INDIGENOUS: PRISONERS
“CONDITIONS
ROTTEN”
Stories of Indigenous Australian
prisoners in the Second World War
are emerging.
BY LACHLAN GRANT AND GARTH O’CONNELL
fter ten days of bitter fighting
against German paratroopers
in defence of the Retimo
airfield on Crete, many men of the
2/11th Battalion were captured. Among
them was 21-year-old Private David
Harris, a farmhand from Toodyay,
Western Australia. Harris was an
Aboriginal man who had enlisted in
the Second Australian Imperial Force
in March 1940. He managed to do so
despite restrictions in place at that time
intended to prevent “persons who are
not of substantial European origin or
descent” from enlisting. Harris was
severely wounded during the battle
of Crete, with bullet wounds to his
left thigh and right breast, as well as
a shrapnel wound to his left hip. He
was being treated at a casualty clearing
station when it was overrun by German
troops on 29 May 1941.
After his capture, Harris spent
the rest of his war in Germany until
his liberation in May 1945. In his
A
42 | WARTIME ISSUE 85
repatriation statement he described the
conditions he experienced in German
camps as “bad”. The accommodation
was “bad”, the bedding, lighting and
heating were “bad”, the overcrowding
was “bad”, as were the sanitary and
recreational facilities. The behaviour
of camp guards was also “bad”, he
said. Once he had recovered from his
injuries, Harris laboured as a forestry
worker and in a cement factory, a saw
mill and a stone quarry – each for
up to 10 to 12 hours a day. His wages
earned – more than 1,000 Reichsmarks
– were stolen from him by camp guards.
Overall, he summed up his experience
as a prisoner of war in Germany simply
as “conditions rotten”.
Harris was one of the 5,000 members
of the Second AIF captured during the
campaigns on mainland Greece and
Crete in 1941, among more than 30,000
Australian prisoners in the Second
World War. Approximately 8,000 were
captured by the Germans and Italians
Stella Bowen,
Private, Gowrie
House (1945, oil
on hardboard, 52
cm x 47 cm). A
portrait of Private
David Harris. AWM
ART26277
WARTIME ISSUE 85 | 43
INDIGENOUS: PRISONERS
in North Africa, the Mediterranean and
Europe, and 22,000 were captured by
the Japanese during the war in the
Pacific. During the following three
and a half years, prisoners of the
Japanese endured extreme hardships
and suffered starvation, illness, and
forced labour, and were brutally treated
by camp guards. More than one in
three – more than 8,000 – would die
in captivity. Through their endurance
and survival, their resourcefulness and
mateship, returning prisoners of war
have earned a place of pride and respect
as exemplars of the Anzac legend.
Continuing research by Memorial
staff and volunteers has identified
the names of 76 Aboriginal men
who became prisoners during the
Second World War. Of these, 48 were
captured during the fall of Singapore
on 15 February 1942, and 18 more were
captured in the Netherlands East
Indies, Timor and New Britain. The
numbers of these men have continued
to grow, especially since the opening of
the exhibition For Country, for Nation
at the Memorial in September 2016,
which drew out new information from
families and communities.
Prisoners of the Germans
and Italians
The first Aboriginal servicemen to
become prisoners were captured in
1941 during the campaigns in North
“Death and stink was all around
us, we could hear the killing
going on. I think the worst
thing was we never knew which
day it’d be when our turn would
come. We’d just disappeared.”
Africa, mainland Greece, and Crete. An
unusual family story is that of Private
Jackson Stewart of Fish Point, near
the Murray River in the Mallee region
of Victoria. Aged 52 at the time of his
enlistment, Stewart was notionally too
old to serve, but claimed he was 34. He
served in the 2/8th Battalion and was
captured in Greece and imprisoned
at Stalag XVIII-A Wolfsberg, and later
in Klagenfurt, Austria. Jackson’s son,
Frank, as well as his nephew, Roy
Stewart, had also served in Greece.
Frank was among those lucky enough
to be evacuated in the retreat from
Greece and later served in New Guinea;
but Roy, of the 2/7th Battalion, was
captured on Crete. Jackson Stewart
survived four years of privation in
captivity and returned to his home
by the Murray. After the war a British
soldier whom Jackson had befriended
at Wolfsberg emigrated to Australia and
chose to settle at Swan Hill to be close
by his wartime pal.
Also captured in Crete was Private
Thomas Green of the 2/1st Battalion.
