Stepping Back in Time: Tamworth from the past 1939-1946

The Regent Theatre, opposite the Tamworth Olympic Pool, was opened during January, with a connected Cafe at 1 Brisbane St : // The Tamworth Agricultural College got underway with the appointment of Clarence James as Foundation Principal, soon to be followed by the formation of an Advisory Council and a Ladies Auxiliary.

The Official Opening took place on July 1 (SEE PHOTO), when the name Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School was announced, with the School Motto 'Courage in Adversity' : // St Marys Church was established at the corner of North, Bligh & Carthage St : // Significant land sales took place on February 24 from the Keith Gill Estate, comprising 29 town allotments, as well as 8 farms totalling 790 hectares, located on the side of the railway and extending to the present highway : // On March 25 Tamworth Telephone Exchange commenced the changeover from manual to automatic for the 1187 telephones on 880 lines connected to the new Exchange building between the Post Office and the Lands Office in Fitzroy St : // A Second World War Recruiting Depot was opened on September 22 in the former Town Hall building in Darling St, closing on November 17. The recruitment opening led to a number of Peel Valley residents going on to serve in various capacities during the War.

A local branch of the Volunteer Defence Force was formed early in the year, administered from the Police Boys Club building in Darling St, with supplies issued from the Peel Barracks directly across the road. It continued to provide services through to the end of the War : // A Tamworth Branch of the Australian Inland Mission Women's Fellowship was formed by Florence "Granny" Munro, providing assistance to local indigenous residents. 'Granny Munro Park' in Coledale is now named in her honour : // The 'New England Network' was formed, comprising Radio Stations 2MO Gunnedah & 2TM Tamworth : // Probably the first 6 hit by a cricketer from No.1 Oval into the adjacent Tamworth Olympic Pool was achieved by Walcha cricketer Usback on March 17, winning a 5 pound prize (I'm still trying !) : // Tamworth-born Flying Officer Ellis Ross was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross after war activity in Denmark, one of only 2 Australians to receive this award. He died later that year on August 12 on an operational flight : // During June Tamworth Showground was converted into a soldier training camp, catering for 1000 soldiers : // During July a Woolomol Army Training Camp was set up alongside Manilla Road headquarters of the 6th Infantry Training Brigade. It incorporated 136 soldiers' huts and 42 officers' huts as well as other operational facilities. Many who trained at the Camp served with the 8th Division in Malaya : // Following in his father Francis footsteps, William Adolphus Chaffey became a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly, continuing a call for a dam on the Peel River upstream of Tamworth : // An RAAF Elementary Flying Training School was formed on August 22, initially with 8 officers and 73 potential male pilots. The 127 hectares of land used for training incorporated sections of Council land, Jockey Club land and private land. Council secured titles to the latter 2 sites. A satellite aerodrome was also established in the Loomberah area. Aircraft included Avro Trainers, Wackett Trainers, Tiger Moths, Boomerangs, Oxfords, Wirraways and Avro Ansons : // A Tamworth Branch of the Voluntary Aid Attachment was established in September, based at the Peel Barracks in Darling St, providing a wide range of general local assistance for the War Effort : // The first fatality occurred within the Elementary Flying Training School, following the crash of a Tiger Moth on October 9, this being student pilot Leading Aircraftsman W.M.Aspinall who had been flying solo : // c 1940 - A Tamworth Squadron of the Womens Australian Air Training Corps was established, with an average of 50 women enrolling during the War. Squadron headquarters were on the northern corner of Brisbane St & Kable Avenue.

Oxley Park was notified as a bird and animal sanctuary on April 24 : // Muriel Finn of Tamworth Ladies' Amateur Cycle Club won the NSW Open Championship for Women : // The first Tamworth Farmers Co-operative was registered on September 16 after 2 previous meetings of interested farmers : // A Detention Camp to house local Army Camp 'transgressors' was established within a Commonwealth land resumption of 3.6 hectares, at what is now the Belmore St end of the Scullly Park Regional Sports Precinct.

