RIMINGTON & ASHWIN Frank Rimington and Ernie Ashwin Remember

Frank and Ernie at Rowville

Frank lived at Elsternwick but Ernie had been raised at Murrabit near the Murray River north of Kerang and was daunted by the size of Melbourne. "I kept getting lost every time I went to the city."

Ernie was a good shot from the time he was a youngster. He used to walk to school with his rifle but hid it in the thistles before he got there. On the way home he usually managed to shoot a hare or two. Therefore he was confident that when he joined the Army he'd be put into the infantry. Together with a number of young fellows from Kerang, Echuca and Deniliquin, Ernie was sent to Werribee first where he was drafted into a field ambulance unit and eventually sent to train at Rowville.

Frank, who was a sergeant with the engineers, had been at Rowville for some time before Ernie arrived. He and Ernie didn't know each other at Rowville and it wasn't until they'd been moved to Western Australia that they met and became good friends.

At Rowville, Frank's training was practical but Ernie spent most of his time sitting in the Mess Hall listening to lectures given by the officers all of whom were doctors.

The Daily Round at the Camp

Life at Rowville was pretty uncomfortable. The soldiers lived in six-man tents and for beds they had to spread their ground sheets on the wooden floors. They then put one of their two blankets down to lie on and covered themselves with the other blanket. "I was young and didn't feel the cold," said Ernie.

The food was good at Rowville except that, according to Ernie, "the porridge was so thick you needed a hammer and chisel to eat it." Fresh milk was brought in each day by a Rowville farmer. There was plenty of bread and butter, and sausages and scrambled eggs were the most frequently served hot breakfasts. A young boy came in each day selling newspapers.

Lunches and evening meals were good too. There was always plenty of fresh meat, vegetables and fruit. When Ernie and Frank were later sent to West Australia they enjoyed the unending sunshine there after Rowville's bleak and damp winter weather. However, the down side was that they had to leave behind the good food they'd become accustomed to at Rowville and learn to put up with a diet of tinned food - mainly beans and bully beef - in the west.

Colonel Buchanan

Ernie's commanding officer, Dr Buchanan, led his men on a long march every morning before breakfast so they always arrived back with good appetites. They'd march up to where V.F.L. Park now stands or in towards Dandenong as far as where the old brickworks were (opposite the present T.A.F.E. College) or up Wellington Road as far as the quarries. Colonel Buchanan had a flash walking stick and he led the march with it. He was quite a character with a great sense of humour. He was a gynaecologist but had a passion for boxing and before the war he had been the doctor on fight nights at the Melbourne Stadium. He was forever trying to get the soldiers to pull the gloves on for a sparring match. He owned a magnificent sports car, a roadster with chrome pipes curling out of the bonnet, and he delighted in racing it up and down the nearby roads. Grant Taylor, the actor who starred in "Forty Thousand Horsemen", was in Ernie's unit and he often joined Dr Buchanan in these wild rides.

Ernie once went on a five day route march. The unit went up Stud Road to Ferntree Gully Road and then continued on right up to the top of the mountain. On the way back they were allowed to find their own way and Ernie was pleased to hear the whistle of Puffing Billy. He ran alongside the train and jumped up onto the running board and so managed to get a free ride back to Belgrave. They slept that night on the concrete floor of a hut whose brush roof gave them little protection from the rain.

When Frank marched his squad around the district roads he'd stop them at Miss Bergin's little shop on the corner of Stud and Wellington Roads to let the men buy drinks.

Ernie Almost Blows up the Camp

The shower block at Rowville was a long tin hut with a concrete floor but it had one great feature - there was plenty of hot water.

The boiler room was at the back of the Officers' Mess and it was the job of those on guard duty to ensure that the boiler was kept stoked with firewood. One night when Ernie was on duty he saw that the temperature gauge was down so he really fired the boiler up before resuming his patrol. When he returned at six o'clock in the morning reveille had sounded and the first men had come into the shower block. When they turned the taps on they were amazed to see that only hot steam came hissing out of the shower roses. Ernie had stoked up the boiler so fiercely that it must have been very close to exploding. When the cook went to check it he found that the safety valve had been jammed.

Ernie was also rostered to run the R.A.P. (Regimental Aid Post) to treat the soldiers who turned up on sick parade. Most of them were looking for a day off. "We gave them Aspros and No 9s" (A No 9 was a powerful laxative).

The only tragic incident that Ernie was involved in while at Rowville was the recovery of the body of the driver of a bren gun carrier (a kind of light, open-topped tank) that had run off Stud Road at the bridge over Corhanwarrabul Creek. It had come to rest upside down in the water with the driver pinned underneath it.

The Bus to Rowville

The troops at Rowville were allowed weekend leave and almost all of them headed off to the city. A bus took them to Dandenong Railway Station and they caught the train from there. There was always a big mob of them returning on the last train on Saturday night and they rushed to get seats on the bus. The bus would eventually be packed beyond capacity before it groaned away from the station. As it came along Stud Road close to the camp the bus had to negotiate the uphill S-bend near Police Road and would grind up the hill in low gear at barely more than walking pace. Ernie remembers more than once hanging on for grim life with only room for one foot on the step.

Films were shown at the camp every week and concert parties made regular visits. The performers were top class acts and Ernie particularly remembered a visit by Max Reddy and Stella Lamond with their young daughter Toni Lamond who later became a star of the Australian musical theatre.

Trouble with Officers

The canteen was on the right hand side of the road just up from the main gate. The men could buy cigarettes, chocolates, toothpaste etc there. One night Ernie was walking past the canteen when he was challenged by a man with a red band around his hat.

"Why didn't you salute me soldier?" he asked, "can't you see I'm a senior officer?"

"Sorry, sir," replied Ernie. "I thought you were one of the Salvos from the Red Shield Hut."

The officer was not impressed with Ernie's excuse and reported him to Colonel Buchanan but he thought it was a great joke and did nothing more about it.

Frank had a similar run in when he was demonstrating to his men - in the presence of a senior officer - how to blow up a tree with explosives. Frank said to his men, "the colonel is here today..." but got no further because the officer roared out increduously: "Colonel?! Colonel?! Can't you see that I'm a Brigadier?!!"

Night Manoeuvres

Frank's engineering unit went on night manoeuvres into the Lysterfield Hills. One squad went out first and set trip wires and other traps. The second squad followed an hour or so later and had to locate the first lot with the aid of a map, compass and the stars and then penetrate their defences and capture them.

Ernie's unit was never successful because their sergeant just couldn't get the hang of reading the compass. One night he managed to get them so completely lost that they didn't make their way back to camp until daylight.

Ernie had never wanted to be a medical orderly but admitted that he was good at it. "I was good with the patients - I'd do anything for them. I often put bets on for them with the local SP bookie."

Ernie must have been good. He was kept on at Heidleberg Repatriation Hospital for twelve months after the war had ended to nurse the troops who had been brought back to Melbourne from the Japanese P.O.W. camps. While there he met some famous people: Sir Thomas Blamey was one of his patients, Gracie Fields gave him a kiss on the cheek and he shook hands with Jack Dempsey.

Frank's army service continued on well after the armistice too. He was sent to Japan as a member of the Allied Occupation Forces.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

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