Owing to his dark complexion, the
German guards at Stalag XIII- C
Hammelburg nicknamed Green
“Negus” after a German mulled
wine. Following his liberation and
repatriation to England in May 1945,
he requested (unsuccessfully) to be
allowed to return to Germany as part
of the occupation force. We do not know
Green’s motivations for this request.
Flight Lieutenant David Paul was
serving with No. 454 Squadron of the
RAAF, then based in North Africa, when
the Baltimore bomber he was piloting
was shot down on 4 December 1943 over
the Mediterranean by Messerschmitt
Me-109F fighters. He was rescued by the
Germans, and became their prisoner.
Paul was awarded a Distinguished
Flying Cross for “anti-submarine
patrols, long-range reconnaissance
and outstanding leadership, initiative
and determination”. His citation came
through while he was a prisoner in
Germany. He survived the war, and
later joined the NSW police force, as
well as continuing in the RAAF reserve,
reaching the rank of Squadron Leader.
Partisans and
concentration camps
We currently do not know of any
Aboriginal men being among the
more the 260 Australians who died as
prisoners of war in Europe. Several,
however, managed to escape camps
44 | WARTIME ISSUE 85
in Italy and join local partisan groups
after the collapse of the Fascist regime
in 1943. Among them were Privates
Harold Davis and Frank Page of the
2/32nd Battalion, Private Eddie Albert
of the 2/15th Battalion, and Private Jim
Brennan from the 2/28th Battalion. On
Anzac Day 1944, Albert and Brennan
were caught by fascists but luckily
escaped the fate of fellow escapees who
were summarily executed. Both would
spend the rest of the war in Germany.
Few Australian soldiers are known to
have been sent to a Nazi concentration
camp, but one them was Sapper Walter
Steilberg of the 2/1st Field Company
(see page 50). He so angered his captors
by his frequent bids for freedom (on
no less than six occasions) that he was
taken into the custody of the Gestapo
and incarcerated in the “small fortress”
part of the camp at Theresienstadt,
Czechoslovakia. He was stripped
of his military uniform and treated
as a civilian political prisoner. This
violated the Geneva Convention on the
treatment of prisoners of war. At the
small fortress, which Czech prisoners
called the “living grave”, Steilberg spent
six months under terrible conditions
Opposite: Corporal Pat Sullivan
made this embroidered cushion
cover in Changi, 1942. AWM
REL/03668
Above left: Private Thomas
Green at Stalag XIII-C,
Hammelburg, Germany. Green
was captured on Crete in 1941.
AWM P04379.003
Above right: Flight Lieutenant
David Paul survived when the
Baltimore bomber he was
piloting was shot down. He was
imprisoned in Germany. AWM
P10129.001
until April 1945. During this “nightmare
existence”, beatings and executions of
inmates would take place in the yard
outside his cell window. Steilberg never
forgot the awful smell, and suffered
for many years afterwards from this
traumatic experience. He later recalled:
“It wasn’t just the hunger. There
was absolutely no communication
with anyone. We were just cut off
from everything. Death and stink
was all around us, we could hear the
killing going on. I think the worst thing
was we never knew which day it’d be
when our turn would come. We’d just
disappeared.”
As the Allies approached
Theresienstadt, prisoners were
evacuated. On the march, he made a
seventh, this time successful, escape
and reached American lines on 21 April
1945. For his efforts he was awarded the
British Empire Medal.
Fall of Singapore
At least 20 Aboriginal prisoners
of war are known to have died in
Japanese captivity as a result of
illness, mistreatment, disease, or
indiscriminate acts of murder by camp
guards. Two more men died shortly
after the war, and another was reported
missing in action during the fighting
on Singapore. After Singapore’s fall on
15 February 1942, the prisoners were
concentrated in the Changi area on
the north-east tip of the island (see
Wartime Issue 71). Among those
who died as prisoners in Singapore
were Private Maitland Madge, Lance
Corporal John Hill, and Private John
Knox. A veteran of the Western Front,
Madge had been awarded the Military
Medal for actions at Pozières in
WARTIME ISSUE 85 | 45
INDIGENOUS: PRISONERS
1916. Aged 45 when he joined the
Second AIF in 1940, Madge put his
age down to 39 in order to enlist, and
despite ongoing health problems
he was judged fit for service. Madge
served with the 2/26th Battalion,
and during his time in Malaya and
Singapore he was continually in and
out of hospital with illness. He never
fully recovered from his ailments, and
died on 7 June 1944.
From the main camp at Changi,
prisoners were sent out on work parties
to smaller satellite camps. At a camp
on the island of Blakang Mati (today’s
Sentosa) off Singapore’s southern
coast, Kamilaroi elder Private Claude
Livermore of the 2/18th Battalion was
singled out by the Japanese for his
Aboriginality. Owing to his physical
appearance, one of the guards was
convinced Livermore was Indian and
beat him severely. The guards did
not believe Livermore’s protestation
that Australia had a “black native”
population. Spurred on by his fellow
Australians in the camp, Livermore
“pointed the bone” at the Japanese
guard, a ritual intended to cause the
death of an enemy. It was reported by
the Australian commanding officer,
Major Doug Okey, that this Japanese
guard later fell ill, was taken away in
great pain on a stretcher, and his death
was announced to the prisoners some
days later. Aside from this unusual
tale, Livermore is notable for his great
leadership and courage in captivity.
He learned Japanese, enabling him
to befriend some of the guards and
negotiate extra food, which he
shared. He also sneaked off to steal
food for others, at great personal
risk, as being caught could result in
death. Livermore’s actions helped to
keep many fellow prisoners in the
camp alive. After his return home
to Australia, like so many prisoners,
the effects of captivity on his health
continued to trouble him.
The Hill brothers
Two brothers narrowly missed crossing
paths while they were prisoners of the
Japanese: John and Harold Hill from
Busselton, Western Australia. (They
are part of a remarkable family story
with a tri-service history, as a third
Hill brother, Roy, served in the Royal
Australian Air Force in Europe and
piloted Lancasters in RAF Bomber
Command.) During the battle of
Singapore, Lance Corporal John
46 | WARTIME ISSUE 85
Above: Gunner Wally Alberts of
Lake Condah served with the
2/4th Anti-Tank Regiment. He was
murdered by a Japanese guard
during the Sandakan death march.
AWM P02468.414
Below: Lance Corporal John Hill,
2/4th Machine Gun Battalion.
AWM P01814.001
John Hill’s original grave cross
from the AIF cemetery in Changi.
AWM REL/13335
Right: Three mates, Privates
Henry Wells, Sydney Williams,
and Thomas Hatch (left to right).
Captured on Singapore, Wells
died at Sandakan; Williams and
Hatch survived the war. AWM
P09501.028.002
Hill, serving with the 2/4th Machine
Gun battalion, performed heroically.
Despite being wounded in the head
and arm, he managed to control and
drive his Bren gun carrier, with its dead
and wounded crew members, back to
an aid post. Harold joined the Royal
Australian Navy and served in HMAS
Perth. Having survived the sinking of
Perth during the battle of Sunda Strait,
Harold became a prisoner of war, first
on Java, and then as a labourer on the
Burma–Thailand Railway.
While passing through the Changi
camp en route to the railway in
October 1942, Harold learned from
John’s mates in the 2/4th Machine Gun
Battalion that John had only just left
the camp with a work party. It is likely
John was working on the wharves,
possibly among the Australians Harold
saw when his transport docked at
Singapore. Harold was never reunited
with his brother: John died of illness
on 11 March 1943. John’s grave cross
from the AIF cemetery in Changi was
collected by his mates after his body
was reinterred, with a permanent
headstone, at the Commonwealth War
Graves cemetery at Kranji. The cross
was then taken into the Memorial’s
collection. Displayed for many years
in the Memorial’s galleries, John’s
cross represents all those who died as
prisoners of war.
appalling conditions in the Outram
Road gaol. This at least meant he was
spared the infamous Sandakan death
marches; he survived Outram, and
ultimately returned home to Australia.
Camps in Japan
“Upcountry”
From mid-1942 the Japanese began
moving large groups of prisoners
from Singapore and Java
to various destinations
overseas, or by rail up the
Malayan peninsula to
Thailand. The Australian
prisoners sent to Burma and Thailand
were part of a large workforce of
Allied prisoners and local civilians
who were forced by the Japanese to
construct a 420-kilometre railway
through jungle and across mountains
between Thanbyuzayat in Burma and
Bampong in Thailand. Conditions were
horrendous. Aboriginal prisoners who
did not survive the trip “upcountry”,
as the captives called it, included
Privates George Cubby, Wilfred
Lawson, and Cyril Brockman. Initially
captured on Java, Brockman of the
2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion died of
cholera at Hintok in Thailand on 13
August 1943.
