NO TURNING BACK NO TURNING BACK a Memoir
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Pandanus Online Publications, found at the Pandanus Books web site, presents additional material relating to this book. www.pandanusbooks.com.au NO TURNING BACK NO TURNING BACK a memoir E. T. W. Fulton Edited, with an introduction and afterword by Elizabeth Fulton Thurston PANDANUS BOOKS Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Cover: Carriers crossing a fast-flowing stream in the Sepik, 1936. Photograph by E.T.W. Fulton. Illustrations: All photographs are from the Fulton or Thurston collection. Maps: Bryant Allen. © The estate of E. T. W. Fulton and Elizabeth Fulton Thurston 2005 This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Typeset in Garamond 11.75pt on 15pt and printed by Pirion, Canberra National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Fulton, Edward Thomas Whyte. No turning back : a memoir. Includes index. ISBN 1 74076 141 3. 1. Fulton, Edward Thomas Whyte. 2. Australia. Army. Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit. 3. Gold miners — New Guinea (Territory) — Biography. 4. Soldiers — New Guinea (Territory). — Biography. 5. World War, 1939–1945 — Papua New Guinea. 6. Gold mines and mining — New Guinea (Territory). I. Thurston, Elizabeth, 1948– . II. Title. 920.71 Editorial inquiries please contact Pandanus Books on 02 6125 3269 www.pandanusbooks.com.au Published by Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Pandanus Books are distributed by UNIREPS, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 Telephone 02 9664 0999 Fax 02 9664 5420 Consultant Editor: Donald Denoon Production: Ian Templeman, Justine Molony and Emily Brissenden It is 1985 and my dreams in the isolation of a mining camp on a river in the Sepik mountains, 50 years ago, have now been replaced by memories. Memories of prospectors, recruiters, missionaries, patrol officers, planters, seafarers and the people of New Guinea. Memories of a war and of men who died or have grown old. I am proud to have been one of their cobbers. Memories of a beautiful girl, Gwen, who became my wife. I thank God for the years we had together and I dedicate this story to her memory and to our three daughters Mary, Elizabeth and Catherine, and our grandchildren. Ted Fulton Sydney 1985 Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for their assistance and encouragement in making the publication of Ted’s book possible. I know Ted, if he were alive, would be the first to acknowledge their contribution. Through Ted, and my role as editor, I have come to know wonderful interesting people who have generously given me their time and knowledge. I owe an enormous debt to Dr Bryant Allen from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. Bryant met Ted in the 70s and is familiar with the Sepik District and many of the tracks Ted walked and the villages he visited. With his extensive knowledge of the war in New Guinea and careful reading of Ted’s Patrol Reports, he has clarified parts of the text and supplied vital maps for each of the chapters in this section. Since before the manuscript was submitted for publication, I have had many long and interesting conversations with Bryant, who has generously shared his knowl- edge with me and patiently answered my questions. Stuart Inder MBE has been a specialist writer and publisher on Pacific Islands affairs for over 50 years. Stuart was a colleague of the late Judy Tudor who was gold mining with Ted in the Sepik. He knew Ted and has kindly read many drafts of the book. With his sensitive editorial suggestions — particularly concerning the Greek Campaign — and extraordinary wisdom, Stuart has given me both practical and moral support in times when I felt overwhelmed. Professor Donald Denoon, from the ANU, has been my Consultant Editor and his perceptive and incisive guidance from the time the manuscript arrived at Pandanus Books has helped me fine tune the structure and expand on the themes running through Ted’s work. From the Australian 6th Division, I am privileged to have had assistance from Major Ted Wood (retired) who was Ted’s Gun Position Officer in Greece, John Hynes ‘Keeper of the spirit of the Regiment’, Ken Jorgenson and Ossie Pearce. Ossie was the Recruiting Sergeant for the artillery and signed Ted up. They were both on the first troopship leaving Sydney in 1940 and served together in Egypt, Libya, Greece, Crete and Ceylon. These reluctant heroes have their own stories to tell. From the ANGAU years of the war in New Guinea I am grateful to Bob Cole. Bob, who knew Ted in Aitape before the war, was also behind enemy