Our Indigenous Heroes - They Also Served
The Team at Snowy Valleys Heroes Inc (Our Indigenous Heroes-They Also Served) National Project, wish to thank Diane Ashmore for her dedication to keeping the memories alive for all Indigenous Veterans. We appreciate that we have been able to share these with our website visitors.
FAMILY LIFE
Murray (Mick) Watego was born in 1895 in the Canterbury district, son of Loyalty Island father, George & English mother, Mary. He had 4 sisters & 3 brothers, one of whom, George, also enlisted on the same day, but assigned to a different battalion. Home for the Watego family was Cudgen “Bundjalung” Country. Throughout the decades many inter-tribal marriages took place and now the Watego family extend the length and breadth of Australia, particularly along the mid to north, east coast of Australia.
When war broke out in Europe, Mick, along with his brother George and Peter Knowles (Murray’s brother-in-law), enlisted in Brisbane, on April 26th, 1916. Although very proud ‘Torres Strait Islander/ South Sea Islander’ descendants, to join the AIF like so many other Indigenous Australians, the brothers lied about their indigenous background. This no doubt was due to the racial discrimination that denied non-Europeans the right to enlist at the time.
ATTESTATION
He was married farmer, a father to 2 children, eager to do his bit. His application which showed his next of kin as his wife, Mary Jane, of Cudgen.
The Examining Medical Officer stated that Murray “can see the required distance with either eye; his heart and lungs are healthy; he has the free use of his joints; and he declares he is not subject to fits of any description. I consider him fit for active service.” On the second page of the Attestation Paper, he made the following oath in the presence of the Attesting Officer: “I, Murray Watego, swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Force until the end of the War … SO HELP ME, GOD.”
His medical showed he was 21 years 4 months old, 5ft 3 ½ inches tall (1.61m), weighed 110 lbs (51kgs), with a dark complexion, light brown eyes & black hair. His eyesight was good
He was Methodist and had a tattoo on his right arm. He was enlisted as a private into the 41st Infantry Battalion –1st-6th Reinforcements with service No 2173.
TRAINING AT RIFLE RANGE CAMP, ENOGGERA
As was the case with men from the Northern Rivers district in New South Wales, they trained at Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera near Brisbane. The Barracks Block was built as accommodation for men in two dormitories, each 36 feet by 22 feet (10.97 x 6.7 metres). Beds or bunks were not provided, instead each man slept on a palliasse with ground sheet on the floor. For many it was their first time away from home. Men from every walk of life, from clerks and teachers to factory and shop workers, were crammed together.
Now training for the new recruits began.Firstly, the men received their vaccinations for smallpox, rabies & plague, then a recruit had to be inducted into military forms of discipline, command, and order. This was partially achieved through a program of basic training carried and, in a sense, was maintained for a long as a man was in the service. It involved marching and drilling with the rifle, cleaning and caring for personal equipment and being supervised and inspected in ways quite different to ordinary civilian life. For example, no boots should be allowed to get in a bad state of wear but must be sent to the bootmaker without delay for repair. Men who were found with hair long and unshaven had to have a haircut and shave.
Secondly, after basic training there followed the far more serious exercise of turning a man into a fighting soldier at least partially prepared for the kind of warfare he was about to experience overseas. The topics and exercises in the syllabus of training were a world away from their former lives and included daily physical training, entrenching, wiring, firing rifle grenades, firing the Lewis light machine gun, dealing with gas attack, using hand grenades, using the bayonet, and the routines to be followed in the trenches.
This training was then put into practice during what were called ‘Field Days,’ when men would practice using the skills they had acquired in mock attacks both by day and by night. How well men had learnt to use their weapons, in cooperation with each other in training, would be tested in the harsh reality of the front line. Training would take several months
The recruits were issued with their uniform: a khaki woollen jacket, heavy cord breeches and the famous slouch hat – turned up on the left and featuring a plain khaki band, chinstrap and “rising sun” badge. A soldier’s equipment also included a dixie (mess tin), water bottle, mug, .303 Lee-Enfield rifle and bayonet.
VOYAGE OVERSEAS
He & the other recruits embarked at Brisbane, Queensland aboard HMAT Clan MacGillivray on 7 September 1916. Alongside his comrades, he marched aboard, his boots ringing on the gangway. As the ship’s lines were cast off and the quay began to slip away, the reality of war lay ahead, but for now, the sea breeze carried only the sound of voices and the excitement of men bound for adventure, duty, and the unknown.
