Albert Hall, Canberra 1944

Albert Hall was early Canberra’s community hall. Situated near the Hotel Canberra where many politicians and public servants lived, it was the city’s venue for school concerts, flower shows, live dramatic performances, the annual Winter Ball as well as Saturday night dances.

The warmth of the hall was welcoming after the chill wind outside. As usual, the ladies of the Women’s Comfort Fund had done a wonderful job of decorating with crepe paper streamers and balloons. The dance floor gleamed after its last application of sawdust. Trestle tables around the edges of the hall groaned with the abundance of supper food and large teapots were already filled in anticipation of thirsty crowds.

The young nineteen year old woman sat out a couple of dances on the pretext that her twisted ankle from that afternoon’s hockey match was still bothering her, but she was really wondering whether coming tonight was such a good idea. Last year she and Vera had been regulars at the Saturday night Services Dance but this was her first night out since her brother had been shot down over Germany. Even though she still felt guilty about leaving them, her parents had insisted she go so she went with Vera and a group of other friends from work.

A small group of young RAAF boys approached and one of them, tall and handsome, shyly asked her for a dance. He seemed so ill at ease that she took pity on him and agreed. Dancing was obviously not his forte and he continually apologised for his poor skills but the dance floor was so crowded that she heard only a few of his excuses.

When the bracket finished she thankfully sat down and enjoyed just talking with him. Alick confided his continual homesickness, how much he missed his family and the farm routines, and how he longed to travel overseas with the RAAF.

She responded by talking, haltingly, about her big brother; how he’d gone off to Canada and then England to join the RAF and be a navigator, and how the telegram that came last August had changed her life forever. Now she lived in a house weighed down with grief where she felt that she should be in perpetual mourning and she worried that her elderly parents would never smile again.

The supper break came and went and the young couple continued to chat. She knew that this was a man she wanted to get to know better and Alick was quietly surprised that this sophisticated city girl was interested in listening to his stories.

All too soon the evening came to an end and they parted with promises to meet at next week’s dance. She and the other girls piled on to the 10.30 bus as the young airmen set off on their long walk back across the river flats to Fairbairn RAAF Base.

After that night she was again a regular dance-goer but she always refused to dance until 20 year old Alick arrived. He was always relieved when he reached the hall with his mates and saw her face light up when she saw him.