THE DUNTROON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 1/2018 ISSN 2207-0400 APRIL 2018 News from the ‘Bombing Paddock’ Mark Butz This is an update of two previous reports in this Newsletter (1/2015 and 2/2015) on the Duntroon Trench Warfare and Bombing School of 1916–17 (associated with the Officer Training School) and the ‘Bombing Paddock’, containing the trench system that was constructed for the School just across the Molonglo River from the RMC. This site is now in the Jerrabomberra Wetlands Nature Reserve, managed by the ACT Parks and Conservation Service in partnership with the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust. The last report on the trench system was about archaeological excavations in mid-2015—since that time a great deal has happened on the site and in researching and promoting its history. Aided by a 2016 Heritage Grant, we developed a self- An incomplete mock trench in August 2017, with the first guiding ‘Trench Trail’ leaflet and installed trench layout trial sections of fire step and duckboards, and the island markers (steel posts with labels colour-coded to the plan in traverse at its heart (Photo: Michael Maconachie). the leaflet), interpretive signs, and initial sections of what will become a loop trail. The trail sections are laid out as the Public trench tours have been very popular, and we have trenches were, with zig-zags and a forward traverse, and with been pleased to welcome some Duntroon graduates on those observation platforms that take the size and hexagonal shape tours. The next round of public tours will be during the of island traverses. The initial sections are protected from the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival in April 2018. Once cattle that are still needed to graze the site while it is too rough finalised, bookings will be through the Woodlands and for mowing; over time, we hope the whole site will be open Wetlands Trust. Tailored group tours can be arranged at other and accessible without internal fences and gates. The trail times. work has been undertaken with assistance from the Green During 2017 the historical importance of the site received Army and from cadets of the Australian Defence Force some measure of recognition in a request for soil from the Academy. A further Heritage Grant will enable more of the trench system to be incorporated into the Flanders Fields loop to be built during 2018. memorial garden which was opened at the Australian War Those developments got us started on providing access Memorial in that year. This blended soil taken from iconic and information, but we still wanted to convey some of the Western Front battlefield sites with soil from Australian sites trench experience. The high groundwater table precludes any notable for troop training, embarkation and return. notion of leaving open an excavated trench on the site. But if A 2018 Heritage Grant will now enable further track you can’t dig down, you can build up instead. So we have work, interpretation of the mock trench, augmented reality constructed a section of mock trench to give visitors a sense sites (where video and audio can be delivered to hand-held of the deep, narrow and convoluted layout of what lies below devices), sandbagging of structures, a simulated forward the surface. It was built with the assistance of the Green Army machine gun emplacement, a mural facing the cycleway, and and the ACT Parks and Conservation Service. The timber purchase of additional props to aid trench tours and structure simulates a fire trench at full scale, with an island educational activities. traverse, zig-zags, a fire step, some duckboards, and a length A book detailing the background to, and history of, the of sap heading downwards, as if on its way under ‘no man’s trench system was released for Remembrance Day 2017, land’ to the enemy trenches. although it has not yet had a ‘hard’ launch. We have been very Even in its unfinished state, the mock trench has been very grateful for the assistance of WO2 Steve Medforth in popular with visitors, and those on guided tours can work accessing the archives of the Army Museum Duntroon—a with periscopes and other props to enrich their experience. If very significant, but (as yet) poorly appreciated, resource. you can’t get out on-site, the mock trench and the initial All proceeds from the sale of the trench book go to support sections of trail are visible on Google Earth, starting from the the work of the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust. At present it image dated 13 October 2017. can only be ordered online. 