SS Katoomba: A lifeboat & bellweather of change

To the Parer family the SS Katoomba was a lifeboat that evacuated 18 of the women and children from Port Moresby, New Guinea to Brisbane, Australia as the Japanese advanced in the Pacific and began to menace the Mandated Territories of New Guinea where the Parer’s called home.

The ship

The SS Katoomba was a passenger steamship built in Belfast, Ireland in 1913 that spent most of her career in Australia servicing routes between Fremantle and Sydney. It was a good size, registered at 137.3 m long, 18.4m wide and 10.4 m deep with berths for 557 passengers: 209 first class, 192 second class and 156 third class.

The Katoomba was propelled by what was called “combination machinery”. She had three engines which gave her a service speed of 15 knots (28 km/h)

Katoomba began her maiden voyage by embarking passengers in Glasgow Scotland. They included a small party who disembarked when she briefly anchored in Plymouth Sound, England, and 237 passengers who were bound for Australia. On 11 August she reached Durban in South Africa for bunkering. Between Durban and Fremantle Katoomba fired all six of her boilers and reached speeds of more than 17 knots (31 km/h).

Reaching Fremantle on 24 August, Port Phillip on 29 August the Katoomba docked in Melbourne the next morning. On 13 September she left Melbourne for Sydney, where on 18 September she was opened to news reporters and invited guests They were entertained by the “Katoomba Ladies Orchestra”, which was in fact a chamber quartet of one pianist, two violinists and one singer. On 20 September Katoomba began scheduled service between Sydney and Fremantle via Melbourne and Adelaide.

War service

The Japanese Attacks between 3.30-10am 8 December 1941.

Volume I – Royal Australian Navy, 1939–1942 (1st edition, 1957) a reveals Katoomba’s movements during this time after it came into requisitioned along with ‘Zealandia’ to form convoy ZK.1 which, escorted by Manor, sailed from Brisbane for Thursday Island, Port Moresby and Rabaul with 1,496 troops on the 15 March 1941. In April the Katoomba escorted by the Manor again, carried 687 troops and equipment from Sydney to Darwin and then was returned to trade.

In the early hours of 8th December 1941 reports of attacks occurring at Kota Bharu, Pearl Harbour, Philippines, Guam, Hong Kong and Wake Island. These reports were considered by the War Cabinet at meeting held in Melbourne that day and it was agreed that the situation should be accepted as involving a state of war with Japan. Merchant vessels in northern waters were instructed to fall back on Rabaul and Port Moresby; the convey consisting of the coastal liner Katoomba carrying troops for Rabaul and escorted by HMAS Adelaide, was held at Port Moresby. Later plans made to withdraw women and children from New Guinea, Papua and Darwin were accelerated, and during December numbers were landed in Australia from the merchant ships Katoomba, Neptuna, Zealandia, and Macdhui. 

The Neptune and Zealandia were sunk at Darwin in 19 February 1942 and the Macdhui, which Damien Parer filmed was sunk at Port Moresby 18 June 1942.

The Katoomba carried out at least dozen other voyages for transporting allied troops in convoys in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Parer’s, the Mandated Territories & evacuation

An aerial starboard side view of the Australian vessel SS Katoomba, 7 February 1944.

The Parer’s had been in the Australian Mandated Territories of New Guinea since Ray Parer helped usher in the air age when he arrived with his plane G-AUCM, an Airco DH-4  onboard the Marsina in Rabaul on the 27 March 1927. On 23rd of June, 1927 when Ray Parer flew his plane from Rabaul to Lae. Over the subsequent 13 years, 29 Parers joined or were born in New Guinea. The Parer family had established themselves in the Australian mandated territory of New Guinea on the north side of what is now Papua New Guinea.

Ray Parer’s G-AUCM, an Airco DH-4 owned by Bulolo Goldfields Aeroplane Service Ltd  (BGAS).

Kevin Parer, the youngest of Michael and Maria Parer’s children, was concerned the Japanese were getting ready for war. He had refused some flights to Japanese citizens, whom he believed were making suspicious notations of defences and landmarks leading to an invasion. Other pilots were not so discerning and the government ignored Kevin’s warnings. 

