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4th NZ general hospital Detachment

In July 1943, when the main draft arrived for the 4th NZ General Hospital detachment, the hospital was situated in Boguen River valley some 11 miles from Bourail. The hospital was tented and the WAAC's and Sisters' lines were set in niaouli trees a little distance from the main hospital wards and adminis tration block. They had their own recreation hut and mess and their own swimming pool in the river. There were showers for their use (three only to start with) and an ablution block with benches and basins for laundry work, but most of the girls preferred the river; the water supply there was unending and it was not necessary to carry buckets which had an annoying habit of toppling over and spilling their precious contents the moment they were set down.

When the WAACs first arrived their quarters were bare—tents with gravelled floors—but when, after three months, the first half of the detachment left for the new site at Dumbea those bare tents were home indeed. Kerosene-box furniture had coped with the problem of space for clothes, while gaily coloured curtains and covers for these dressers, with the quickly flowering gardens the girls had cultivated, combined to make the WAAC lines a pleasant place. The crowding, which tent shortage in the early days had made necessary, had been overcome and alto gether they were as comfortable as circumstances and their own ingenuity could make them. Early in October the detachment was split up, half remaining at Boguen Valley to carry on the hospital there, and the other half proceeding some 100 miles down the island to Dumbea Valley, where the new hospital was being built. It was by no means finished at this date, but some wards were open and living accommodation, in the form of tropical huts, was available. After the pleasant greenery and comparative freedom of Boguen, the prefabricated huts set in a red clay hillside seemed bare indeed, the beauty of the view alone making up for the loss of peace and privacy.

Here, joined two months later by the balance of the detach ment, they remained for the next ten months. Gradually, the same transformation which had taken place at Boguen was re-page 144peated, but this time the girls had more scope and much assistance from patients and friends with a turn for carpentry. In due course their own mess and recreation huts were built and life became as pleasant as could reasonably be expected. The recreations and amusements available to the WAACs were largely of their own making—sing-songs, dances, debates, picnics, swimming and sunbathing. Debating, in particular, was very popular and the hospital team had the distinction of never having been beaten.

Early in January, the normally peaceful life of the camp was disturbed by a storm which struck New Caledonia without warning. Mess huts, cookhouses and tents were flattened and although, comparatively, the hospital did not suffer badly, it was complete evacuation as far as some units in the vicinity were concerned. Rain pelted down continuously, huts leaked, doors blew off their hinges, and rivers were formed round huts, some of which were in danger of losing their foundations. Dress that day was strictly informal—anything went, from bathing costumes to battledress—and indeed the girls were hard put to it to find any dry clothes at all. Towards the end of the afternoon a lull descended on the island and the storm calmed as suddenly as it commenced. Within 48 hours little evidence remained to remind them of their experience.

In time improvements were achieved in all branches of work. They are too many to mention in detail, but a few are typical of all. In the beginning at Boguen the laundry consisted of three coppers, three tables, three tubs and the river. Later two tents were erected, one for the wash-house and one for the ironing room. Three petrol-driven washing machines were used and petrol irons. With this equipment, the laundry staff handled over 400 garments a week. Dumbea brought the promise of steam—a dream that never came true. The washing machines, now numbering five, ran from 7.30 am to midday daily, after which there was the ironing to be done—no joke in that heat. Here the total work done increased, until 4,000 articles passed through the laundry weekly—a grand effort. In the hospital, too, the nursing orderlies worked under difficult conditions. At Boguen all water had to be carried, sterilising was done in half kerosene tins over primus stoves and the service blocks at the back of the wards consisted of a thatched roof shelter housing tubs made from oil drums cut in half. Steam sterilization was available throughout page break

When the first. WAACs arrived in New Caledonia they lived under canvas, as in the picture below, and endured some of the torments of the mosquito menace. Later they were housed in huts, as above

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A guard of honour presents arms on the arrival in Bourail of Major-General Rush B. Lincoln, the American island commander

The control post at Moindu Pass, where men of the Provost Corps endured the continuous attack of mosquitoes night and day

page 145the hospital when it was completed at Dumbea and water running from a tap was never the commonplace that civilisation's amenities would make it.

In all, five weddings took place at the hospital among WAAC personnel—the only detachment where Cupid came to any finality in his dealings—and the following were married with all the pomp and ceremony active service would permit: —

• Private G. M. Rolleston (WAAC) to Second-Lieutenant J. Keeling (LAD).
• Private Betty Findlay (WAAC) to Staff-Sergeant M. Iggulden (ATD).
• Private C. E. Yandle (WAAC) to Private J. K. Winter (BTD).
• Private J. C. Butson (WAAC) to Lieutenant R. W. W. Green (4th MT Coy).
• Private N. M. Gray (WAAC) to Private R. Clarke (BRD).