Veteran Story: Ossie Dick (1897-1968) was residing with his sister Eliza Malone on Barambah Aboriginal Mission (Cherbourg) in 1917. Ossie was among 17 Aboriginal men who were recruited during an 'extraordinary' drive by the Queensland Recruiting Committee on 14 May 1917, known as "Empty Saddles". The committee, represented by Reverend David Garland and the Chief Protector of Aborigines, John William Bleakley signed their attestation papers and arranged for them to travel to the training base at Enoggera. On 25 May 1917 these recruits were paraded during a rally in Queen Street, Brisbane where they were encouraged to mount riderless horses as a show of their committment. They were discharged 30 days later on 13 June 1917, for “having been irregularly enlisted” and returned to the mission under escort, with out any receipt of payment or discharge documents. In 1918 Ossie married Raby Gundy at Barambah. They were removed in 1920 and placed at Taroom Aboriginal Mission; then Woorabinda Mission. They had two children Douglas (1924) and Maizie (1926). In the 1930s they were moved to Fantome Island, a treatment facility for leprosy suffers in the Palm Island group, where Raby died in 1932. Ossie Dick died in February 1968.