The epic voyage across the ocean has been described as “the longest journey to war in the history of the world.” They thought it was the start of a new adventure- for many it was their first time so far away from home. However, after some time at sea the biggest problem turned out to be boredom. On the voyage, due to overcrowding, training was limited to mainly to lectures and a little physical training.
Sleeping & Living Arrangements
Recruits likely slept in a crowded troop deck below, where rows of hammocks or three-tier wooden bunks were crammed close together. Air below decks could be stuffy, especially in warmer climates, and seasickness was common during the first few days.
Daily Routine
Reveille early each morning, followed by physical exercises on the open decks (weather permitting). There were parades and inspections—officers ensured uniforms, rifles, and kit were clean and in order. Training was a little problematic—drill without much space, rifle maintenance, lectures on military discipline, signalling, and trench warfare theory. The ship’s decks were used for marching in tight circles or practising bayonet thrusts into stuffed sacks. Rifle shooting was impossible at sea, so soldiers learned to strip and clean their weapons until it was second nature.
Meals
Three hearty meals a day were served; breakfast usually consisted of porridge, stew, and tea. Lunch included soup, meat, vegetables, and pudding. Meat, bread with jam and tea was served for dinner. The meals were served in shifts from the ship’s galley. Queues were long, and eating on a rolling ship meant many tried to eat quickly before nausea set in.
Health & Sanitation
Shipboard hygiene was critical, every man was ordered to scrub his section daily to prevent disease. Saltwater baths were the norm, with freshwater rationed for drinking.
The Voyage Experience
Entertainment included church drill, concerts, singalongs, card games, and makeshift cricket matches on deck when the weather allowed. In an attempt to keep up morale, an area of the ship was roped off where regular boxing and wrestling tournaments were held. This became commonly known as the Stoush Stadium. No letters could be sent until they reached port, but men often wrote diaries or unsent letters to be posted later.
The troops engaged in lifebelt drill; a cookhouse on deck; soldiers on fatigues peeling potatoes 'spud bashing'; going to the dentist; barber, pay day; soldiers cleaning personal equipment; medical inspection.
CROSSING THE EQUATOR CEREMONY
The crossing the Equator ceremony, ‘Neptune’s Journey,’ was played out on each troopship.
SIGHTS AT SEA
On the way to Egypt, the ship would pass through the Great Australian Bight, cross the Indian Ocean, and stop at Colombo (Ceylon now Sri Lanka) for coal and supplies.
SECURITY
By late 1914, German raiders were active, so lifeboat drills were frequent, and lookouts kept watch for suspicious ships. Troopships generally sailed in convoys or at least took zig-zag courses to make torpedo attacks harder. Ships often travelled under blackout conditions at night, with lookouts specifically watching for periscopes or torpedo wakes.
The danger was greatest in the Western Approaches near Britain, where U-boats patrolled choke points like the English Channel and Irish Sea.
APPROACHING EGYPT
After several weeks at sea, the men finally saw the dusty shoreline of Port Said or Alexandria. For most, it was their first sight of a foreign country, and the reality of leaving home truly sank in. The recruits could only watch while the ship was refuelled and loaded with supplies.
APPROACHING ENGLAND
On 2nd November the ship docked in England. The reality of leaving home truly sank in. The recruits would soon exchange the ship’s cramped decks for the training grounds of England, preparing for what lay ahead.
HURDCOTT TRAINING CAMP
When Australian soldiers arrived in England, they were initially sent to depot camps or staging areas, such as Perham Downs, Larkhill, or transit depots near the port. These were not full training camps but temporary holding locations where soldiers could be processed.
During this interim period, soldiers typically:
They were then sent to the formal training camps- for Mick it was Hurdcott. They had already completed their basic training in Australia but over many more tough months, in the English training camp, the volunteers left their old lives farther behind.
Training involved trench warfare techniques, bayonet drills, live fire exercises, gas mask use, and coordination with British units.
Their accommodation was tents or wooden huts, often cold, damp, and muddy especially in the British summer/autumn. The weather was very different from Australia-wet, overcast conditions were common, and many Australians found the climate miserable compared to home.
The parade grounds, rifle ranges, gas training areas, bayonet fighting pits, and mock trench systems were built to simulate battlefield conditions. The training included the use and maintenance of the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle, grenade throwing (often live grenades) & Lewis Gun handling and section tactics.
Regular drilling included building and occupying practice trenches, night operations and trench raids & rotations simulating life under shellfire and gas attack.
Gas Warfare Training was very important, and they were trained in the use of PH-type gas helmets and box respirators & drills in gas chambers using low concentrations of chlorine or phosgene to acclimate soldiers.
Close-combat techniques using bayonets, aggressive training with thrusts, parries, and charges were held.
Tactical training included understanding platoon and company movements & signals training (flags, lamps, runners).
The recruits’ daily life began early with reveille at dawn, PT, then drills. Route marches in full kit were common, often 10–15 miles across the chalky countryside. Evenings often included lectures or maintenance. Pay parades, church services, and mail from home offered some morale boosts however the cold, wet conditions were physically hard, and sickness was common (influenza, bronchitis, trench foot-like conditions).
Use of Mills bombs and defensive bombing techniques in dugouts or trench corners was carried & section-level manoeuvres with live ammunition, dangerous but essential for battlefield realism.
Training at Hurdcott was tough, realistic, and intense. It forged untested Australian recruits into soldiers ready for the horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front. While some men found it exhausting and bleak, it undoubtedly helped save lives once they reached the trenches of either Gallipoli or the Western Front. Training would normally last 3 months.
FRANCE FEBRUARY 1917
When Mick left England on 4 February 1917 bound for France, he would have been part of a draft of reinforcements moving across the Channel. The crossing itself, often through the port of Southampton to Le Havre, was usually cold, cramped and unnerving, with men packed into transports that moved under the constant threat of German submarines. From the French coast Mick and his comrades travelled inland by train in the old French “40 hommes, 8 chevaux” boxcars – forty men or eight horses to a wagon – an uncomfortable journey that dragged on for hours through the winter landscape.
ETAPLES TRAINING BASE
On arrival in France, Mick was not sent straight up to the 41st Battalion. Like all reinforcements, he first passed through the Australian Divisional Base Depot at Étaples. This sprawling camp on the northern coast was where newly arrived troops were sorted, issued with equipment, and given additional training in trench warfare. Étaples had a grim reputation among soldiers: the training was relentless, discipline was harsh, and the constant roar of artillery from the front was a reminder of what lay ahead. Mick would have drilled in attack and defence exercises, practised bombing with Mills grenades, refreshed his musketry, and endured long marches across the windswept sand dunes.
The wait could be frustrating, but it was necessary. Reinforcements were only sent forward when their battalion was ready to receive them.
TAKEN ON STRENGTH MARCH 1917
For Mick, that moment came in late March. On 23 March 1917, he was officially Taken on Strength of the 41st Battalion, joining his fellow recruits in the field. The battalion was then moving into the line as part of the British advance that followed the German Army’s withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. For Mick, the long weeks of waiting were finally over – his real war was about to begin.
WESTERN FRONT & TRENCH WARFARE
The soldiers now found themselves fighting the Germans in trench warfare. On the Western Front in 1914–1918, both sides constructed elaborate trench, underground, and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties. Trench warfare created a living environment for the men which was harsh, stagnant, and extremely dangerous. Not only were trenches constantly under threat of attack from shells or other weapons, but there were also many health risks that developed into large-scale problems for medical personnel. Apart from the inescapable cold during the winters in France & Belgium, trenches were often completely waterlogged and muddy, and crawling with lice and rats.
The time soldiers spent in the trenches varied depending on factors like their army's rotation system and the intensity of the conflict in their sector. On average:
The rotation system helped prevent complete physical and mental exhaustion, but the constant dangers of trench life meant there was rarely any true respite.
HINDENBURG LINE MARCH 1917
Mick found the unit in the thick of the great advance that followed the German Army’s sudden withdrawal to the formidable Hindenburg Line. The retreat, known to the Allies as the “strategic retirement,” left behind a landscape of deliberate destruction and villages burned, wells poisoned, roads cratered and fruit trees felled. For the men of the 41st, this meant long marches forward through a wasteland, working in support of the British and other Australian battalions probing the new German defences.
APRIL 1917
During April the battalion rotated between periods in the line and stints in support, enduring the bitter cold of the last winter months and the mud left by spring rains. Patrols went out across no-man’s-land to test the strength of the enemy’s new positions, often under heavy shellfire. The men also spent long hours digging and repairing trenches, carrying supplies forward, and preparing for the larger operations that were to come against the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. For reinforcements like Mick, these weeks were a testing ground and the time when they learned the routines of trench life, the hazards of gas alarms and bombardments, and the comradeship that bound the battalion together.
