Women who went to war

By Kath Gannaway
THERE is no doubt at all, according to ex-service women Joy Milk and Edna Fox, that enlisting during World War II was a turning point for women in Australia.
Personal liberation, however, was far from their minds when they joined the war effort in 1942.
Both now living in Warburton, Joy Waterfield and Edna Johnson were country girls – Joy from Western Australia and Edna from Woodend in Victoria.
It was a dramatic change of lifestyle for the young women who celebrated their 21st birthdays in uniform.
“Many forget the role that the women of Australia played in the war effort,” said Warburton RSL secretary Dennis Reeves.
Mr Reeves is compiling information on the woman who were born in, or enlisted in the Upper Yarra area.
“Many replaced sons and husbands on the land, picking up the farming tools and taking their place on the tractors and vehicles.
“They also took the place of their menfolk in the factories and many varied industries,” he said.
Others, like Joy and Edna, joined the armed services so able-bodied men could join the fighting forces in the Pacific.
“These women became office workers, drivers of utilities, cars and even trucks.
“They were in the communications centres helping to retain that essential contact,” Mr Reeves said.
Edna enlisted in the Army and after training in signals and communications in Melbourne was transferred to Albury as a driver and switchboard operator.
“I got my licence in a three ton truck and I loved every minute of it,” Edna said.
Among some of her fondest memories are driving Reg Saunders, the first Aboriginal commissioned in the Australian Army, to collect his new uniform when he returned from the Middle East, and taking officers out to the POW camps.
And the pigeons!
“We’d drive the pigeons out to Melton where they let them go,” Edna explained. “They were taking messages to the ships, I guess … you didn’t get told a lot and you didn’t ask either,” she recalls.
Joy joined the air force and travelled across the country to work in administration with Air Force headquarters in Melbourne.
“It was an exciting time… you never knew what you were going to be doing next or what was going to happen next,” said Joy.
While the women worked in very different areas, each is proud of the contribution they made and the knowledge it helped shape the outcome of the war.
“You felt proud to be doing something for your country and for the men who were away fighting.
“You knew there were jobs which needed to be done… and we didn’t like the sound of the way things were going on overseas,” Joy said. For women who grew up in the Depression when there were few jobs, let alone career options in the years leading up to the war, Joy and Edna say joining the forces opened a whole new world of opportunity.
“It liberated women,” Edna said. “They have never gone back to the drudgery of the type of work that was traditionally available to them.”
For Joy Milk and Edna Fox, both members of Warburton RSL, Anzac Day is a day to remember loved ones lost and to think back on a time which changed their lives and the lives of thousands of other Australian women.