Kevin was worried for his brother Bob’s wife Mollie and the family at Wewak, while Bob was off gold mining in Bougainville and said she must go with him to Wau. To ensure she was going to be ready he ‘kidnapped’ her young boy Robert to his home in Wau. There were about a dozen Parer children in Wau, so Robert had a wonderful time. Robert said, “I remember when I went to school with them they had a May Pole Dance.”

It was getting close to Christmas and knowing there would be shortages, Kevin started getting extra food in. One day Kevin was listening to the wireless news in between flights. He said to Mollie, “very bad news, the Japs have bombed the American Pearl Harbour”. They feared the war was getting close. 

Mollie said, “during the day, a pass (letter) came for me from the wife of the other private aerial service owner. It said, ‘I am telling you because Mrs Kevin is expectant, Mrs John (Auntie Teresa) is old and Mrs Owen has the new twins, so will you tell them all the women and children except the nurses will be evacuated very soon’. I can still remember my heart jumping with fear and apprehension. I told Nance and Auntie Teresa and Doreen. 

“Then the official letter came. We were to pack and be ready to go to Salamaua and be sure to include mosquito nets. Then another official letter – ‘No lights on tonight. Only 40 lbs weight for each adult, 15 lbs for each child’.

“Everyone in Wau looked at their comfortable homes and possessions: wedding presents, furniture, sewing machines, clothes etc. We had to make swift decisions, 40 lbs was only one suit case. We used torches that night. I knew I had Lactogen and a thermos amongst my things. Robert and Carolin were 4 ½ years old and Sheila and Ian were 2 years and 9 months. 

It’s clear the magnitude of what was going on as their lives were thrown upside-down and fear boiled just beneath the service, but these women and children were, if anything, practical. Mollie went on, “Dear Kevin flew us to Port Moresby the next morning and Doreen and Auntie Teresa were flown out with the children including the tiny twins. The men and the nurses were left behind. “Uncle Bob had no idea we had left New Guinea. We were the first plane to arrive and Kevin showed the soldiers the remains of a bird that had hit the windscreen. It looked like a piece of string. The next ‘plane-load was a very sad crowd of ladies, they had been in the labour wards of several hospitals. Some had their babies on the ship. “

So it was that within 10 days of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on the 7th December 1941, Kevin Parer, with his Parer’s Air Transport fleet of three planes and other airlines and pilots, began air lifting the women and children to Port Moresby as part of the evacuation to Australia of some 800 people onboard the Katoomba. This included:

• Theresa Parer nee Carolin (69),
• Doreen Owen nee Parer with her children
• Patricia (10),
• Tim (8),
• Josephine (7),
• Judith (5),
• Peter (5),
• Dorothy (1 month) and
• Margaret (1 month),
• Mollie with her children
• Robert (4),
• Carolin (4),
• Ian (1) and
• Sheila (1)
• Kevin’s pregnant wife Nance (32) and children
• Warwick (5),
• Kevin (4) and
• Mary-Pat (1)

They were crowded onto and shipped out on the decks of the merchant ship SS Katoomba on 17 December 1941. 

Mollie said, “There were many we knew on the ship called the Katoomba and there were 800 souls on board. So many were from Wau including Margaret O’Loghlan, Mrs Stewart and others. I think some women were flown to Australia and I think Auntie Marie and Terry were amongst them. The boat trip was not good and we used to have so many meals of dehydrated eggs. Our children were sick and had dry toast and Vegemite.

An emotional, public embrace between Kevin and Nance and they were away. Mollie later recounted, “The seven children and I stayed on deck and looked at dear Nance and dear Kev, their final farewell, we did not know it then.”

Robert delights in saying, “we were lucky when war was declared. We were in Wau and Kevin took us to Moresby with all the other hundreds of women and children to be evacuated on SS Katoomba. I remember we had Christmas on board and each child was given by Santa a bottle of soft drink and a coin. I had never seen a bottle of soft drink before.” It was a bottle of Kirks Lemonade.

Kirks lemonade bottle.

Of life on board the SS Katoomba during this voyage, Mollie recalled, “we had to keep lifebelts on all the time and we were advised that if we struck a mine or a Japanese attacked to throw the children overboard. Imagine it! However, we went a route somewhere near Thursday Island on our way to Brisbane.” For all aboard the Katoomba, passengers and crew had to suffer prolonged sea-sickness caused by rough seas as it wasn’t fitted with stabilisers. There was the constant dreaded menace of Japanese destroyers, mines, zeros and other fighters.