Another to work on the railway was
Private Bill Carlyon from Waruga,
Western Australia, a member of the
2/4th Machine Gun Battalion. Carlyon
carried his mate with a burst tropical
ulcer four kilometres through the
jungle to a neighbouring camp, where
a surgeon saved the man’s life.
Sandakan
From July 1942 groups of prisoners
were sent from Changi to Sandakan
in Borneo. Many of these men died
in the final months of the war when
the Japanese marched the prisoners
from Sandakan to Ranau, some
260 kilometres inland. Of the 2,500
Australian and British prisoners who
were sent to Sandakan, just six were still
alive at war’s end. Among the dead was
Gunner Wally Alberts, a Gunditjmara
man from Victoria, murdered by a
Japanese guard on 31 March 1945, and
John Jackson, who died on 29 April
1945. A Kamilaroi man from Grafton,
New South Wales, Jackson was a
member of the 8th Division Provost
and rose to the rank of sergeant. As
an NCO in the military police he had
achieved a position of authority that
at that time was unlikely to be reached
by an Aboriginal man in civilian life.
A hero of the camp at Sandakan
was Private Jimmy Darlington from
Barraba, New South Wales. A member
of the 2/18th Battalion, Darlington was
the 8th Division’s boxing champion:
at Sandakan in February 1943 he did
what many prisoners felt like doing
and felled a Japanese guard with a
punch during a dispute. Darlington
was subjected to days of torture by
the Japanese, but – greatly heartening
his fellow prisoners – their champion
refused to die. Sent back to Singapore,
Darlington was imprisoned under
Some 4,000 Australian prisoners were
transported to Japan during the war,
but not all survived the journey. Several
transport ships bound for Japan were
sunk by Allied submarines, resulting in
the deaths of thousands of prisoners (see
Wartime Issue 63). Tasmanian soldiers
Privates Vivian Maynard and John
Garrett were among those killed in such
an incident. Both from the Furneaux
Islands community, Maynard and
Garrett served in the 2/40th Battalion
and were captured on Timor. They were
two of the 190 Australian prisoners
killed when the Tamahoko Maru was
sunk by the American submarine USS
Tang as it was approaching Nagasaki
on 24 June 1944.
Others from the Furneaux Islands
community served in the 2/40th and
survived imprisonment: Henry Gavin,
David Rhodes, Henry Russell, Patrick
Holt, and brothers George and Mervyn
West. Of this group, Holt and Russell
were two of just a small number of
Australian prisoners who were sent
to work on the lesser-known Sumatra
Railway. Holt enlisted again for service
in the Korean War, and was present at
the battle of Kapyong.
There were seven known sets of
Aboriginal brothers who became
prisoners during the war. As well as the
Hill and West brothers, there were three
Sullivan brothers from Deniliquin, New
South Wales; the Ramalli brothers
from Moree, New South Wales; the
Rickards from Mungindi on the New
South Wales/Queensland border; and
the Ruska brothers from Stradbroke
Island, Queensland.
Among prisoners who arrived safely
from their voyage to Japan were the
Beale brothers from Quirindi, New
South Wales. Members of the 2/20th
Battalion, Privates George Beale and
his younger brother Frederick were
transported to Japan as part of C Force,
arriving in December 1942. They were
held at Naoetsu, where conditions were
worse than at any other camp in which
Australians were imprisoned in Japan.
Here, prisoners worked long hours in
local industries in extremely harsh
conditions. On 28 May 1943 George
Beale died of injuries incurred
WARTIME ISSUE 85 | 47
INDIGENOUS: PRISONERS
in an industrial accident at a local steel
mill; his brother Frederick survived the
war. A photograph in the Memorial’s
collection depicting survivors from
Naoetsu in September 1945 features
two more Aboriginal soldiers, but their
identities remain unknown at present.
One of the last Australians to die in
the Second World War was a Kariyarra
Ngarluma man, Flight Sergeant Arnold
Lockyer. Hailing from the Pilbara region
of Western Australia, he was one of five
brothers to serve during the war. Lockyer
was captured on 27 July 1945 when the
B-24 Liberator bomber in which he was
a crew member was shot down in the
Celebes. Lockyer was captured and
held prisoner until his execution on 21
August, six days after the war had ended.
The Japanese guards responsible were
later found guilty of war crimes.
