BLACKTOWN CITY HISTORY Blacktown and Remembrance Day
by John Horne
Remembrance Day is commemorated every year on 11 November . At 11 o ’ clock people stop what they are doing and remain silent for a short period of time to remember the Australians who have lost their lives in various wars . It is also called Armistice Day .
One place where a ceremony to commemorate Armistice Day takes place is The Remembrance Garden at The Waterholes , Mt Druitt . This park was opened in 1995 by Blacktown City Council to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War . It spreads over half a hectare and has several individual monuments and plaques .
It also displays symbols of each of the Australian Defence Forces , an anchor , a howitzer and an aeroplane propellor . The common inscription on many of the plaques is Lest We Forget .
A famous World War One veteran who is commemorated at The Waterholes is John ‘ Barney ’ Hines . He ended up at Mt Druitt after World War One living alone in a primitive bush hut next to the Great Western Highway with his small market garden .
The area where he lived now has a road named after him next to the Bunnings Store , John Hines Avenue . He is famous for having a price put on his head by Kaiser Wilhelm during World War One . His nickname was The Souvenir King which was also the caption on a famous photograph of him .
‘ Barney ’ Hines was a British-born Australian soldier who served on the Western Front during the Great War . He became known for looting whatever he could get his hands on but was also noted for being a fearless and aggressive soldier .
Remembrance Garden .
Some of the courageous and other acts that ‘ Barney ’ Hines performed on the Western Front are described on the 45th Battalion Association ’ s Facebook page . 1 . Separated from his mates near Octagon Trench he was annoyed at the sniper fire from a German pillbox , so he ran straight at it , leapt on its roof and performed a war dance while taunting the Germans to come out . When they failed to comply , Hines lobbed a couple of grenades through the gun port . A few minutes later the 63 Germans who had survived staggered out with their hands above their heads . Hines collected souvenirs before herding his prisoners back to the Australian lines .
2 . At Passchendaele , Barney was the only survivor of his Lewis gun team hit by a shell that ripped the soles off Barney ’ s boots and hurled him 50 metres . He returned to bury his team , salvage the gun and carried on alone until he was downed by a sliver of shrapnel to his knee . While at Passchendaele , Barney drank the rum issue of three companies and was unconscious for five days .
3 . At Corbie he collected a grandfather clock , but after it had chimed the hour once in the trenches attracting a hail of shells , his surviving mates decided the clock must stop , never to go again . A grenade in the internals of Barney ’ s timepiece solved the problem .
4 . In another incident he scored a bullet wound over his eye , another in his leg and a whiff of gas . Despite protests , he was hospitalised at Etaples , being almost blinded . When the Germans bombed the hospital , causing 3000 casualties Hines hauled himself out of bed , found a broom which he used as a crutch and spent all night carrying the wounded and dying to safety . Like many other Australian soldiers , when Barney was away from the frontline , he regarded himself as being off-duty and not a soldier during his free time . He was “ court martialled nine times for drunkenness , impeding military police , forging entries in his pay book and being absent without leave .”
It is also thought he was caught robbing the safe at a bank in Amiens and because of these convictions he lost several promotions he gained for acts of
Souvenir King Barney Hines , 1917 . Australian War Memorial image , E00822 .
bravery . ( Alan Malcher ’ s blog : alanmalcher . com / 2021 / 12 / 03 / john-barney-hines-alsoknown-as-the-souvenir-king-during-ww1 /)
Poor health led to him being discharged from the Australian Army and after he arrived back in Australia on 19 October 1918 , he lived near Mount Druitt for the next forty years . With the scars of war on his face and body and damaged health , John Hines was a familiar figure seeking a job doing anything in and about Blacktown and the Mount Druitt areas .
Despite being a recluse and penniless he travelled to Concord Repatriation Hospital each week to donate a suitcase of vegetables from his garden to veterans being treated there .
He died aged 84 in 1958 and was buried in an unmarked pauper ’ s grave at Rookwood . This situation was remedied on 18th September 2014 when the 45th Infantry Battalion Association , with the support of St George Bank , established a proper grave , installed a headstone and held a dedication service for him .
Everyday thousands of motorists drive past this park on the Great Western Highway without realising its significance as a war memorial .
LEST WE FORGET
Monument commemorating John Barney Hines , 2002 , installed at the Waterhole .
Blacktown and District Historical Society Incorporated
EMERTON VILLAGE
02 8632 3408
Great Coffee , Great Food , Great Service !
Founded in 1976 to ensure that the history of the Blacktown area would be collected and conserved for all time by tapping into documents and people ’ s memories .
You are welcome to visit our Research Centre , open Tuesdays 10.00 am to 2.00pm , or by appointment .
Grantham Heritage Park BDHS Research Centre 71 Seven Hills Road South , Seven Hills NSW 2147 PO Box 500 Blacktown NSW 2148 Phone 02 9676 1198 www . blacktownhistory . org . au
SHOP 1 , 40 JERSEY ROAD , EMERTON
Monday – Sunday 7:00am – 5:00pm Kitchen last order 3:00pm
Leaf Cafe Emerton Village leafcafeco _ emerton www . leafcafe . com . au
10 ISSUE 44 // NOVEMBER 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT