The Hobart Legacy Newsletter, June 2021: Review by Reg Watson
MUTINEERS – a story of heroes and villains, Author: Robert Hadler, Wilkinson Publishing
Mutineers is Robert Hadler’s second book, his previous being Dark Secrets. He seems to have the ability to choose subjects that were controversial and have long been forgotten. With Mutineers he has again succeeded. Like his first, I could not put the book down. I passed the book to a colleague of mine, who said exactly the same. Robert also has the ability to have a writing style which appeals to the reader.
The story is the short lived mutiny aboard the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) flagship and battlecruiser, HMAS Australia which was the pride of the nation. The RAN was only six years old being established in 1911. Senior officers in charge were Squadron Commodore John Dumaresq and Captain Claude Cumberlege. The ring leaders of the mutiny were brothers Dal and Lenny Rudd, Bill McIntosh, Pitta Thompson and Ken Paterson. Dal was a decorated war hero.
The whole episode became a tussle between the Australian Government, led by Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the RAN and the Admiralty in London, as British Naval authority over the Australian Navy was still in existence.
The mutiny took place in Freemantle after it had arrived from the war zone serving for the duration and now returning home to allow the crew complete their service.
On the 31st May 1919 Captain Cumerledge gave the men shore leave, which was the day before HMAS Australia was to steam for Adelaide. This was a mistake. The men after a long, hard voyage enjoyed the delights of Perth, so much so when returning the next day many were suffering effects from the partying on shore. A number wanted the ship to remain another day docked in Perth, so the men could return to the city and thank its citizens for their warm welcome. The captain refused and as a result the ring leaders assembled between 80 and 100 stokers protesting and demanding the ship be delayed,
Cumberlege arrived on the quarter deck and found a large body of men assembled. The men would not respond to his pleas and he in turn did not respond to their demands The mass protest was summarily rejected. However the Rudd brothers and friends then went down to the boiler rooms and prevented any stoking of the engines, thus stopping the ship to continue.
Their efforts subsequently failed and in time the captain ordered half speed ahead. The captain had intentions to be lenient, but the problem was that Commodore Dumaresq was not, he being angry over “the act of indiscipline”.
The ringleaders were arrested and placed in the ship’s hold until they got to Sydney where the men were marched off to the Garden Island Detention Barracks. What followed was the court martial beginning 20th June 1919. By this time it had the attention of the media. The five men were found guilty with hefty sentences given and were transferred to Long Bay Penitentiary at Malabar, nine miles south of Botany Bay.
It eventuated to be a long drawn out tussle between the Hughes Government, the Opposition who led the way in protest over what was seen to be an unfair punishment, the media and the RAN. The opinion from many was the sentences were unjust and that as the war was now over, the men should be immediately released. On the other side, the RAN thought the sentences were fair. Hughes was under a lot of pressure. The Labor Party had made it an election issue so in his interest Hughes endeavoured to have them released. One problem existed for that to happen. Permission had to be granted from London. Commodore Dumaresq in an official comminication suggested the sentence was indeed fair, even stating that the maximum punishment for being a ring leader in a mutiny without violence is death.
Eventually the men were set free and walked from the Goulburn Gaol where they had been moved to. They were free to resume their own lives.
It was a bitter, drawn out affair where senior men of the RAN threatened to resign over the matter.
It is a good read and comes recommended. The book progresses to the point where the future lives of the main players involved are revealed. The author, Robert Hadler, an award-winning economics journalist has done it again. His passion for writing about Australian history has found a wonderful subject with Mutineers which will captivate the reader.
$29.99. available from bookshops or online. roberthadler.com
Review: Reg Watson