Australian National Servicemen
19th April to 29th May 1970 by Sgt. Boyd Robertson, 2PIR MOEM Barracks The platoon of twenty nine, including one Pacific Islands officer, two sergeants, two assault pioneers, two signalers, one medic and twenty one infantry soldiers departed by Caribou…
John Retallick (1968-69) After a stint of teaching in a small school in NSW, I entered National Service in January 1966 and arrived at 1 RTB Kapooka as a raw and nervous recruit. In a few weeks I was lucky…
(As told by Dan himself at the Kenmore Tavern – March 2012) Dan Winkel was a Warrant Officer Class 2 at Murray Barracks from 1966 to 1969. Q. Dan, you have come through in many of the stories of the…
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A poem written by Sgt. Ian Ogston as a recruit while at Singleton Recruit Training Centre Drab rows of spartan huts Sprawled in military order Across the harsh, rounded Hunter hills. The dry summer heat shimmered the wheat-brown grassland. New…
Dennis Armstrong Other Details: Masters Thesis, University of Queensland School of Psychology, presented in 1972. Available at Fryer Library, University of Queensland (Number: THE 4582) The group studied were National Servicemen Teachers who were sent to PNG to teach in…
Lindy Horton As a 21 year old bride, I waited with much anticipation to the start of married life as the wife of a National Serviceman in Taurama Barracks in Papua New Guinea. It took five weeks for the ‘call…
John Morris (1970/71) PREAMBLE Like many Australians, I understood that as a result of our country’s participation in the Vietnam War, there was a National Service ballot conducted a number of times each year. I hadn’t given this matter much…
by Frank Cordingley I have great pleasure in writing this article to launch the new ‘Chalkies’ website At our annual get together in October 2011, discussion centred around how we could make the existence of our group visible to…
In many ways this has been a successful year for our informal group. New contacts have been made and this has added to the richness of our understanding of the PNG experience. As well, we have set off on another…
Sgt Terry Edwinsmith One of the most important tasks of the Australian Army in the 1960s -1970s was to assist the development of the Pacific Islands Regiments in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and help guide the military…
Most of you will know by now that three of our number, Terry Edwinsmith, Norm Hunter and Kev Horton visited PNG in August. All went well and all three arrived home after a very special experience. We will hear more…
Chalkies reunited John Morris and I (Ian Ogston) were posted to the PNG Training Depot at Goldie River in 1970-71. At the time we were the only unmarried Chalkies at Goldie and as a consequence, spent a very large amount…
The photo on this page is of massive importance to those interested in the history of the Chalkies scheme. This is the only photo we have of Brigadier Ian Murray Hunter with Chalkies. All are Queensland Chalkies and in our…
An Extract The following article was kept by Greg Ivey from his time in Townsville prior to being sent to PNG… The information was provided to the newspaper by the Minister for the Army at the time, Phillip Lynch. Note…
Chalkies again turned up in numbers to support the PNG Ex-Servicemen’s Association (PIB/NGIB/HQ/PIR) at the Brisbane ANZAC Day march. The following are a number of photos of the marchers provided by Richard Boddington and Kev Horton of the parade.
We were very pleased to welcome Tristan to Brisbane in early May, 2011. He was very appreciative of the Chalkies who were available to be interviewed by him. A special thanks to those who made the journey to Ocean View…
Earlier this year, Terry (pictured) submitted an article to this blog site and it was printed along with a wide range of other pieces about PNG. What was interesting were the comments that came back to the site. One in…
Andrew Dalziel (1971-72) The Military Cadet School (MCS) in Lae was established in the 1960’s as the initial officer training school for PNG officer cadets. Cadets entered the school having either successfully completed Year 10 at high school or having…
I have been delighted to have met up with Tristan Moss in Canberra, recently. Tristan is a PhD student at the Australian National University who is researching the experiences of Australian soldiers in PNG in the lead up to independence…
Phil Adam (1969-70) The smell! What a shock it was to jump down from the back of the RAAF Hercules to be met by the heat and the unmistakable smell of rotting vegetation. Greg Ivey and I had finally arrived…
We assembled again at Ocean View for our annual get together. As well as the social part of the night, it was the occasion of the launch of our visual record of our service in PNG. (More on that later.)…
Ian Ogston (1970/71) The Chalkie experience at Goldie River was different. ‘Goldie’ was the Papua New Guinea Training Depot, to give it its full name. It was known universally as ‘Goldie’ because of its location on the floodplain of the…
Norm Hunter (1967-68) It’s 42 years since I arrived in Port Moresby in June 1967 as a Sergeant in the Royal Australian Army Education Corps. I’d completed three months of recruit training and three months of infantry training. On the…
Exactly forty years ago, I was based at the PNG Training Depot at Goldie River as a Chalkie – a National Serviceman with the rank of Temporary Sergeant in the Royal Australian Army Educational Corps. Looking back now, I can…
I initially went to PNG for the Australian National University to develop a program which would allow people to develop entrepreneurial skills. PNG was mainly a subsistence economy. With this system, you can never gain capital and therefore not be able…
Clicking on a photo will display a full sized image of the photo in a new window. This Australian website is not part of the PNGDF. We are unable to help Applicants for the PNGDF. However, If you wish to…
Clicking on a photo will display a full sized image of the photo in a new window. Also available: Tales from the Sak Sak Moem Barracks soldiers Activities by Moem Barracks soldiers Sgt. John Worthington’s Photos Sgt. Rod Cassidy’s Photos…
Clicking on a photo will display a full sized image of the photo in a new window. Unless stated otherwise, all named soldiers were National Servicemen Also available: Goldie River soldiers Activities by Goldie River soldiers
Clicking on a photo will display a full sized image of the photo in a new window. Also available: Taurama Barracks soldiers Activities by Taurama Barracks soldiers Taurama Barracks Photos from 1967-68 by Sgt. Maurice Jenner Black and White Photo…