I WAS very fortunate to meet both Judith and Moya Bramble when they travelled to Salamander Bay to discover the place where their great, great grandfather built his cottage near Sandy Point (Corlette) in 1845.

His name was William Bramble.

The girls recalled, as children, their parents Marjorie and Mark Bramble keeping the light on Point Stephens during the mid-1940s – the war years.

Their father was the assistant light-house keeper to Mr Alexander.

“I remember the huge stone laundry steps,” Judith said.

“To a little girl they were giant steps and I probably had to sit on each one to get up and down.

“A baby brother arrived while we lived there and I remember mum telling the hair-raising story of riding back from Nelson Bay, across the Spit on horseback.

“One horse with dad, mum, baby Phillip and me, and the tide lapping the horse’s belly.

“I remember after crossing the Spit one time travelling back up to the house in a horse and sulky, crouching down on the sulky board because of the huge spider webs across the track with big spiders sitting in the middle.

“I know I was very frightened.”

Judith also shared her memories of local life as World War Two raged elsewhere around the globe.

“These were the war years,” she said.

“There were lots of soldiers and I remember the army ducks coming ashore on a flat stony beach filled with trucks and men.

“They treated me like a little princess.

“I must have been very spoilt.

“There was a huge tent or hall where functions were held sometimes and the soldiers sat side by side around the perimeter.

“I remember crawling from one knee to another to take things from their shirt pockets.

“Perhaps it was where they kept sweets for a small child.

“I remember being lowered down to a boat in a big basket over what seemed to be a big cliff.

“I have only one memory of this, I think we were leaving the island by boat.”

It was during the war years that the Brambles, Mark and Marj, grew friendly with a soldier, radio operator Bob Cooper, who had been posted to the Outer Light to service the unit.

Well after the war Bob wrote of his experiences, which were published in 1993.

In his memoirs Bob recalls working in the radar unit which was for ship location at night.

The unit worked through the nights till dawn, “stand down”, when the horizon was visible.

Bob described those on the island as a mixed bunch including First World War soldiers who did guard patrols and young Stan Downes and Wally Martin who were barely nineteen years of age.

Bob became good friends with head light keeper Jack Alexander and his assistant Mark Bramble and their wives Molly and Marj.

The lighthouse couples invited Bob and others in to play cards and the supper cooked by Molly was real home cooking rarely experienced by the soldiers.

The friends were all keen gardeners at the time and spent hours wandering through the orchards.

The war seemed so far away

In between shifts Bob remembered well living in tents and sleeping on the ground with ground sheets and pulley assisted bucket showers.

There was to be no indication of a Military unit’s presence there.

The Radar unit was in a weekender house built on the island with a power unit in the garage.

The war was moving north and so the unit moved in that direction.

“We moved out,” recalled Bob, with memories never to forget.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE