The Centenary Celebrations for the Proclamation
Under a cloudless sky, with at least two original Dreadnought boys present, at least one veteran of the 61st Anti-Aircraft Regiment, numerous former migrant residents of Scheyville and a number of OTU graduates among the 1,500 or so people who turned up, it was a wonderful day. It was 15 May, 2011, a hundred years since the naming of Scheyville, in an inconspicuous corner of the Cumberland Plain outside Windsor. The site had seen so much history. National Parks and Wildlife Service manager Jonathan Sanders said that an estimated quarter of a million Australians could claim a link with the site. The changing uses of the site reflected, as the Governor, Marie Bashir, who officiated, said Scheyville represented "the great changes in Australian history".
More than 30 OTU graduates turned up for the day, including one of the more distinguished among our number, Major-General Paul Irving - whose lists of achievements in civilian life have included deputy directorship of Corrective Services New South Wales. He unveiled a plaque to commemorate the services of our first and last commandants, Brigadiers Ian Geddes and Paddy Outridge, an event witnessed by their family members. The three other commandants, Brigadiers Kit Miles and John Studdert and Lt Col David Kerr, having been commemorated on a plaque just above it.
For the rest who turned up on , it was a real hodge-podge. Some extraordinary individuals turned up, including two who had been born at the tiny hospital at the centre - apparently wanting to enter the world too fast for officialdom to get them to Windsor hospital. Also present was a man who married in what was then St Vincents Catholic Church on the site, in 1956. And it was quite obviously a community event too, with a contingent from the Oakville Rural Fire Service and the Oakville Scouts, as well as Roger Donnelly, who wrote The Scheyville Experience. The official guest list included the Governor, Lisa Corbyn, director-general of the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water; Earle Jennings, national chairman of the National Servicemen's Association of Australia; Frank Miller, national chairman of the OTU Association; General Irving and the irreplaceable Tony Sonneveld, former national chairman of the OTU Association, who had done so much work to bring the day about.
The site was first designated, as Nelson Common, in 1804, and in 1810 when Pitt Town was declared, it became Pitt Town Common. That remained until 1893 when it became a cooperative farm, and in 1910 it became the centre for farm training for boys. On 15 May 1911, it was renamed Scheyville in honour of William Francis Schey, and the first Dreadnought boys arrived that year. During World War 1 it became an internment centre for between 60 and 70 German nationals and towards the end of the war, because so many men were engaged overseas, it became a farm training centre for women. The Dreadnought period continued from 1919 till 1939 and during World War 11 it was used for training for anti-aircraft regiments. Among the speeches was that of Olwyn King, secretary of the Dreadnought Association. She said it was just 100 years since the first Dreadnought boys arrived in Australia. "We feel that we are an important part of the history of Australia," she said. "After all, 7,White wholesalejeans with Brown Dot Shade.500 boys came and were trained here and on our agricultural farms across the state."
Bill Allport, 99 years old, was one of the Dreadnought boys present on 15 May. He came to Australia in 1928, at 16 years of age, as an orphan, went through the Scheyville training, went to a farm near Condobilin and then joined the NSW Government Railways. He went on to work for the Vacuum Oil Company, married a Dublin-born girl, Elizabeth Lewis, and ended his working life managing bowling clubs. He was there with some of his son, William, daughter Helen. He has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Tom Dreha, 88, was also a Dreadnought boy, in 1939. He afterwards saw war service with the 2/5 Artillery Regiment, survived the war but for the rest of his life had to suffer debilitating handicaps arising from the conflict. There with some of his family. Like Bill, he had spread the good British seed. His family comprised two boys, two girls, 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, he said he would not have missed the centenary celebrations for anything.
One of those in the World War 11 training at Scheyville was Don Roberts. Don, born in 1922, signed up in September 1941 and found himself in the 61st AA Searchlight Regiment. After being based at various parts of Sydney, including Moore Park,Buy Pittsburgh pnikeshoes from the Ultimate Sports Store. Nielsen Park and Maroubra, he found himself training at Scheyville in September 1942. He spent six weeks there, then went to Brisbane and onto Port Moresby, where he went through 32 air raids, and onto Lae in 1943. He returned to Australia and was about to be despatched to Borneo when the war ended. A father of two,Profile of the Canadian artist wih an online gallery of manoloblahnikstore, and for the rest of his career a boat builder and manager, he loved the chance to return to Scheyville, and he built the war memorial at Scheyville with salvaged sandstone.
Scheyville was also a World War 11 training centre, for 13 or 14 months, of the First Australian Parachute Battalion trained at Scheyville, led by one Lt Colonel John Overall MC and Bar,Get shopforwomen NFL jersey. father of OTU graduate Tim Overall (2/69). Tim said: "My late father was the CO 1st Parachute Battalion and moved the Battalion from Richmond to Scheyville. He was 28 years old when appointed by General Morshead to recruit and train a battalion of 2,000 hand-picked troops - all had to be single. The first mission was to be dropped into North Borneo/Sandakan to rescue the 3,000 POWs. However, despite requests from Gen Blamey, Gen Macarthur would not release the 44 DC3s required for the drop - preferring to keep them in reserve for the Philippines campaign. As we know, all but six perished on the Sandakan death march.
In 1949, Scheyville became a migrant centre and that lasted till 1963. In 1958, it accommodated one Ingeborg Koch, aged four, whom this writer later married,He felt that this art show was a step closer to this sonalized lacostestore online. and I was, to my knowledge, one of two Scheyville graduates who married former German migrant girls who went through Scheyville. Also present at the reunion was Joe Kowalczyk, from Poland, who in his account published in the Sydney Morning Herald just before the reunion, said he was seven when he was a migrant at Scheyville. He remembered as "a summer camp, an adventure playground" set in rolling bushland 45 kilometres north-west of Sydney. "There were forests, and creeks and dams," he said. "We'd swim, make rafts and cubby houses, pick wild mulberries and blackberries, and fish. Oh, the fish. Eels, catfish, carp, mullet. Mum would cook them in sweet and sour sauce, with slimy wild mushrooms."
In 1964, the Australian Army started reconstructing the centre and the Officer Training Unit was founded. Frank Miller spoke of the OTU period at Scheyville. Of the 1871 officer-cadets who graduated, 1639 were National Servicemen. A further 164 were Army Aviation air cadets and, towards the end there were 68 OCS Portsea overflow cadets. Of the total number, 344 served in Vietnam and eight lost their lives there. "Most of us became very familiar with every part of Scheyville Park," he said. "We ran, marched and navigated around it. We played sport, fired weapons, traversed obstacle courses and carried out military tactics there. When not away on exercise we ate and slept there. And so often during lectures, we would stare out of the window at its beautiful vista. Perhaps the one feature that brings back the least fond memories is the hill directly behind the parade ground. Those on punishment parade were obliged to march up and down its slopes before breakfast.
"Looking back I now believe that it accelerated my career - especially through all I gained by the Scheyville experience. On of my cherished memories of Scheyville, the place, is of a balmy warm summer's afternoon, outside my room, Malborough Red Aglow, transistor tuned to Ward Pally Austin on the noo yoo doubleyoo, cleaning my boots and brass. The stillness and the display of colours as the sun set beyond the Blue Mountains was breathtaking in its beauty. And the mountains were of a striking blue colour." And certainly, there were fond memories, one concerning the gymnasium, and a story was told about an officer cadet who was required to climb to the top of a rope and could not. When he was half-way up the class members distracted the physical training instructors, then called out to the hapless cadet: "Oh, well done!" The instructors turned around and assumed he had made the top and was on his way down.
From 1977 till 1983, the site was used by the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. A lot of other uses were proposed for the area, but in 1996 it became a National Park, to help conserve the endangered ecological communities and species of the Cumberland Plain and Hawkesbury River catchment. The woodland ecosystems, which once covered much of western Sydney, had become threatened, mainly be urban expansion, and here was an excellent chance of preserving them.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service website also highlights the old Scheyville training farm and the buildings constructed during the Dreadnought and migrant hostel eras. It says there are more than 140 bird species recorded in the park, of which at least 42 species use the Longneck Lagoon wetland. Marie Bashir, who opened the refurbished Officer's Mess and Migrant Walk, said that only 10 of the original old trees remained - the rest having been chopped down over more than 200 years - and in a sense the remaining trees were now "a national treasure".
