Ormand William Butler

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Pat Spence who writes:
Ormand Wiliam Butler was born in Townsville on 14th November 1901and given the name Ormand because his parents were told that this was a name with strong Irish connections for the Butler family.

Orme went to school at St Joseph's primary school in Fryer Street North Ward, and later to Our Lady's Mount with the Christian Brothers. Then he was sent to boarding school in Brisbane with his younger sister Iris. Ormand attended Nudgee College while Iris went to St Saviour's in Toowoomba. They had to travel to Brisbane by boat as the rail link to Townsville was not yet complete.

Orme loved the sea and sailing and had both 16 foot and 18 foot skiffs. He was for many years Commodore of the Townsville Flying Squadron. He actually helped build the ramp and new flooring in the sailing club hall at Sth Townsville. He wanted to follow in his father George's steps and go to sea but his mother insisted on his having an education and applying for a government position.

He joined the Public Service and in 1918 was appointed a clerk in the State Children's Dept. Later known as the Children's Services Department, and he remained with the department until retirement. He was initially in Brisbane but early in 1936 he was posted to Townsville and did not return to Brisbane until 1953 when he became Deputy Director of the department.

By 1953 when he received a posting to Brisbane he was the North Queensland Inspector for the State Children's Dept in Townsville and with his family lived in the official government residence at 42 Warburton Street North Ward between Landsborough St and Gilbert Crescent just in front of the State Children's Receiving Depot or Orphanage of those days.

Orme continued his interest in sailing with the Townsville Sailing Club a two storied timber structure on the southern banks of Ross Creek not far down stream from the Shamrock Hotel. He sailed both as crew and skipper in boats owned by Fred Satini, and Syd Ramage. Among the familiar names of some of the boats were Satinita, and Envy, with other noteworthy Townsville skippers Charlie Walsh in Miss Dignity, R Bolton in Mione, and Les Taylor in Noelene. Orme Butler held the 16ft Championship Title in North Queensland for seven years.

The war came and for a time seemed to us as children far removed in Europe. My mother put up large maps on the kitchen walls to follow the reports of the war. Soon by 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbour the walls were almost fully covered with maps of the Pacific and Asia as well. We learned history and geography as and where it happened.

Townsville was soon literally overflowing with American troops. The Strand was still a dirt road for much of its length and US vehicles made it busier than it is today. No locals had fuel coupons to drive anywhere and many cars were commandeered anyway. My father rode a push bike to his work.

In 1940 we had a major cyclone in Townsville and the metre wide concrete walkway along the top of the rock retaining wall along the beach was hurled into the air in pieces almost 2 or 3 metres long just like toy building blocks. I watched in awe from the verandah of Cleveland Villa the home of my grandparents George and Elizabeth Butler at number 5 The Strand. My brother was born in this cyclone which apparently unroofed part of the Mater hospital at West End also. Waves would have reached at least the height of the recent Asian tsunami. The house was located just opposite the drive leading to the Casino today and just south of the Burns Philp Iron Store which was across the street from the Criterion Hotel. My grandfather George took me for a walk outside his house through water several inches deep where water from Ross Creek had overflowed the creek banks.

The cyclone marked the end of access to the beach when vast rolls of barbed wire and barricades similar to those stake formations seen at Dunkirk locked the beach from the people. Even the stone walls of Ross Creek were given the barb wire treatment.

It was from his sailing friends who worked in the railways that Orme Butler learned in April of 1942 of a plan for the evacuation of Townsville. The Battle of the Coral Sea had just begun when his mates told him that there were 10 trains being held with steam up day and night to evacuate women and young children from Townsville. Then came the instruction to Air Raid Wardens in Townsville - and Orme Butler was one of these - to advise families with older children (who would not qualify for the train evacuation) to pack dry and non-perishable food sufficient for at least three days and to prepare to start walking south at what might be very short notice.

The next directive came to my father from the State Children's Department and instructed him to transfer staff and children with their bedding from the Orphanage by train to the Julia Creek State School where they were to be billeted.

This information caused my father to immediately call in a favour from his railway friends and put his own family, my mother, with my brother aged two, and myself, on a troop train travelling south from Townsville. I can still remember as a young child the men in uniform sleeping on the floors, in the corridors, and in the luggage racks on what was a quite amazing journey.

