Australian woman’s war effort during WWII

Kathleen Cameron
When WWII broke out, Bramblewood Retirement Village resident Kathleen Cameron was just a teenager working in a fashion store in Adelaide.
“I told my mother that I was old enough to enlist,” Kathleen says.
Unsurprising, Kathleen’s mother initially said ‘no’, so Kathleen knitted khaki scarves and woollen socks for the soldiers and baked fruitcakes that were sent overseas by the Red Cross.
“Mum said I was too young to go to war, let alone be in the company of soldiers,” she says.
Still determined to help out, Kathleen thought she would try her hand at working with machinery.
Kathleen soon found herself working with heavy machinery in a munitions’ factory in her hometown of Clare and it wasn’t long before she was promoted to timekeeper.
The munitions’ factory produced 25-pound artillery shells for use by the Australian soldiers in New Guinea.

Archived photo of South Australian Women Working in Munitions Factory during World War II
“The Aussie soldier boys came in huge army trucks and loaded the 25-pound shells with safety caps attached. The detonators were assembled in Darwin before shipment to New Guinea.”
Kathleen enjoyed working as a timekeeper and as luck would have it she met her future husband who was the foreman in charge.
“I knew he was the one! We had a lovely engagement party and married at the end of the war,” Kathleen says.
“I always say that life is as interesting as you make it. More importantly, I was a member of the National Emergency Service keeping night watch while the home guard grabbed a few hours sleep.
“We did what we had to do during the war and everyone was very happy when it came to an end.”