More than 30 OTU graduates turned up for the day, including one of the more distinguished among our number, Major-General Paul Irving - whose lists of achievements in civilian life have included deputy directorship of Corrective Services New South Wales. He unveiled a plaque to commemorate the services of our first and last commandants, Brigadiers Ian Geddes and Paddy Outridge, an event witnessed by their family members. The three other commandants, Brigadiers Kit Miles and John Studdert and Lt Col David Kerr, having been commemorated on a plaque just above it.
For the rest who turned up on , it was a real hodge-podge. Some extraordinary individuals turned up, including two who had been born at the tiny hospital at the centre - apparently wanting to enter the world too fast for officialdom to get them to Windsor hospital. Also present was a man who married in what was then St Vincents Catholic Church on the site, in 1956. And it was quite obviously a community event too, with a contingent from the Oakville Rural Fire Service and the Oakville Scouts, as well as Roger Donnelly, who wrote The Scheyville Experience. The official guest list included the Governor, Lisa Corbyn, director-general of the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water; Earle Jennings, national chairman of the National Servicemen's Association of Australia; Frank Miller, national chairman of the OTU Association; General Irving and the irreplaceable Tony Sonneveld, former national chairman of the OTU Association, who had done so much work to bring the day about.
The site was first designated, as Nelson Common, in 1804, and in 1810 when Pitt Town was declared, it became Pitt Town Common. That remained until 1893 when it became a cooperative farm, and in 1910 it became the centre for farm training for boys. On 15 May 1911, it was renamed Scheyville in honour of William Francis Schey, and the first Dreadnought boys arrived that year. During World War 1 it became an internment centre for between 60 and 70 German nationals and towards the end of the war, because so many men were engaged overseas, it became a farm training centre for women. The Dreadnought period continued from 1919 till 1939 and during World War 11 it was used for training for anti-aircraft regiments. Among the speeches was that of Olwyn King, secretary of the Dreadnought Association. She said it was just 100 years since the first Dreadnought boys arrived in Australia. "We feel that we are an important part of the history of Australia," she said. "After all, 7,White wholesalejeans with Brown Dot Shade.500 boys came and were trained here and on our agricultural farms across the state."
Bill Allport, 99 years old, was one of the Dreadnought boys present on 15 May. He came to Australia in 1928, at 16 years of age, as an orphan, went through the Scheyville training, went to a farm near Condobilin and then joined the NSW Government Railways. He went on to work for the Vacuum Oil Company, married a Dublin-born girl, Elizabeth Lewis, and ended his working life managing bowling clubs. He was there with some of his son, William, daughter Helen. He has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Tom Dreha, 88, was also a Dreadnought boy, in 1939. He afterwards saw war service with the 2/5 Artillery Regiment, survived the war but for the rest of his life had to suffer debilitating handicaps arising from the conflict. There with some of his family. Like Bill, he had spread the good British seed. His family comprised two boys, two girls, 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, he said he would not have missed the centenary celebrations for anything.
One of those in the World War 11 training at Scheyville was Don Roberts. Don, born in 1922, signed up in September 1941 and found himself in the 61st AA Searchlight Regiment. After being based at various parts of Sydney, including Moore Park,Buy Pittsburgh pnikeshoes from the Ultimate Sports Store. Nielsen Park and Maroubra, he found himself training at Scheyville in September 1942. He spent six weeks there, then went to Brisbane and onto Port Moresby, where he went through 32 air raids, and onto Lae in 1943. He returned to Australia and was about to be despatched to Borneo when the war ended. A father of two,Profile of the Canadian artist wih an online gallery of manoloblahnikstore, and for the rest of his career a boat builder and manager, he loved the chance to return to Scheyville, and he built the war memorial at Scheyville with salvaged sandstone.
Scheyville was also a World War 11 training centre, for 13 or 14 months, of the First Australian Parachute Battalion trained at Scheyville, led by one Lt Colonel John Overall MC and Bar,Get shopforwomen NFL jersey. father of OTU graduate Tim Overall (2/69). Tim said: "My late father was the CO 1st Parachute Battalion and moved the Battalion from Richmond to Scheyville. He was 28 years old when appointed by General Morshead to recruit and train a battalion of 2,000 hand-picked troops - all had to be single. The first mission was to be dropped into North Borneo/Sandakan to rescue the 3,000 POWs. However, despite requests from Gen Blamey, Gen Macarthur would not release the 44 DC3s required for the drop - preferring to keep them in reserve for the Philippines campaign. As we know, all but six perished on the Sandakan death march.
In 1949, Scheyville became a migrant centre and that lasted till 1963. In 1958, it accommodated one Ingeborg Koch, aged four, whom this writer later married,He felt that this art show was a step closer to this sonalized lacostestore online. and I was, to my knowledge, one of two Scheyville graduates who married former German migrant girls who went through Scheyville. Also present at the reunion was Joe Kowalczyk, from Poland, who in his account published in the Sydney Morning Herald just before the reunion, said he was seven when he was a migrant at Scheyville. He remembered as "a summer camp, an adventure playground" set in rolling bushland 45 kilometres north-west of Sydney. "There were forests, and creeks and dams," he said. "We'd swim, make rafts and cubby houses, pick wild mulberries and blackberries, and fish. Oh, the fish. Eels, catfish, carp, mullet. Mum would cook them in sweet and sour sauce, with slimy wild mushrooms."
In 1964, the Australian Army started reconstructing the centre and the Officer Training Unit was founded. Frank Miller spoke of the OTU period at Scheyville. Of the 1871 officer-cadets who graduated, 1639 were National Servicemen. A further 164 were Army Aviation air cadets and, towards the end there were 68 OCS Portsea overflow cadets. Of the total number, 344 served in Vietnam and eight lost their lives there. "Most of us became very familiar with every part of Scheyville Park," he said. "We ran, marched and navigated around it. We played sport, fired weapons, traversed obstacle courses and carried out military tactics there. When not away on exercise we ate and slept there. And so often during lectures, we would stare out of the window at its beautiful vista. Perhaps the one feature that brings back the least fond memories is the hill directly behind the parade ground. Those on punishment parade were obliged to march up and down its slopes before breakfast.
"Looking back I now believe that it accelerated my career - especially through all I gained by the Scheyville experience. On of my cherished memories of Scheyville, the place, is of a balmy warm summer's afternoon, outside my room, Malborough Red Aglow, transistor tuned to Ward Pally Austin on the noo yoo doubleyoo, cleaning my boots and brass. The stillness and the display of colours as the sun set beyond the Blue Mountains was breathtaking in its beauty. And the mountains were of a striking blue colour." And certainly, there were fond memories, one concerning the gymnasium, and a story was told about an officer cadet who was required to climb to the top of a rope and could not. When he was half-way up the class members distracted the physical training instructors, then called out to the hapless cadet: "Oh, well done!" The instructors turned around and assumed he had made the top and was on his way down.
From 1977 till 1983, the site was used by the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. A lot of other uses were proposed for the area, but in 1996 it became a National Park, to help conserve the endangered ecological communities and species of the Cumberland Plain and Hawkesbury River catchment. The woodland ecosystems, which once covered much of western Sydney, had become threatened, mainly be urban expansion, and here was an excellent chance of preserving them.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service website also highlights the old Scheyville training farm and the buildings constructed during the Dreadnought and migrant hostel eras. It says there are more than 140 bird species recorded in the park, of which at least 42 species use the Longneck Lagoon wetland. Marie Bashir, who opened the refurbished Officer's Mess and Migrant Walk, said that only 10 of the original old trees remained - the rest having been chopped down over more than 200 years - and in a sense the remaining trees were now "a national treasure".
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