Pilbara Diggers honoured in stone, bush poetry
THE legendary Lockyer brothers of Port Hedland. Onslow-born stockman poet Thomas Gray. And Marble Bar shearer Sandy Jackson.
This Anzac Day, StreetWise honours the memories and service of hundreds of Indigenous Diggers in the Pilbara who fought for and defended Australia in WW1 and WW2, both at home and overseas.
Their sacrifice is enshrined in memorials, plaques and ‘special’ places such as Whim Creek where the five Lockyer boys, two of whom were killed in action in WW2, are honoured in stone. Aboriginal men enlisted from Roebourne, Cossack, Whim Creek and remote stations in the Pilbara, many buried overseas in unmarked graves.
The impact the loss of life had on WA’s North West was devastating.
Born in 1905, Tommy Gray was shot leading POWs to friendly lines on July 6, 1941. He was the third of seven children of Richard Vickers (Gray), and his Aboriginal wife Ida, nee Harris. Having studied at Onslow State School, Tommy recited Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man From Snowy River’ and played two-up with fellow Diggers who described him as, ‘the most loved man among us’.
Crosses
Tommy was killed at Damour, Lebanon, and was buried there by Port Hedland mates Bert Madigan and Billy Kain, who etched on his cross, ‘And a cross when he is dead’, a line from his poem ‘Crosses’, the only work ever published (by the Australian Defence Force in 1941).
Tommy knew more than 100 poems by heart and composed verses in the saddle, often inscribing lines of bush poetry on the rusty blades of disused windmills and sides of water tanks.
South Fremantle stables owner and Cossack land owner Terry Patterson told StreetWise the 2/16th Battalion private was his auntie’s uncle. He said the respected horse trainer was employed as head stockman at Anna Plains station and won the Port Hedland and Marble Bar cups.
“His poems are still read today,” he said. “What gets me is that Tommy died in his mates’ arms, they buried him in the Middle East. They were Port Hedland boys.”
Marble Bar shearer Sandy Jackson was 29 when he enlisted, his identifying feature an ‘initiation’ scar across the chest below his breasts. War records show he enlisted on January 4, 1917, but was discharged days later as he was, “not of substantial European origin”.
Similar experiences are recorded by other Indigenous recruits who did not have exemptions for being ‘Aboriginal’ under the Act of 1903.
Other WW1 and WW2 Indigenous servicemen and women who served include Roebourne-born William Davis, Leslie Derschow and Jack Mckenzie; Port Hedland-born Lawrence and James Clarke, Claudius Eaton and Mervyn Sara; Onslow-born Doris Payne and Howard Cocks (Vietnam War); and Marble Bar-born Sandy Jackson and Roy Alex.