The only relatives we had outside north Queensland were an aunt and uncle of my mother's who lived at Tenandra on the Murrumbidgee east of Wagga. My uncle Col Mc Murchy was an engineer who ran a pumping station on the river which pumped essential water toYass for the troop trains travelling between Sydney and Melbourne. We stayed there - and later in Wagga - for at least a year until the immediate Japanese threat was over. Uncle Col a New Zealander was then asked to transfer his engineering skills to the maintenance of the flying boats in their harbour at Rose Bay in Sydney. On a visit back to Tenandra in 2004 I found the derelict obsolete pump station a victim of the railway switch to diesel.

An Australian Army Rest & Recreation Camp was developed on the block adjoining the Orphanage but to the south before the Landsborough St boundary. This block later, after the war, became the site of the crippled children's home.

My mother used to exchange her home grown vegetables (beans growing on the fences, pumpkins on the slope of the hill, and sweet potatoes watered with the overflow from the bathroom) for an occasional tin of jam with the army cooks from the cook house. My mother also grew pawpaws, lemons, oranges and custard apples which were useful for bartering. There was no jam available even with ration coupons - and little sugar to make any - so this was a real treat for our family. It should also be remembered that prior to the construction of the high level rail bridge on the Burdekin Townsville often did not receive fruit or vegetables from the south (especially potatoes) for weeks at a time in the wet season. Hence my mother's stocks of home grown sweet potatoes and many meals with rice as a substitute.

The army also built a tennis court on the Orphanage site and when they left after the war the children at what was officially designated the State Children's Receiving Depot had the use of the ant bed court for many years. Most of the rest of the R and R site was covered with tents but there were a couple of more substantial structures. My childhood memories were that the cookhouse for the camp seemed fairly solid. Then in 1942 the camp expanded.

Apparently dad and my mother had quite an argument with the 'powers that be' when they discovered that the plan for our house, the official residence, was to accommodate a VD clinic. Eventually the army 'capitulated' and our house became the nurses quarters instead. Perhaps the VD clinic went further up the hill to the Orphanage or the staff quarters - I never heard the outcome of that 'battle'.

The most interesting thing about the northern ridge of Castle Hill when we came back from Wagga about 1943 on the slopes behind the Orphanage and the Bishops House were the 'gun emplacements'. They certainly did not and indeed definitely could not defend Townsville! As children we explored the hill and its trenches and played on the 'guns' facing out to the bay - they were telegraph poles - neatly painted in true camouflage colours and with genuine camouflage netting draped over them for 'concealment'. Then southerners try to insist there was no "Brisbane Line" but Townsville residents knew better - Townsville defences were a bit of a joke.

By 1943 the Orphanage had an elaborate air raid shelter with seating for some twenty or thirty occupants. There were felt screens behind the door which we were informed were there to prevent gas entry. On our first night home from New South Wales just when I was complaining bitterly that we had missed all the fun of a real air-raid the sirens wailed, the searchlights scanned the sky and we headed for the shelter. What excitement!

For a short time my grandfather George Butler held the only Master Mariners Certificate for the Townsville area and although he had been born in 1874 he piloted ships like the Westralia through the mine fields on the Great Barrier Reef heading for New Guinea and the northern Islands. He had been involved with shipping most of his life. My dad Orme Butler as Commodore of the Townsville Sailing Club with his sailing mates also helped with shipping departures for the Pacific as they used to go out in several small boats prior to the departure of troop and supply ships under cover of darkness and mark the route through the mine fields with beacon lights. On one such trip two friends of my father did not return.

My Grandad George seemed to have considerable freedom living where he did in what was obviously a military precinct at the southern end of the Strand. He used to take me for walks down the street to the flying boat moorings and where on at least one occasion motor boats were unloading body bags. The entire area was barbed wired and inaccessible to most Townsville residents. Perhaps it was my grandfathers skill with boats that gained him respect and he was also a plane reconnaissance spotter. He took trouble to explain to me the significant silhouettes of enemy planes on his spotter's chart.

My dad always recounted the story of the accountant at the Foundry on Ross Creek who when the Americans arrived and demanded a take over of the foundry this gentleman refused to vacate his office - the name I seem to remember began with 'C' and I'm fairly sure it was the later to be Queensland politician Gordon Chalk. The Yanks apparently merely lifted him and his office chair and carried him out to the street.

On his marriage to Valmy Thompson in 6th February 1935, the Bride and Groom travelled to Sydney on their Honeymoon on the steamship 'Montoro' from Townsville.

Ormand married Valmy Mary Thompson on 6 Feb 1935 in St Josephs, Townsville, Queensland Australia. (Valmy Mary Thompson was born on 14 Jul 1908 in Charters Towers, Queensland Australia and died on 2 May 1998 in Bribie Island, Queensland Australia.)