Home front
The experience of captivity stretched
beyond the camps, affecting families
at home in Australia. Very little
information was given to families
to inform them of their loved one’s
imprisonment, and in essence these
men and women disappeared for three
and a half years. Among those families
waiting at home were women who later
became key figures in Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander rights, culture,
and history. They include women
such as Faith Bandler (née Mussing),
Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker, née
“They were in a shocking
situation ... and we had to
nurse them back to health.”
Ruska), Jackie Huggins, and Connie
Hart (née Alberts). Bandler, of South
Seas Islander descent, was a driving
force and public face behind the
successful “yes” campaign during the
1967 referendum to include Indigenous
Australians in the census. Bandler
served in the Australian Women’s
Land Army during the war, and her
brother, Edward Mussing, served
with the 2/26th Battalion and died
during the construction of the Burma–
Thailand Railway. Both Bandler and
Noonuccal (of the Australian Women’s
Army Service) had strong motives for
enlisting; these included their brothers’
becoming prisoners of war following
the fall of Singapore, combined with
their dislike for fascism. Bandler was
adamant: “I realised what it was all
about … There was a great need to
destroy and kill fascists.”
Aftermath
The experience of captivity affected the
lives and health of survivors long after
the war ended. Ex-prisoners carried
physical and psychological scars
well into the postwar period. Studies
conducted 40 years later revealed that
the health of ex-prisoners was still
affected by illness, malnutrition and
anxiety from the long confinement they
had suffered during captivity. They also
tended to die at a much younger age
than other veterans. Other prisoners
suffered from injuries that had
occurred during years of hard labour
or in beatings from camp guards. Owing
to the traumatic experience of captivity,
many ex-prisoners also suffered from
what is now known as post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Such was the case for Jack Huggins,
from Ayr, Queensland. Jack, the father
of Aboriginal rights activist Jackie
Huggins, served with the 2/29th
Battalion and survived the horrors of
the railway. His daughter later said
that the saddest moment of his life
“was when he arrived in Townsville
after returning from the war. As my
Left: Frederick Beale
soon after enlistment
(left) and in Japan
in 1945 after three
years’ imprisonment.
By this time he had
seen the death of his
brother George and
had spent years of
forced labour. AWM
P01649.014; AWM
P01649.005
Right: Australian
prisoners of war
from Naoetsu camp,
Japan, September
1945. In front of the
flag is an unknown
Aboriginal soldier;
another stands at the
left, second row from
top. AWM 019178
48 | WARTIME ISSUE 85
father got off the train, weak, emaciated
and tired, he scanned around for his
mother and wondered why she had not
written to him for a few months since
his liberation. On the platform he was
told the tragic news by a good mate –
she had died three months earlier. He
collapsed in his friend’s arms. His father
had died earlier in 1942. Neither knew
their beloved son survived the brutal
horrors of the Thai–Burma Railway.”
Returning to civilian life, Jack
Huggins sought and found comfort
in his local RSL Club and in the
local ex–prisoner of war association.
However, in 1958, at the age of just 38,
he died from complications resulting
from injuries incurred while he was
a prisoner of war. At the time, his
daughter Jackie was two years old.
Similarly, Oodgeroo Noonuccal
recalled her brother’s return home:
“They came back and they were in a
shocking situation, as you can well
imagine, and we had to nurse them
back to health. They were screaming
Japanese and climbing up the wall
and doing all sorts of things when they
came back. It was pretty shocking. And
the Red Cross was trying to advise us
on how to handle them. It wasn’t an
easy period of time, and they died still
fighting the war.”
Oodgeroo’s brothers Edward and
Eric Ruska were members of the 2/26th
Battalion and survived their time on
the Burma–Thailand Railway. Edward’s
leg was amputated after he was hit by a
piece of shrapnel when the railway was
bombed by Allied aircraft.
As historians are becoming more
aware of the diversity of the experiences
of Australians taken prisoner during
the Second World War, increasing
numbers of Indigenous Australians’
stories are being identified. Through
the combined hard work of researchers,
families, and communities, a more
complete picture of Aboriginal
prisoner- of-war experiences is
emerging. These servicemen and
servicewomen stood shoulder to
shoulder with their non-Indigenous
brothers and sisters. The experience
of captivity had a profound impact on
families who would become catalysts
of change and make a significant
contribution to Australian society. •
ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
Dr Lachlan Grant is a Senior Historian
in the Military History Section. Garth
O’Connell is a Curator in the Military
Heraldry and Technology Section.
They are contributors to the new book
For Country, for Nation: An illustrated
history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander military service.
WARTIME ISSUE 85 | 49