A Soldiers Journal (page 5)

A Soldiers Journal (page 5)

On the train they brought in large long tanks full of hot water and placed them in the carriages to try and heat up them up. I don't think this helped very much.As we pulled into Melbourne at Spencer railway station, we were joined by 100 or more national service members from around Melbourne and Victoria, from here we were to travel to crib point where the train was shunted back into Flinders naval depot by staff of the depot as Railway staff where not allowed to enter the depot. It was said that this part of the railway had been built by men under punishment, It was said that the navy had made use of our convict labor to build it.

When we arrived we were marched up to the mess, where we were greeted by large trays of sandwiches and large urns of tea and coffee we sat and consumed these until we were joined by about 2000 more sailors. We were then paraded on the football feild where we were divided into class and division then marched to our sleeping quarters, where I was positioned in J block.

The next few days we were very busy with the issuing of bedding and clothing as well as more medicals , needles and hair cuts and many more test to come. I will never forget the needles they where as blunt as a set of child friendly scissors, almost like they had been reused many times and someone was trying to file them back to a point with a blunt file, They all left very big bruises like fish hooks pulling on the skin. a few days after my arrival a boil began to appear on my back, i can remember thinking was this from all the needles. The treatment for this was take some navy hard soap and mold it into a paste with sugar and placed on the boil for a few days until I was to see the doctor. upon reporting to the doctor he had cut a cloth with a hole in the middle and placed it over the boil. This was then squashed to remove puss and core, the table i was holding onto was a steel one with a one inch thick glass top, I think I lifted it well clear off the floor and almost passed out." I think our doctor was a ex butcher"After a few more days of treatment it healed up and to this day can still be seen.

To be Continued

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