rear of 'C' Block at 1630, for one does
not protest or 'mouth on' to a Senior Intake. Tony kept the rendezvous
lest Lucas came searching for him and put up a bloody good fight but
eventually lost as the bloke was a 'Top Shit' i.e the most senior
intake and was bigger, heavier, wiser and older than him. So it was
a lesson to all us New Grubs that any member of a senior intake was
allowed by unwritten JRTE law to pass us in any queue or line we happened
to be standing in, whether on board or ashore. This made life difficult
for we had to queue for everything in JRTE and we had 400 other JR's
in the same queue who were 'Senior' to us for the first three months,
before we were elevated to the position of Grubs which allowed us
to 'jack in' on the New Grubs but not the 'Shit' or 'Top Shit'. Confused?
I know this sounds trivial and childish to you reading this, but believe
me it was a deadly serious game and little more than children ourselves.
One could wait in line for a meal for over 20 minutes and when having
reached the servery, all of a sudden find yourself back outside the
door again. Not only could a senior intake push past you but if he
didn't like you he could forcibly remove you from the queue and return
you to the back of it. To protest, generally meant some form of grievous
bodily harm. It became more distressing for one never had enough time
to spare in JRTE and this was time consuming. I personally suffered
from this regularly in my early days for I became a target for a group
of mean bastards from a Senior Intake.
For
the first 6 months we were ranked as JR Second Class and received
the princely wage of $10.00 per fortnight. On completion of 6 months
were were promoted en masse to JR 1st Class and received $12.00 per
fortnight, a whopping 20% wage rise! Considering it wasn't uncommon
for JRs to put in 110 hours or more in a week if they were under No
9's punishment it was not exactly lucrative,
JR's that came from more well-to-do families were able to make a considerable
amount of money by loan sharking, for another
JRTE unwritten law was that for every dollar borrowed it was to be
paid back at 100% interest and although the act of lending or borrowing
money was strictly prohibited by navy regulations loan sharking was
rife. Woe betide any JR that did not repay his debts, in full, with
interest and on time! It was not uncommon for JR's of a Senior Intake
to demand a Junior lend them money. It would be paid back but left
you short in the meantime.
Theft,
although it rarely occurred was the most heinous and the most detested
of all crimes and should a thief be caught then not only was Naval
punishment harsh and unforgiving but when word spread amongst his
JR peers he would wish he were dead. The navy treated thieves with
the utmost contempt! You did not steal from your mates. It was the
fastest ticket out of JRTE, perhaps the only charge where your 'dishonourable'
discharge was more or less immediate.
We were also subject to compulsory banking for at that time a 15 year
old was earning $17.00 per fortnight - gross, 16 year old $22.00 per
fortnight - gross and a 17 year old around $54.00 per fortnight -
gross. What was left over from our 'in the hand' or net wage of $10
or $12.00 was placed in a bank account without getting to see it or
your bank book until the day you passed out of JRTE and went to the
fleet. I passed out 12 months later and had the enormous sum of $75
saved.