The Australian Navy ship H.M.A.S. 'Tamworth' was launched on March 14, measuring 56.7m in length, with an 8.5m beam and a draught of 2.5m. It went on to serve throughout the War, with a crew of 60 and carrying various guns : // The Central Flying School replaced the Elementary Flying Training School in Tamworth on April 18, enabling Australia-wide RAAF men then to come to Tamworth to be trained as instructors. Initially it comprised between 30 and 40 instructors and around 200 students : // Significant additions were made to the Tamworth Base Hospital, providing improved Childrens & Obstetric Wards, as well as assisting with hospitalisations from the Manilla Road Army Camp : // The Tamworth War Cemetery on Forest Road was dedicated in October, with 27 men and 1 woman buried there from November 5, 1942 to April 13, 1946. Nineteen of the deaths were at the Manilla Road Army Camp, with the other 8 coming from Air Force accidents : // c 1942 - St James Anglican Church was opened in Upper St near the North/Cohen/O'Connell St intersection, the second Anglican Church in Tamworth, following St Pauls.

The 1879 Tamworth Gaol off Johnston St was closed on March 25, with 30 inmates transferred to East Maitland Gaol. The Tamworth Gaol had accommodated up to 45 prisoners since its opening. The Army soon took over the Gaol as an additional Detention Centre for the remainder of the War : // A significant destructive fire occurred on April 6 when the West Tamworth Milling Company structure on the Barnes/Belmore St corner was burned down, later rebuilt on the site : // From July 1 the Tamworth Ambulance District was altered after Quirindi became a separate district, the Tamworth service now covering an area of 11 000 square kilometres : // A Lancaster Bomber visited on October 25 to raise money for the War Effort.

The RAAF Central Flying School was transferred from Tamworth to Parkes on January 18, after 210 airmen had been trained locally by it and the Elementary Flying School for potential War service : // After the earlier formation of the Attunga Police Boys Club (1934) and Tamworth Police Boys Club (1936), these and other clubs within the State became officially known as the Police & Citizens 'Boys' Club : // On August 5 we saw the virtual beginning of the suburb of South Tamworth, when Major Eric Hyman subdivided and sold some of the land he had purchased from neighbour William Missen, bounded by today's Kathleen & Churchill St, and extending from Vera to Wilburtree St, the area covering around 32 hectares.

The infamous Sandakan Death March commenced on January 28, under enemy Japanese control, with a second group of prisoners underway on March 29, attempting to follow a cruel arduous route to Ranau in North-West Borneo. Of the 1002 prisoners involved, only 6 survived. The 6 men from the Tamworth District that died en route were Corporal N.N.Brown (29), Private H.C.Standring (25), Corporal T.L.Butler (29), Private T.H.Lane (40), Signaller P.J.Doyle (25) & Private S.Roberts (28). A Sandakan Memorial was established in ANZAC Park in 1994 : // The Tamworth Arts Council (C.E.M.A.) got underway on April 26, its aim being to bring quality performers to Tamworth in drama, ballet, opera, musical comedy, puppetry, instrumental & singing : // The Army relinquished their use of the Tamworth Showground back to the P & A Show Society : // The Second World War officially ended on August 15, with considerable celebration in Tamworth (SEE PHOTO) : // c 1945 - Tamworth Services Club began with early meetings held upstairs in T.J.Treloar's 'Brisbane House', providing darts and billiards competitions and providing a liquor licence.

The Army Detention Barracks at the corner of Johnston & Dean St were closed early in the year : // The Tamworth P & A Society held its post-war 'Grand Victory Show' on March 9, the first to be held after the Showground's 6 year occupation by the Army. An estimated 15 000 people attended : // Tamworth District experienced a severe drought with only 46 mm of rain falling from May to August, and only 404mm for the entire year. Rabbits reached plague proportions and there was a very poor wheat crop : // On July 18 Tamworth was officially designated as a 'City', with a population of 15 865, the 8th largest city in NSW after Sydney, Newcastle, Broken Hill, Maitland, Wollongong, Lithgow & Goulburn. More than half of the Council's revenue at that time came from the generation of electricity : // The 'Moonbria House' Girls' Hostel opened on November 9 at 87 Carthage St, originally with 30 boarders : // c 1946 - Several streets in the South Tamworth area that had been within the William Missen 'Fairview' Estate were named after Missen's extended family members - Florence, Vera, Margaret, Hilda, Olive, Kathleen & Lydia.

Mike Cashman - Tamworth Historical Society