lines and he has helped me understand and confront the similar experiences he and Ted shared. He has supplied valuable details. Also connected with New Guinea I thank Albert Speer, Harry West and Warwick Parer, son of the late Kevin Parer. Chris Rowell worked tirelessly on Ted’s 16 millimetre films and her interest in Ted encouraged me to keep working on the manuscript. Bruce Blake interviewed Ted and recorded his voice for the films. He drew much information from Ted. Les Fiddess did an amazing job in cleaning and transferring Ted’s cassette recordings from the 70s onto CD. I was able to include part of these transcripts into the book. Thank you Chris, Bruce and Les. It has been a pleasure working with Pandanus Books and I thank Ian Templeman and Justine Molony for their belief in Ted’s story and for their commitment to Pacific and Asian literature. The most important people for me to thank are all my family and my sisters and parents: Gwen for her unselfish gentleness, beauty and strength and Ted for the brave, loving and inspirational father that he was. Elizabeth Fulton Thurston 2005 Editor’s Introduction THIS BOOK by my father is the result of years of memories, conversations and correspondence. It is a story of adventure and is a rare account of an era that has disappeared forever. Ted Fulton spent 40 years in New Guinea and knew the country from just about every angle. Inspired by the book The Coral Island, he went to Rabaul as a clerk for W. R. Carpenter’s Trading Company in 1926. He later worked in government administration before throwing in an office job to go gold prospecting in the Sepik mountains with Jack Thurston and the Tudor family. When World War II was declared in 1939, Ted flew back to Australia to enlist with the 6th Division. He served in the Middle East and Greek campaigns and when the 6th was sent to New Guinea, he was seconded into ANGAU (Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit) and sent on forward intelligence patrols behind enemy lines because of his pre-war knowledge of the country, the people and their language. ANGAU held a dual civil and military role from 10 April 1942 after the government had been disrupted by war. ANGAU officers had to be both combat soldiers and patrol officers: they were expected to maintain law and order and oversee the welfare of the local population. The conditions under which the ANGAU officers and their Papua and New Guinean allies fought and defended New Guinea soil were often intolerable. Torrential rain, leeches, malaria, dysentery and hookworm were a daily part of patrols that lasted for weeks and often months. In the course of his service with ANGAU, Ted patrolled hundreds of miles on foot from Port Moresby across the Owen Stanley Ranges — up the Bulldog Track and into the Lower Ramu and Sepik areas. He spent months in country that was hitherto unpatrolled and unmapped. xi He was one of a handful of Australians to take part in the landing at Aitape with MacArthur’s United States Persecution Task Force after which he conducted fighting patrols along the coast and inland to the Torricelli Mountains and Maprik. In 1945 he was sent as a Task Force Commander to Labuan in Borneo to organise the cooperation of the local people while awaiting the 9th Division occupation of Sandakan. This never happened as the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, Japan, and the war was suddenly over. Ted’s brother, Jack, served with the 2/15th Field Regiment Division and was taken prisoner in Changi; his diary is in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. Another brother, Henry, who was crippled by polio and unable to enlist, was taken prisoner by the Japanese when they invaded Rabaul in l942. He was lost on the Japanese prison ship, Montevideo Maru when it was torpedoed off The Philippines. His eldest brother, Frank, served with the RAAF. My parents were married in Australia in 1945 (my mother was formerly Gwen Dobinson) and after the war my father, with a new bride and a young baby — my sister, Mary — returned, like other civilians, to New Guinea to pick up the pieces and carve out a future in a country that had been ravaged by years of Japanese occupation. Knowing that many basic items would be in demand, Ted set up the first post-war import agency in Rabaul before purchasing Makurapau Plantation past Kokopo. Over the next two decades he established a flourishing copra and cocoa plantation and was an active member of the Planters Association and travelled to Canberra to represent their interests. Along with my two sisters, my early childhood was spent between the plantation and Australia.