RABAUL HORROR

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1937, Page 8

RABAUL HORROR

Story of Eruption SYDNEY, July 4. Mrs. Isabel Wallace, wife of a Rabaul warrant-officer, addressed to her parents, Mr and Mrs H. Phillips, Sydney, the following account of the Rabaul eruption. Her letter, written while a refugee at Kokopo on May 31, stated:— “All I have is what I stand up in, I’ve been in this dress and all my clot lies since I got up at 5.30 a.m. Saturday morning. I was in Rabaul on the day of the breaking out of the volcano. It was the first day 1 had gone into Rabaul since we arrivea. “For two days we had had one gurrier (earth tremor) on top of another. Everything would jump and shake and rattle. It was a peculiar sensation. “Bonzo would bark and go frantic and run out in the yard. I was not a bit scared as I thought to myself, ‘Well, they are just like any other gurriers we have had, and it’s about 50 years since the volcano was active. It won’t blow up n0w.’.... “They say in 36 hours we had between 200 and 300 ’quakes. When I got to Rabaul things were the same in there, everything on the jump and quiver and some women scared stiff... “I was at a loose, end, and decided to go up to Jackson’s and have some dinner. While there, Mrs. came over with her baby, two years old, and she was terrified. Her little girl was also scared. I kept Vonnie from being scared when everything rocked by showing her a toy' and laughing, and saying things to take her mind off. At first her eyes would open wide, and she would run to me. But still we thought there was no danger. . . . “I set off with the push-cart and Tarana (the house-boy) to walk to Quong -Chong’s. I got a little way' down the road and dozens of cars were flying up Namanula mountain. A car-load went partly past me and yelled out to me. . . “Mrs. Jackson said, ‘You must get in here somewhere and come .with us,’ I said, ‘l’ve got to get groceries and get a car to take me home.’ She said, ‘Don’t be mad, get in quick! No car will go out of Rabaul, and you will never pass by on the road. Your road is near the volcano and the road is gone.’ “So in we got. I had to discard, the pushcart, of course. As soon as we got up on the mountain, the whole place was getting smothered in smoke and soot. We all made for the hospital then. The volcano was belching volumes and lightning split the sky in two, terrible lightning, and the volcano was rumbling like thunder, and there was the real thunder I 00. “Car after ear landed at the hospital with people and then rushed back for more. There was a big crowd up (here. We were all on the verandahs when someone yelled, ‘Cover the babies’ mouths and noses and run for the rooms.’ “I grabbed Yvonne, put my hand over her nose and mouth, and ran. A huge cloud passed over the wnole of Rabaul—a cloud as black as night, obscuring everything. It was black smoke and dust and lava. It was the only time I felt really' terribly scared. We all crowded in the rooms, and the-lava and smoke just beat, us in. “We nearly choked. They slammed both doors and then we nearly' died of heat. Baby was spluttering and coughing, and I called for water There was a bottle of water, rortunately, beside a patient’s bed in the room. I gave her a drink and they gave me a towel to wipe her face and the dirt from her eyes. “I dropped some water on the towel and covered her face. I was the last out, and the darkness and thickness of the air was terrible. “Eaby was coughing. I was shaking like a leaf. All the water was cut off. That blackness and the dirt were the worst—and the fumes! “After the first gusts were over they’ opened the door, and we filed out on to the verandah, and, oh! to get out in the air, even if it wasn’t as fresh as it used to be!

“'Then they put the women with babies in another room that was more air-tight, in case we got more clouds of stuff blown up the mountain. After a time they passed round a couple of tins of sao biscuits for the i.’;ildren; no water. “Everyone was going round inquiring if anyone had seen someone ot other of their family—it was very pathetic. But right through there was not a scrap of panic, even at the worst moments. Everyone was marvellous. “At various times a biscuit was given to us and once a half-slice of bread, and half a small tomato. Everything I got I gave to the baby. I did not eat more than a biscuit for 29 hours.

“The matron put Yvonne and Mrs. Jackson’s baby into a small cupboard room. It just took the two cots and it opened into an ordinary sized room. Where the two babies were was called the black room. It was painted black inside and when the door was closed not a scrap of air could penetrate. They said if the worst came to the worst they could shut the door and give the babies oxygen. “I sat on a chair in the doorway l all night long and kept guard in case we were overwhelmed suddenly, and I could rush into babe. I never had a wink of sleep. . . . “At day-break we were all out to see the sky and the rolling up of the enormous banks of smoke and dirt. Everything, even the verandahs, mats, inside and every conceivable thing was smothered in inches of grey lava, trees down and. everything desolate looking. “About 6 a.m. about 12 or IS of us attended a thanksgiving service and communion on one end of the verandah. Nearly everyone was sobbing I never had a tear. I seemed dried up.

Judge Phillips afterwards gave a speech and said everyone had to leave Rabaul for Kokopo. 1 was asking dozens of people if they had had any news of how things were at the aerodrome as I was anxious to know how Vic—(her husband)—had fared, and 1 knew he would be anxious about us. Several told me a cloud had burst over the camp and everything washed 'away, so, of course, I was under the impression I had lost everything, and wondered what had happened to Vic. They also told me all the road was washed away. “About 7 a.m. we set off in cars for Nordup, about three miles from Namanuka Hospital. Talk about refugees! Hundreds and hundreds of us all sitting about on the ground and grass,- white people, Malays, Chinese and natives.

“We could see the volcano plainly. We waited hours for the boat and at last saw a large one, the Golden