My name is Veronica Mavis Cameron and I was born in 1922. I’m one hundred years (November 2022) and I’m just swinging along.
I was brought up in the suburbs of Sydney. In 1940 I was 18 and working for Carmichaels in Auburn. In peace time it was a factory that made stoves, but during the war all the factories were turned into munitions factories.
I was one of 10 or 20 women locked up in cages – sections of the factory – so we wouldn’t talk about what we did. Each section had a portion of the machine gun to inspect. My job was to test the firing pins of the machine guns by banging them with something and hoped they fired properly. All very crude. We worked 16 hours a day. Each gun was examined by an 18-year-old girl new to this kind of work, we learnt as we went along. There was a male supervisor who ensured we didn’t talk to each other. At night we went back to our homes and still not allowed to talk about our work.
I tried the Land Army [Australian Women’s Land Army] after that but it was a bit solid. Us girls [in the Land Army] were marvellous. We were up at 4am and finished in the dark. I remember harvesting asparagus in the middle of winter, it was snowing, with no gloves or proper equipment for us. Whilst in the field I also recall seeing the Italian prisoners of war going past in the trucks dressed in warm winter outfits for the weather and they’d wave.
My best friend was an ABC Radio pianist and she injured her hands terribly working the fields without proper gloves. Her cuts in her hands were dreadful. Some of the fields were so run down because the men had gone to war. It was our job to prepare the ground for next year’s crops. It was hard physical work. I left there in 1944 and joined the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) as a medical orderly.
I worked at Bathurst Hospital caring for the boys who came back from Egypt. When they were well enough, they then went off for more training before heading to New Guinea and Bougainville. We all worked hard in the hospital, always remembering the boys were going back to the battlefield.
In 2012 I received a letter from Ms Julia Gilliard who wanted the efforts of the Land Army ‘girls’ to be recognised. We were invited to Parliament House in Canberra, I think we were in the main hall. There were about 50 of us oldies from the Land Army who were able to be present on that day.
Ms Gillard approached us individually, shaking our hands and saying a personal heartfelt ‘thank you’. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. She then presented us each a pin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Australian Women’s Land Army.
That was such an honour that the government finally recognised the efforts we’d all made for our country and that our service was as good as other services.
This is the story of Veronica Cameron as told to Carla Edwards.
