Recently I was approached by Wayne Dutschke with a generous offer of photos and various records that belong to his Dad and Mum (Erwin and Val Dutschke). Sadly, Erwin has passed, however, Val, a lively lady with vivid memories and a lovely personality, speaks fondly of the time she and her husband spent running Colona station from 1957 to the end of 1960 for the Yalata Community.
Wayne and Val visited me and delivered these historic records and told me a bit about their experiences.
Prior to meeting Val, as far as we knew, there was only one woman who came in to Maralinga and that was in 1964, when Jean Hoskings was rushed in from the train at Watson to give birth to her child, Bronte Glen Hoskings.
So, surprisingly, Val, spoke of a trip she and her husband, Erwin, with friends Rev. H Temme and his wife June along with their six-month-old daughter Jill Temme, flew from Colona up to Maralinga on 27th November 1957, to attend a dinner (luncheon) at the invitation of the range commander, Colonel Richard (Dickie) Durance of the Australian Army. Even more surprisingly, Val was six months pregnant at the time.
Val was impressed with the ‘no expense spared’ facilities at Maralinga and the antics of the officers, obviously desperately missing their own families. Here is a copy of a letter Val wrote to a friend describing the latest news from Colona.
Letter dated 1/12/1957 by Val Dutshcke
The weather here has been pretty unbearable lately. Today was awfully hot again with no wind and just a sticky heat for a change. That meant Erwin spending today pumping water while the sky looked as though there ought to have been a flood. But you know how it is. The wind has come up again though and it is cooler now, but we’re in for another hot day tomorrow by the looks. Erwin and Grant Fox have been working all the week on a pump jack thing and engine to squirt water around better, and it’s so powerful it nearly sucked the lining out of the tanks. When first tried out it ran nearly to Penong before they could catch it, so they had to anchor it a bit better. Erwin fixed it to a towbar on the ute and now he can tear all over the property with it.
On Friday morning Fred Kelly’s garage at Penong was burned to the ground with everything in it. We haven’t heard how it started yet, but there must have been a heck of a blaze as they just got his kite out of it in time and then it had been badly scorched already and they shoved someone’s car out with only three wheels on, but otherwise, tool, tyres and paint blew up before anything could be done. [“Kite” was a common expression by pilots referring to light aircraft – back in the day]
Now I must tell you about our Maralinga adventure. We left here at 9:30 Wednesday (Tem and Erwin in the front and June, Jill and I in the back). We had a beaut trip up (1 hr 10 mins) and landed on the 2 mile strip right smack in the middle where the big shots were lined by the dozen, all in uniform and moustaches to welcome us. A jeep tore out with FOLLOW ME written on the back and a fellow signalled Erwin in and before we knew where we were, there were chaps opening the doors, refuelling the kite, grabbing bags, chocking up the wheel and tying the plane down with instructions to a dozen other chaps to watch it all day from the fire brigade shed.
One Colonel took charge of June and me, and another made off with Jill and after the introductions, bows and salutes they showed us where the lavatory was in the passengers’ lounge. It was men’s of course, but they guarded the door. Then with the Colonel in charge of the whole Maralinga show at the wheel of a big black Dodge and June in the front & Tem at the back, and the Colonel second-in-command driving us in a new black Holden we started our “Royal Progress” to the village (approx. 2 miles) past points of interest on the way.
At the village there was a scientist to meet us at the laundry affair to show us how they clean radioactive clothes and at the other end of the building were the cars waiting to go on again. Each time the cars stopped one of the top brass would rush up and grab Jill. We were shown the hospital by the doctor, the store, the little new church (really nice) the swimming pool, the picture theatre and finally the bar room. Each place was all that could possibly be imagined. Just a mass of carpets, big, padded chairs, chrome, laminex (and blokes). We drove from one building to another while they rang from one place to the next to tell the person in charge that we were coming. Everyone would pull off to the side of the street and salute when the colonels’ cars came along and we felt really important.
For dinner the chef had made little baskets of cake and icing especially for June and I, and all sorts of little fancy cakes to take home with us. Before we had dinner the Colonel showed us to a little room with a LADIES notice hung on the door. Then as Jill was to have a sleep they brought a big innerspring mattress from the hospital, clean sheets etc. I set up the bed for her in the room next to the dining room and the big shots took it in turns watching her and of course she played all the time and so that she wouldn’t fall off the mattress they put all the chairs and little tables in the room around her to fence her in. Her favourite was the second in charge, because she could bury her hands in his black moustache and just pull! The dinner was absolutely terrific. All cold stuff – fish, poultry, tongue and ‘hundreds’ of salads and sweets. They presented June and I each with a typed souvenir menu (about a yard long).
We ate and drank ‘till our eyes nearly popped out and then the Colonel’s helpers (one looked after June and one after me) scraped all the strawberries and cream off the cakes and gave them to us to eat. Heck they’re a mad mob and you’d never have thought they were the chiefs in charge of all British Government departments here.
All the buildings are aluminium, fly proofed and air conditioned with enough polish to make you giddy. They handed Jill back to June for her feed then in the Colonel’s living quarters. These had been made available especially for June and I. (2 beautiful bedrooms with a lounge in between) The beds had clean sheets in case we wanted a rest, but after Jill had been fed we flaked out in a couple of big chairs (as big as double beds) till 4pm when a chap knocked on the door to bring us afternoon tea. Tem and Erwin had inspected powerhouses, etc and had a swim in the meantime. We had a drink in the Colonel’s lounge, then were shown some slides in a room at the hospital, then collected Jill from the Colonel again and began the long drive of inspection on a different road to the ‘drome.
After dinner June and I were shown through the acres of kitchen and bakery, all really wonderfully equipped to feed up to 1700 men that were there at the time of the tests (there are only about 400 there at the moment). After a line of farewells, handshakes etc., we took off with our box of cakes and a couple of loaves of fresh bread each. I don’t know if they were only pulling our legs or if they were so excited at having some dames to show around that they put on such a big welcome. They said they got a real kick out of having us there. June and I certainly enjoyed ourselves, as we’d never been waited on like that before, especially by men! There was nothing stiff or formal about it though, as they were all as mad as meat-axes themselves and gave us plenty of amusement.
A couple of them went through with a party of chaps Friday night and they were still talking about the great day, so maybe they’ll want us back sometime. [While we lived at at Colona the Maralinga personnel would regularly drive through the Yalata Reserve in their smart Landrovers to go fishing at the Great Australian Bight. Sometimes they would have lunch with us on their way back and leave their surplus groceries behind, all luxury goods not normally on our mission-store shelves!] I’d love to tell you more about it as the luxury and the money that’s been spent there is really unbelievable, but it’s time I went to bed, so I’m afraid this will have to do ’till we can tell you more in person perhaps.
Cheers for now. Love from Val and Erwin
On the Maralinga Strip
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Enjoying Lunch
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On the Maralinga Strip
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Enjoying Lunch
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Further to that story, Val revealed that a friend of hers, the late Nan Witcomb was a hostess with ANA (which became Ansett) and admitted to attending Maralinga as a hostess on a plane with a load of journalists in 1956. She said she was given a personal tour of Maralinga Village. At the same time, the media representatives did their duty and then ‘filled up’ at the officers’ mess after a hard day of reporting. They were probably unaware that Nan had gone missing and too drunk to care.
