Published Messenger Newspapers, Adelaide, September 18, 2002


THE SERGEANT, THE COOK AND THEIR THREE GUARDS


ON TOUR again and here in the streaming rain, are the World War II aviation fuel tanks at Wolseley, on the Victoria-South Australia border, just where the sign on the Duke's Highway said they were. Shorts and T-shirt yesterday; today I had to buy a yellow spray jacket at Bordertown and was sitting rugged up in the car on the gravel roadside, taking photographs of the tanks through the open window and trying not to get the camera wet. A marker sign at the wire fence read: "World War II Fuel Tanks Wolseley - No 12 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot. Constructed early in WWII. Initially two 120,000 and one 40,000 gallon tanks and a barracks were constructed. Camouflaged to look like farm buildings. Depot commenced operations mid 1942 with a Sergeant, cook and three guards. Later 3 additional tanks were added. Disbanded June 14, 1944." Years ago, I had a sudden urge to turn off the highway to look at the landmark Serviceton railway station, on the Victorian side of the border, and drove the 7km to Wolseley out of idle curiosity, being so close. The six circular structures, all by themselves in a paddock, affected me in unaccountable ways back then, evoking a sense of them as more than just a group of abandoned fuel tanks. I described them to friends later almost in terms of a sacred shrine. They had a Stonehenge sort of feeling in their isolation, made by human hands but no longer connected to human affairs. Just humour me. In a thousand years, archeologists will be speculating on whether we danced around them at the winter soltice and sacrified our children. This time, the longer I stayed by the side of the road looking at these tanks in the rain, imagining what went on here during World War II, the more I wondered about the RAAF men who stood guard over them, about as far from the front line as it was possible to be posted and still be actively on uniformed service. "What did you do in the war, grandpa?" ... "Er, well, you see, there were these big fuel tanks at Wolseley, and umm - never mind." Who were The Sergeant, The Cook and Their Three Guards? How did they fill their days? Can anyone help me with more details about them? Also, the official correspondence of the time gave the name of the property owner on which the tanks now stand as Alice Elizabeth Thiele, a "married woman", of Victoria St, Prospect. No Mr Thiele was named although a reference was made to two sons, also unnamed, who farmed the property. Disinclined to sell in the first place but faced with compulsory acquisition, Alice drove a hard bargain on price with the Commonwealth, to the extent that I would wish her to be on my side in any real estate negotiations. Does anyone remember her? At one time, possibly in the 1940s, a police officer by the name of F.C.B. Thiele was based at Wolseley. Was there a connection? Any information would be gratefully accepted, at PO Box 197, Port Adelaide 5015. And then I might get a good night's sleep.