I was taken by jeep to HMAS Balmoral which was on the north side of Sydney harbour mouth, the entrance to Sydney harbour was known as Sydney Heads and I would be based on HMAS Balmoral and travel daily across the bay to HMAS Watsons Bay which was on the south side of Sydney Heads. Watsons Bay was a camp on a clifftop with radar ariels sticking up all over the place and huts converted into schoolrooms for lectures, I spent three months training there before passing out as a Radar Plotter second class or R.P.2.
The next weekend I went up to Hammondville and told them the news, it was a surprise to them as they thought I would be sailing with the Lothian. I asked Aunt Flo if I could stay every weekend then I could get a living out allowance and native leave in Australia just as if I was in the Aussie navy, she said "Certainly", so on the Monday following I arranged it at the camp to leave Watsons Bay at 3.p.m each Friday and report back for 9.00 a.m each Monday- this I did for three months and enjoyed it very much.
The work in the radar school was not too difficult, one of the strangest things we had to do was learn to read and write backwards, this was so we could plot and follow a course from the other side of a perspex screen in the operations room. We did no other duties but training and I was as happy as a sand boy.
After about a month I received a letter from Terry Cowley on the Lothian to say they had reached India and would soon be sailing for home, I wasn't worried at all about being left behind in Australia. We had a visit by the Admiral of the Fleet Bruce Fraser while I was at Watsons Bay and he had a few words with me while I was operating a radar set.
I passed out in November and half a dozen of us Royal Navy lads were sent to Herne Bay Hospital at Punchbowl, this was a rest camp (what I needed a rest for I didn't know), it was a funny place, the only compulsory thing to do was early morning PT, this was usually a couple of miles run in the country, we were usually followed by a dozen dogs as all the old hands had a dog each, we had a good N.A.A.F.I and used to spend most nights in there. I still got up to Hammondville at the weekend but sometimes I went into Sydney with the lads, Punchbowl was about half way between Sydney and Hammondville. I stayed at Herne Bay about three weeks before I was sent to HMS Golden Hind- the Royal Navy shore base at Sydney.
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