The SS Katoomba arrived in Brisbane on Boxing day. The RAAF had pressed those of the Lae and Salamaua civilian facilities for refuelling and servicing including Kevin Parer. With sustained efforts in trying flying conditions, Kevin and his team continued evacuating the remote men of New Guinea and flying in the military and supplies.

With the evacuation at the outbreak of war with Japan, there were 30 Parer’s in the territories at the time. The woman and children were evacuated on an overloaded SS Katoomba, Bob was missing up the Bouganville, Kevin was killed by Japanese Zeros at the Salamaua aerodrome, and Bernard and Cyril with Hedley Owen were in the process of evacuating, but returned as part of The Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) overseeing and coordinating thousands of locals in the interior highlands, building roads. Damien Parer met up with them near Wau when he made films after travelling the Bulldog track and not long before walking and shooting his famous Kokoda film.

	Arrived	Age	evacuation date	Age	comment
Ray Parer	27 March 1927	32	Left prior to evacuation	47	Australia
Bernard Parer	January 1928	22	22 January 1942	36	2 month flight around New Guinea, across from Daru to Australia
Alphonsus ‘Phonse’ Parer	January 1928	32	1938	40	Australia
Bob Parer	1929	30	26 February 1942	42	in Kieta, Bogainville – escaped by pinnacle boat MV Tapisan
Cyril Parer	1929	26	with NGVR in Rabaul	39	Worked for NGVR & ANGAU
Nancy Anderson	1929	31	Left prior to evacuation	43	in Australia
Doreen Parer	1930	28	20 December, 1941	39	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Hedley “Jock” Owen	1930	29	with NGVR in Rabaul	40	Worked for NGVR & ANGAU
Kevin Parer	1931	23	21 January 1942	33	Killed by Japanese Zeros in Salamaua airfield
Josephine Parer	October 1933	27	Left prior to evacuation	36	Australia
Marie Fogarty	December 1933	28	Left prior to evacuation	36	Australia
Theresa Carolin	December 1933	61	20 December, 1941	69	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Mollie Yates	1933	28	20 December, 1941	37	Wewak – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Tim Owen	1933	0	20 December, 1941	8	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
John Arthur Parer	1934	67	1 October 1941	74	Melbourne, Australia
Nance McGahan	1935	32	20 December, 1941	38	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Ben Parer			1 October 1941	34	in Australia
Patricia Owen	b. 1931 Buka Island	0	20 December, 1941	10	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Josephine Owen	b. 1934 Salamaua	0	20 December, 1941	7	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Judith Owen	b. 1936 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	5	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Peter Owen	b. 1936 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	5	Wau – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Warwick Parer	b. 1936 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	6	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Robert Parer	b. 1937 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	4	Wewak – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Carolin Parer	b. 1937 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	4	Wewak – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Kevin J Parer	b. 1937 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	4	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Mary-Patricia Parer	b. 1940 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	1	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Dorothy Owen	b. 1940 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	1mth	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Margaret Owen	b. 1940 Wau	0	20 December, 1941	1mth	Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Ian Parer	b. 1940 Wewak	0	20 December, 1941	1	Wewak – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba
Sheila Parer	b. 1940 Wewak	0	20 December, 1941	1	Wewak – Evacuated on the SS Katoomba

For the evacuees who disembarked from the Katoomba the disruption to their life was not yet over. Mollie said, “sad good-byes to Nance, Doreen and children and Auntie Teresa as they left the boat. Doreen and family went to Maleny where Uncle Tony had found a vacant house for them. The little twins were unsettled and Doreen had her worries as she had not been well after the birth. Nance and children went to Warwick. Myself and four children were met by Uncle Jack and Lionel Morrell. We were billeted at hotels in Sydney. Uncle Leo came to the hotel one day and we went to a friend’s home, Ruth Shaw my great friend from Wewak or I should say Boram. Like many others she had already left New Guinea and was at her parents’ home. 