1 Research for the book uncovered additional, more detailed, stories that are waiting to be told, and more Marching to the Beat of a Different information keeps on coming. Hopefully, some of these Drum—Reflections on a post-Army stories and new information will find their way into this Newsletter or other journals. Career with the United Nations We are also hoping to stage an ‘open day’ event in Spring 2018, marking completion of the mock trench, the mural, and Simon (S.G.) Hermes (1978) the expanded facilities enabled by this year’s Heritage Grant, Introduction and perhaps coinciding with some more archaeological excavations. This event would celebrate the rediscovery, Looking back to the day I marched in to Duntroon in January investigation, and subsequent presentation, of this nationally 1974, I can say with some certainty that my formative years important heritage place as we mark the approaching at Duntroon had a lasting influence on my subsequent career centenary of the Armistice. with the United Nations. It is this experience, and some reflections on the highlights of my service with the United Nations, that I would like to share with you. I will in passing explain my impressions of the situation currently in Afghanistan, but my focus will be on what prepared me for the challenges that I have faced with the UN. I write this article in the knowledge that many of my contemporaries have applied their training and experience from Duntroon and the Army often with more distinction and success than I in many diverse walks of life, but this is my story. RMC Background and the Army I was a Staff Cadet from 1974–1978, with a one year LWOP break in 1976. Graduating to the Australian Intelligence Corps in 1978 I completed my Honours degree in History and Politics in 1979, followed by regimental training with A guided tour for the Heritage Festival April 2017, showing Artillery and 23 years in Intelligence. Most of my subsequent a hexagonal observation platform and one of the military career was spent in Canberra and at the School of interpretive signs (Photo: Michael Maconachie). Military Intelligence, albeit with the highlight of a fascinating year studying at the Royal Thai Army Staff College in 1988. I finally retired in 1997 after a posting as the Assistant Defence Attaché (ADA) in Phnom Penh where I had the interesting experience of witnessing the Hun Sen coup on 4 July 1997. Lessons Drawn from Personal Experience—People Skills The experience of studying, drilling, exercising and living in the field with 100 other young men of Fourth Class 1974 was a great challenge. These young men, highly competitive and highly motivated, provided a wealth of experience, occasionally bruising physically and mentally, to draw on when faced with the challenge of working and living with people from diverse backgrounds in the United Nations Organization. The office which I am currently leading, in Herat Afghanistan, has a range of international staff from 15 ANU archaeologist Dr Tim Denham collects soil from the countries and 50 Afghans who themselves are from a diverse trench system for use in the Flanders Fields memorial range of ethnicities and backgrounds. On a number of garden at the Australian War Memorial, March 2017 occasions, I have been confronted with the requirement to (Photo: Michael Maconachie). intervene when personalities have clashed, egos have ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ conflicted and ethnicities have clashed and I have been able Mark Butz is a writer/researcher with a background in earth to draw on my formal and informal leadership training from sciences and ecology, and a lifelong interest in my Duntroon days with good effect. For some reason, one palaeontology, history, and archaeology. He worked with particular Leadership 101 lesson sticks in my mind, the government agencies for more than two decades before viewing of the movie Twelve O’clock High as an example of starting his own business in 2002, as a facilitator, consultant, the challenge of leading a dysfunctional group and trainer and coach, mixed with voluntary roles in not-for- transforming them into a coherent work team. It may seem profit organisations. He has lived in Canberra since 1980 surprising, but some of the most basic strategies, such as and before that in the Snowy Mountains and Sydney, while maintaining a Platoon Commander Notebook about one’s cultivating an increasingly close connection with the work subordinates, knowing each of them for their strengths, Eurobodalla coast. He is currently engaged in writing a weaknesses, interests and ambitions, comes as a revelation to comprehensive history of the Jerrabomberra Wetlands and people coming to the problem without the background of environs, and a history of nature conservation in the ACT. having belonged to a disciplined force, and is something that ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have employed to good effect. The United Nations 2 maintains a thorough personnel assessment system known as more effectively inculcated now. I feel that service with the EPAS, rather similar to our Confidential report system, but is United Nations has a very prominent emphasis on gender and seems to me that the tried and true methods of knowing your ethnic diversity and for me at least that has been a sharp subordinates, encouraging them and counselling them is learning curve, undertaken often under the most difficult and rather more effective than a formal process that can tend to hazardous conditions.