Tooraweenah's tales from the front

Some were itinerant workers living there at the time of their enlistment, others were men who settled in the district after one of the wars - in some cases on soldier settler blocks resumed from local stations.

But those who returned to take up residence around Tooraweenah made up a solid force of war veterans which sustained a vibrant RSL sub-branch until recent years.

As elsewhere, the ranks of Second World War veterans at Tooraweenah have thinned in the past 20 years, but two survivors still attend the annual Anzac Day service.

"Sonny" Sandford, who came originally from Hungerford, enlisted in 1944 and saw service in New Guinea with the 6th Division, before returning home and taking up "Myall", Tooraweenah.

Marching with "Sonny" on Anzac Day will be Bill Jenkin, originally from Victoria, who served with the RAAF as an aircraft mechanic, including a stint in postwar Japan. He later settled on "Ridgelands", Tooraweenah, before retiring to Gilgandra.

Other Second World War veterans now departed who made Tooraweenah their home are represented on Anzac Day by their descendants, some of whom retain vivid records of their forebears' experiences.

Barry Chandler still has the logbook kept by his father, Harry, as a navigator/bomb aimer with the RAAF, first in the Mediterranean theatre and later, with Bomber Command, on bombing missions across Germany.

In the latter capacity he was posted to 467 Squadron based at Bottesford in northern England where he became part of the seven-man crew of Lancaster LM376, whose pilot happened also to be Australian.

As his son tells the story, the pilot, Frank Morris, asked his new navigator where he hailed from, to which Harry responded, "Somewhere I'm sure you won't have heard of, a little place called Gulargambone."

Against all the odds, the pilot responded he knew it well, as he himself came from Balladoran - just across the paddock, in relative terms. Thus a wartime partnership and a lifelong friendship was forged.

The odds continued in the pair's favour, as they flew - and miraculously survived - 20 missions throughout Germany together (with five other crew, all of whom were English) in LM376, including 10 over Berlin itself.

But it was over Dusseldorf one night in December 1943 Harry's logbook records their most anxious moment when their Lancaster was "coned" in enemy searchlights (making it a sitting target for anti-aircraft fire) for an agonising 10 minutes before Frank found a way out.

After the war, with a Distinguished Flying Cross to his name, Harry took up a property at Tooraweenah he named "Aberdeen", where his son Barry still farms today.

Another to survive the war as an RAAF navigator/bomb aimer was Henry Webb, who was managing a station in western Queensland before he enlisted in 1942.

Joining the RAAF, he was posted after training to 86 Squadron in Coastal Command, flying from bases in Scotland on Liberator and Flying Fortress bombers, to hunt and attack enemy U-boats.

Back in Australia after the war, he was heading back to Qld with his wife Jean when he stopped in Gilgandra, where an agent suggested he take a look at a Tooraweenah property, "Dooroombah".

One inspection was enough, and "Dooroombah" became the Webbs' new home in 1946, remaining in the family until its sale last year.

A son, Malcolm, continues to farm in the district on "Miagunyah".

Other Tooraweenah veterans fared less well in the war.

Stuart Robertson was working as overseer on "Quantambone", Brewarrina, in 1940 when he enlisted and was despatched to Malaya with the 2/30th Battalion.

His was the first Australian unit to face the onslaught of the invading Japanese as they swept down the peninsular, winding up in Singapore where he was captured and sent to work on the infamous Burma Railway.

Mentioned in despatches for his bravery and his inspiration to his fellow prisoners, Robertson returned to Brewarrina after his release in 1945 and managed "Yarrawin", the Merino stud property of his father-in-law, J.H. Dickson.

In 1956 he bought his own property, "Tara", at Tooraweenah, still held by his son Doug - one of several local farmers and townspeople who make up the committee that now organises the Anzac Day service.

Ross Alison, the current committee chairman, who settled in the Tooraweenah district 20 years ago, owes his very existence to one of those chance wartime encounters that are the stuff of legend.

In early 1944 his father-to-be, Major John Alison, was lying in a field hospital in New Guinea (where he had fought with the 7th Division at Shaggy Ridge), stricken with malaria.

As Ross tells the story, a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse named Mary Chandler was working in the field hospital and tending to Alison, when the doctor in charge ordered her to "leave that soldier - he'll die".

Instead, the nurse decided to ignore the injunction and continue caring for the soldier, who in due course not only recovered, but became her husband - one of many such matches made in war.

Veterans of the First World War from Tooraweenah - as elsewhere - have long since departed the scene, but one in particular is remembered and honoured each year at the Anzac Day service as a local hero.

Clive Armytage was working with his father in a Sydney wholesaling firm when war broke out in 1914.

Too young for Gallipoli, he enlisted in time to be part of the Anzac force thrown at huge cost against the German defences at Pozieres on the Western Front in 1916.

There he received a shrapnel wound and was evacuated back to Britain where he convalesced for five weeks before returning to the front, by this time as a lieutenant (promotion was rapid on the Western Front).

Back in the trenches, he led his platoon in the storming of a German machine-gun post at Lagincourt on the Somme in March 1917 - an action for which he was awarded a Military Cross - only to have his left arm shattered by a burst of machine-gun fire at Bullecourt the next month.

His arm was amputated at the field clearing station, where it was assumed he would die, but he was made of sterner stuff and after the war drew a 1500-acre block he called "Kirriwa" in a land ballot at Tooraweenah.

The farm was taken over in due course by his son Tony, who now lives in retirement in Gilgandra, but returns to Tooraweenah each year to take part in the Anzac Day ceremony.