MAY 1917
By May, the 41st Battalion was still engaged in this grinding routine of advance, consolidation, and relief. The constant strain of poor food, inadequate rest and the ever-present danger of shelling took its toll on the men’s health as much as on their nerves. Mick endured this cycle with his mates, but like so many soldiers, his body eventually gave way under the relentless conditions.
HOSPITALISATION GASTRALGIA JUNE 1917
On 2 June 1917, Mick’s stomach pains became too severe to ignore, and he was admitted to the 10th Field Ambulance. Field Ambulances were the first organised stage of medical care behind the front, staffed by doctors and orderlies who dealt with everything from battle wounds to sickness. For a case of gastralgia, treatment would have been fairly basic but effective: rest, a restricted diet to calm the stomach, and medicines such as bicarbonate or chalk mixture to reduce the pain and acidity. Men were usually kept under observation for a few days to ensure the complaint was not masking something more serious.
When his condition improved slightly, Mick was moved on 5 June to a Divisional Rest Station. These small medical facilities were designed for men who needed more than a few days’ attention but did not warrant evacuation to the large base hospitals on the coast. At the Rest Station he would have had the chance for proper rest in clean surroundings, a steady diet of lighter meals, and freedom from the noise and filth of the trenches. It was often enough to restore a man’s strength and allow him to return to duty.
REJOINED UNIT JUNE 1917
For Mick, the treatment was successful. On 14 June 1917, he rejoined the 41st Battalion, fit once more to take his place alongside his mates. Though his ailment had not been caused by enemy fire, it was a stark reminder of how trench life itself can do that, the food, the stress, the damp, and the mud could be as punishing as battle.
FRONT LINES JUNE 1917
Although Mick returned to his battalion on 14 June 1917, his recovery proved only temporary. The weeks that followed were some of the hardest the Australians faced, with constant work in the line, long marches, and heavy bombardments testing even the strongest men.
HOSPITALISED JULY 1917
For Mick, the strain soon became too great. On 9 July 1917, he was admitted to the 32nd Stationary Hospital, his condition described simply as “debility” - the army’s term for extreme exhaustion of body and mind. Soldiers like Mick, ground down by sleepless nights, poor rations, relentless labouring parties, and the constant threat of shellfire, often reached a point where their bodies could no longer sustain them. Mick remained in hospital through the summer, still listed as a patient on 2 September 1917.
3RD REST CAMP OCTOBER 1917
When he was finally deemed fit enough to move, he was sent to the 3rd Rest Camp on 1 October, a facility designed to help convalescent men regain strength before returning to duty. But Mick’s recovery was incomplete.
HOSPITALISED DYSPNOEA OCTOBER 1917
EVACUATION TO ENGLAND
On 13 October 1917, he was admitted to 3rd Canadian General Hospital, now suffering from dyspnoea - severe shortness of breath -likely a combination of gas exposure and nervous exhaustion. The same day, he was evacuated across the Channel to England and admitted to the First Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge, where the diagnosis was confirmed as shell shock. The treatment there focused on recovery from the psychological strain of shell shock
For Mick, as for so many soldiers of the Great War, the months of unrelenting stress, danger, and physical strain in France had finally overwhelmed him. His body and mind, tested beyond endurance, required extended care far from the front.
CONVALESENCE HURDCOTT NOVEMBER 1917
By 14 November, he had been transferred to Hurdcott, where he continued his convalescence in a quieter environment, with the routines of rest, medical observation, and gentle rehabilitation designed to restore strength and stability.
WEYMOUTH DECEMBER 1917
On 9 December, Mick was moved again, this time to Weymouth, another hospital where long-term care for shell-shocked soldiers was provided. He spent the following weeks regaining both physical and mental resilience, preparing for the long journey home.
GOING HOME FEBRUARY 1918
Finally, after months of treatment and recovery, Mick embarked for Australia aboard the Balmoral Castle, leaving England on 18 February 1918. The voyage marked the end of his time overseas and the beginning of his return to civilian life, carrying with him the indelible marks of service and the long shadow of the Great War.
FOR HIS SERVICE
For his service Mick was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
HOME LIFE
After Mick came home, He & Mary had 4 more children. He passed away on 29 July 1953, aged 57–58, in Brisbane, Queensland. He is buried at Byron Bay Cemetery, New South Wales, in the Methodist Memorial section.
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