ISSUE 24 : Sep/Oct - 1980 - Australian Defence Force Journal

34 DEFENCE FORCE JOURNAL No. 24, SEPT./OCT. 80military training in the Kimberleys in April1942 but who were never recruited or formallyraised as a unit. 25Yet another area in which the Armyestablished a relationship with Aborigines, wasthat of civilian employment. From early as 1933Aborigines had been employed by the Army ina civilian capacity, 26 and although theAboriginal civilians were employed throughoutAustralia, the Northern Territory fromDecember 1941 onwards saw the highest levelof Aboriginal employment achieved, and themost significant contribution to the war effortmade by Aboriginal civilians.After the entry of Japan into the war on 7-8December 1941 the size of the defence force atDarwin grew rapidly. By late 1942 the combinedstrength of the Army, Navy, Air Force andCivil Construction Corps throughout theNothern Territory had reached over 100,000. 27Most of this force was stationed near Darwin,though some units were stationed atvarious centres along the length of the StuartHighway. By 1943, Army strength alone betweenDarwin and Mataranka was estimated at50,000. 2 *Most of the white civilian populationhowever, had been evacuated after the firstJapanese raid and would have numbered nomore than about 1,000 29 in the Darwin-Mataranka area by early 1942.As for the Aboriginal population, on 30 Junethat year the total Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal population for the Northern Territoryhas been 14,488.-'° Though some part-Aboriginal children were evacuated, most ofthe Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal populationremained in the Northern Territory.The huge influx of white servicemen meantthat thousands of men from the cities of southeastAustralia came into contact withAborigines for the first time. They broughtwith them a new attitude to Aborigines whichwas a mixture of the more liberal ifdisinterested approach to Aborigines commonat that time in south-east Australia, a generalAn Aboriginal orderly of 121 Australian General Hospital, bandaging the arm of a man wounded during an air raidon Katherine, 24 November 1942.