I’m Audrey Powell and my name was Audrey Hart when I enlisted. I turned 100 in March 2023.
I enlisted because I wanted to. I saw it as an opportunity for me to ‘become myself’ and a decision I could make for myself, no longer relying on my aunt.
I was raised in Sydney with an aunt because my father died when I was young. He died suddenly from complications after surgery; my parents had not been married long. I’ve been told my mother’s life was very hard and she ‘went to pieces’ when newly widowed, with a 12-month-old and pregnant. I think she ‘went to pieces’ probably from the grief and she therefore couldn’t look after me.
My aunt lived around the corner from my grandparents where mum went to live with the new baby. It was decided my aunt would care for me, with a generous stipend to cover my upbringing. Living with my aunt was alright although she was very strict. She had a daughter 17 years older than me and she was ‘it’; a clever girl studying at uni. Essentially, I was brought up then as an only child. I think she ‘had to look after me’ because she was my mother’s sister. I used to go and play with my little sister and lose track of time. I loved being there with my family, but I had to go sleep and ‘live’ with my aunt and when I got back late, I was usually in lots of trouble. The stipend covered my education too and I went to Methodist Ladies’ College in Burwood.
I think that’s why enlisting was so easy; I didn’t mind leaving home because I was LEAVING home and I didn’t get into any more trouble from my aunt. At the time of my enlistment, I was quite capable of choosing what I wanted, so I took myself along to the recruiting office.
I didn’t have any desire to join the Navy so I enlisted in the Women’s Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF). One thing I do remember, we joined because the WRAAF looked like it was fun.
‘Rookies’ [recruit training] was in Melbourne in a converted cattle pavilion but I don’t recall where. It was very strict and to go on duty in the early winter morning, after showering, it was very cold. I remember with our training we had to do a lot of marching; we had to get the turning and marching in time and sequence right. We were pretty good and we always got it right. We even thought that was fun! I liked the discipline and order of being in the WRAAF and I didn’t get in trouble from the officers.
Toorak has lovely, beautiful big homes and during the war the homes were given over for the military to use as ‘rest’ homes. I remember having the use of a lovely home for weekends. We learnt how to have fun doing whatever we liked at the house and going into the city.
My job in the WRAAF was to do as I was told, and I had to be very careful doing it. It wasn’t a serious, unfortunate or unkind place or job. There was a sense of camaraderie with everyone I met.
I was trained in morse code and I was very good. I had to be. We had to be excellent with no mistakes.
We had a female Sergeant who would give us the messages we had to send out, or we gave her ones we received. We had to do night shifts and the best shift I liked was bed shift - sleeping. We were terrible in that we just didn’t take life and the situation too seriously. Life was serious enough, so we tried to have fun.
Morse code was hard. Getting the feel of it wasn’t easy, we had to be very careful with getting it correct. Really, we were kids, we were told to do it and we did it. I recall there were at least three of us in the room at the same time per shift. I didn’t know what the messages were about and if I did I don’t remember any of them. But we did twig to an event that happened when I was stationed in Cootamundra [Aerodrome]. A plane brought some men in it, we didn’t even stop to think where they came from or why they were there. You did what you had to do at the time, and it was just natural that you did what you were told.
I met Keith when I was 9 and had a long friendship that moved into marriage, eventually.
He came to visit me at the base I was at in Cootamundra. He was an Officer, a Navigator in the Navy. When he visited once, my girlfriends, all eight of them, would play a trick of running to where he was going to walk and they’d salute when he passed and he’d have to salute back. Then they’d run ahead and do it again. And again, he’d have to salute, he couldn’t ignore them. He’d ask me jokingly, ‘don’t they ever do anything but salute?’
A fun time I recall was in the mess; the men had to serve us. So, we go into the mess, line up along the canteen and the first thing we got was a hard-boiled egg. We saw this hardboiled egg rolling around on the plate. We roared with laughter, and then the next man we’d get to would put something else on the plate and by the end of the canteen the plate was quite full. We were in hysterics. We had a lot of fun.
A difficult time was when we wanted to get home. It was midnight when the train came through Cootamundra, so we just got on the train. We didn’t wait for the ‘please’ or ‘do you mind’. The men were on it too and we didn’t take any notice of them. We didn’t seem to take much care of the law in those days. If we could do it, we did it. Nobody put us in jail. [I hadn’t thought of that for ages. Time goes on whether you like it or not.]
I enjoyed wearing the uniform and I looked very smart.
When you were wearing the uniform, you were a somebody.
This is the story of Audrey Powell as told to Carla Edwards.