“We boarded the train that evening for Melbourne. My only brother was with the forces in WA, but his wife and my mother and Salve Parer (Kevin and John’s father) were waiting. Father Glover had given Nance, myself and Doreen ten pounds each, he’d been saving for a plane. After a few weeks in Melbourne, I took the children to Healesville where my mother lived in a boarding house. It was in the country and very cheap. We were given an allowance (Salve arranged it), I think it was fifteen shillings for each child and one pound for myself. Friends and relatives were kind and we received clothes and money. 

“It was at Healesville that we received the news of Kevin. Salve’s wife Grace Parer wrote to me and I thought it was her Kevin, I could not believe it was our darling, kind, wonderful Kev. Nance and I corresponded and Tony and Peg went to Warwick to be with Nance. How she survived the cruel blow I do not know. That was in January and Helen arrived in March, her darling baby, but no darling Kev.”

Ray & Mark Parer voyage after Boulder plane crash

SS Katoomba leaving Albany, WA, Australia.

19 years earlier, Ray and Mark Parer, arrived in Melbourne on the morning of 18 March 1922 onboard the passenger ship Katoomba. They had been involved for many months on an attempt to be the first to circumnavigate Australia by air in order to raise money for Ray to attempt a trans-Pacific flight. Their FE.2b (G-AUCX) aeroplane crashed at Boulder on the morning of Tuesday, 7th February 1922, where they both suffered severe, though not life threatening injuries and were hospitalised for some weeks. The crash put paid to their attempt to circumnavigate Australia as Ray Parer stated on his disembarkation, that while he has now completely recovered from the effects of the crash, his cousin has not quite recovered yet, owing to injuries to his ankles. So in a manner of speaking the Katoomba was their bellweather as it signified an end of their attempt.

7 February 1922 – The mangled F.E.2b airplane (G-AUCX) piloted by Ray Parer with Mark Parer as a passenger laying crumpled in Burt Street, Boulder-Kalgoorlie, WA after clipping phone wires on not long after takeoff from Boulder racecourse.

Referring to the FE.2B. (140 h.p. Beardmore engine) machine which was used for the flight, Ray Parer said, “Contrary to previous reports our aeroplane was not insured, as the insurance companies have not yet arranged a policy to cover air craft. I would like to emphasise that I did not expect the aeroplane to survive the whole flight, because there was so much “side’ flying to he done, apart from the journey.” He calculated from his start in Melbourne, “only covered one third of the distance of our proposed flight, the mileage actually covered in visiting various localities and carrying passengers exceeded 10,000.

Not long after they arrived in Melbourne they were informed that the finance for an airplane suitable for the trans-Pacific attempt had fallen through after receiving word that they had financial backing in England to the sum of £12,000. Ray Parer was never able to raise the funds to attempt the flight and as the Westralian Worker lamented on Friday 31 March 1922:–

STRANGLING ENTERPRISE

Lieutenant Parer, the celebrated airman, who gained world-wide fame for his flight across the world to Australia, in company with the late Lieut. McIntosh, has returned to Melbourne.

It will be remembered that Lieut. Parer set out from that city in company with his cousin, and a cinematographer, with the object of flying round the entire coast line of Australia and taking moving pictures en route. He came across from Victoria, and during his stay in Kalgoorlie had the misfortune to crash; as a result his machine was broken beyond repair. The airman then came down to Perth, “a fish out of water.”

He opened up negotiations with various people for a new machine, but none of the patriotic capitalists of this young nation were prepared to assist him; the result is that Parer has had to abandon his project, and in all probability he is now in Melbourne amongst the unemployed.

The fate of Parer throws an interesting sidelight on the capitalist system. Parer is one of the select band of explorers who have made the world what it is to-day. Unfortunately, under capitalism, very few explorers are ever appreciated, their mission seems to be that of risking their lives, suffering all kinds of privations, anxieties, etc., and then falling by the wayside. Later, plutocracy comes along and takes full advantage of their discoveries.

Parer is a brilliant airman, there can be no doubt about that. His trip from England to Australia proves it. If society were sanely organised ample opportunity would be afforded him to follow his occupation on this continent. His proposal to fly completely round the coastline of Australia, photographing it all the way, is one which must commend itself to everyone; yet because the proposal does not appear to be a profitable one Australian capitalists are chary of supplying Parer with an aeroplane!

Westralian Worker (Perth, WA : 1900 – 1951), Friday 31 March 1922, page 4