La Trobe University students
Jan Muller
La Trobe University had what was called the Waterdale Road march. It was leading up to the moratorium, the first moratorium, I think. I'd have to check dates. Anyway, so, La Trobe Uni was organising this march along Waterdale Road, which came to be known as the Waterdale Road massacre. Because the police whaled into the crowd and bashed people brutally.
Alexandra
La Trobe University opened its lecture halls to students in 1967, becoming the third university in Victoria. It started with 557 students and grew rapidly from there, with around 3000 students by 1971. It had politically passionate students right from the start - although as with all of the universities, it’s hard to tell just how widespread an interest in politics actually was amongst the student body. But it’s without doubt that at least some students were passionate and committed when it came to protesting against the Vietnam War, and for a variety of reasons. Indeed, three La Trobe students actually went to jail for their protests: Barry York, Brian Pola and Fergus Robinson spent time, ranging from 6 weeks to four months, in Pentridge Prison in 1972. They were jailed after going back onto the university campus despite a Supreme Court injunction against them doing just that. I’ll put a link in the show notes to an article by Barry York explaining the background to their incarceration (https://c21stleft.com/2022/08/20/fifty-years-ago-gaolings-resistance-and-a-win/).
The range of activities that occurred at La Trobe were as varied as at other universities, like attending demonstrations, writing for the student paper, and discussion groups. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to four women who attended La Trobe University and were involved in these activities: Deborah, Fiona, Jan, and Jane. Deborah and Jan were born in 1949, while Fiona and Jane were born a year later.
Deborah Towns
“Well, I just remember, I used to join all sorts of things. I've always been a joiner, okay. And out there in the community doing things even as a young person back in Geelong, because of Girl Guides, who knows what, and everything - anything that was going. I joined things and I guess I - and there was pamphlets, everywhere. There was pamphlets against the war everywhere, there was different groups, I think there were so many different groups, there were Marxist groups, and I think SDS, Students for Democratic Society, there was the, I think it was in NUAS - National University of Australian - there were so many organisations and you could have joined any one of those; I probably joined - can't remember, I probably joined up with one of them, I can't remember. But I probably ended up joining a lot of them. I used to just go to there meetings with the people who - I lived in college to start with, so I guess I went along to meetings with the other college women who I'd made friends with. And from then on, it was just - the campus just seemed very much dominated… . But yeah, so I just would have signed up and would have gone to meetings. And that was it. And as I said, even in lectures and so on, it was just - people'd just march in with those loud hailer things and say, you know, we're going on strike, or we're occupying the admin office or something, and we'd all just down our pens, as you did in those days. And off we were.
Alexandra
So when you got to La Trobe, did you go looking for political groups, deliberately? Or did you kind of fall into it because of the people you were with?
Fiona Lindsay
Well in the first year.... You just did.
Alexandra
It was just there, in the air?
Fiona Lindsay
You just joined those activities, you just were part of them.”
Probably the most public occasions of protest coming out of La Trobe specifically are what became known as the Waterdale Rd marches. There were three marches in total, in September 1970. According to Barry York’s article on the Museum of Democracy at Old Parliament House website (https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/asserting-the-right-to-protest-the-waterdale-road-marches/), there were 70 protesters at the first protest on 11 September, 1970, following a suburban street in West Heidelberg from the La Trobe campus to the local shopping centre. The second march had about 400 on the 16th of September, and went from Northlands shopping centre back to campus, while the third march, which occurred on September 23, also walked towards the campus and involved about 800 people. Sometimes the first of these marches gets called the Waterdale Road massacre, because of the police violence that occurred, which in Australia in 1970 was quite unheard of, at least directed towards university students. It did not, thankfully, actually involve anyone being killed.
Alexandra
Were you involved with what have become known as the Waterdale Road massacres or events?
Fiona Lindsay
Oh absolutely,
Alexandra
I think was there three attempts, I think? Two marching out of La Trobe and one marching back?
Fiona Lindsay
Yeah.
Alexandra
Were you involved in all three of them?
Fiona Lindsay
Yeah.
Alexandra
What was it like?
Fiona Lindsay
Oh, look, it's funny, you know? I don't - I couldn't, in memory, I couldn't distinguish one from another.
Alexandra
Well they were, within a couple of weeks aren't they, they're very close together?
Fiona Lindsay
I mean, I look at the photos of, yeah - we were all, everyone was there. And the police were just these walls of uniforms. None of us - and they did have their batons out. And they were hitting people. Yeah, it was chaotic, really, quite chaotic. Because I'm sure we didn't know - we - there were marshals and so on. But nobody was really, I suppose, terribly experienced or - about what to do or how to how to manage the situation.
Alexandra
That sort of thing had never really happened even in Australia at all had it?
Fiona Lindsay
No, no it had all been in Europe or in America. But - no - they had a free hand, actually.
This violence Fiona mentions from the police is pretty well documented, and not just by the so-called radicals. Students involved in both the first and second marches reported being attacked by police with fists and batons. In a recent article, Barry York, a radical student activist from these times, quotes the then-university chaplain, who had attended the second march as an independent observer. The chaplain wrote a letter to a newspaper to express his, quote, “disgust at the behavior of the police.”
Jane Stewart
“Oh it was terrifying. Terrified, we were so naive, it never occurred to us that - we thought the police would sort of keep the cars away, I think - well, I did. And so when they started bashing people up with batons, it was - it was a shock. That was a real awakening. And the girl who was hit, she was, you know, she was quite an aggressive girl. But she was only shouting, you know, rah, rah, rah, you know? I mean, I don't know she might have hit a cop. I wasn't next to her. But she she did get her arm broken, or her wrist broken, smashed with a baton. I don't remember what happened to the boys. But that was quite radicalising.”
Deborah Towns
“the famous thing was the Waterdale Road March, which you've probably heard from other people. We - Waterdale Rd is this great big long road because the area around us is Heidelberg which - Heidelberg West - which is a house, big housing commission area but famous again because of, was the Olympic Village - part of it was the Olympic Village. So there was Olympic Avenue and so on. But we used to go down, [unclear] keep on going, and Waterdale Road was a lot of factories, and there was a police station along there - the police would, you know, follow us and chase us and hit some students and all this sort of thing. And then if we got to - then we try and go to Northland. But sometimes [unclear], we couldn't keep on going. But we didn't get much support from the local residents from what I recall. And similarly, when we marched in the city, we didn't seem to get much support from people when we were marching in the city. As you know, all of a sudden, 100,000 people sat down in Burke Street, which is, you know, one of the most amazing things I've experienced, as you can imagine, but yeah, it was sort of like - where there was a lot of booing and yelling and why weren't we, you know, get a job and all this sort of stuff. But the the police were very vicious around Waterdale Road, as I said, the Waterdale Road marches were famous and I think is it - what's his name, Brian - I had all the names written down - York, Barry York, has written about that time. Yeah. So Barry York. I'm sort of friends with him now on Facebook. But I mean, I just - you know, I just remember Waterdale Road. And people like Barry York and Brian Pola, Fergus Robinson, was another bloke Demos Cruz - Cross [spelling?], there was various names - Andrew Giles Peters, who's unfortunately passed away. He was - so all these people, I don't know if they were picked out or whatever. But some of those people were quite viciously treated by the police. And I remember my boyfriend at the time, he used to say, look at these middle class students being beaten up by police. So it was all this sort of behavior and witnessing things that, coming from Geelong and as I said, going to Teacher's College and wearing, you know, having this sort of Sleepy Hollow sort of life and being thrown into this from I suppose you'd call it or something the Waterdale Road marches became this, this thing that we were determined to keep on doing this and, you know, keeping our presence there and I think I mentioned too, we understood that the police - state police couldn't get into the campus so you'd be all ringed around the campus and the police would be on the other side and, and someone I know … he actually ended up going to jail for a while or very short time and some of the others went to jail. I think Brian Pola went to jail. … I guess I just remember ringing - the ring of students around La Trobe University campus because it's circular, and the police on the other side, and we'd be jeering at them….
Jan Muller
“All right, La Trobe University had what was called the Waterdale Road march. It was leading up to the moratorium, the first moratorium, I think. I'd have to check dates. Anyway, so, La Trobe Uni was organising this march along Waterdale Road, which came to be known as the Waterdale Road massacre. Because the police whaled into the crowd and bashed people brutally.
Now, I'd been at work. I knew about the action. it was starting around 2 o'clock. or something like that. And so the minute that school finished, I leaped in the car and took off for the uni, and got there in time for one of the blokes with blood all over his face to call out, "Don't go down there, Jan, it's a bloodbath."
And there are all these students coming back – running back from where they'd been bashed. And a number got arrested running back onto the campus, which they believed was a safe haven – which in those days was, to a degree, a safe haven. So there I am in my little Moke, a little red Moke. So I'm parked in the driveway into the uni, which was the extension of Waterdale Road. And students were gathering, and the cops were gathering on the other side of the road. It was sort of a standoff. And someone threw some rocks towards the police cars, which gave them the excuse to come chasing. And I'm in my car, you see. And this is all paddocks. This was all open paddocks in those days. And the cops started running after students, and police cars started driving at students. And I thought, "Oh shit!" And then I saw one of my friends running with a cop on his tail. So I started the engine and drove across the paddock and drove between the copper and the student. Which gave the student a few extra metres to put some distance between him and the cop. Anyway, the cop continued to chase him, realized that he got away, came back to me and said, "Okay, you'll do," reached in and grab the keys. And arrested me. And this is where the interesting part begins. I thought, "Okay, it's my time, I've never been arrested before, here it comes." He goes to throw me in the paddy wagon – which they did, but they couldn't find the padlock for the paddy wagon. So he hauled me out of that and put me into a police car. Two coppers, one either side of me, and two coppers in the front. And off we drive to Heidelberg police station. And the copper in the front, the sergeant says, "So what have you got her for? And he said – what was it? Obstruction? Yeah, obstruction or something. And the copper in the front says, "Throw the book at her." Resisting arrest, interfering with police, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I thought he was just saying that to intimidate me. And assault with a weapon, to wit, a car. And I thought, assault with a weapon? I didn't go anywhere near the copper, I drove between him and his quarry. So I just thought that they were kidding, you know, just to intimidate me. And I thought, yeah, I'm not going to be intimidated, here we go.
Got to the police station. I knew the drill, name, that's it, no address, you know, make them work for it.
So I gave my name. They strip searched me. And I said, "Why are you strip searching me?" "Oh, well, you might have a weapon concealed." I'm thinking, yeah, right. So anyway, they kept me for hours and hours and hours. And because I was not giving a name, and demanding my one phone call, eventually they relented and gave me my one phone call. And I phoned a solicitor. And he said, "I'll be right there as quick as I can." And I knew he had a fair way to travel. So it was another hour and a half. I knew when he arrived, because I heard him going crook at them. "Why have you kept this woman here for so long?" Rah, rah, rah, rah. He really gave it to them.
Anyway, off the record, I'd refused to make a statement. So they actually verballed me, they wrote up a statement. But I hadn't signed it. And I suppose it's so long ago, no one's going to get into trouble for this. But when my solicitor came in, and was dressing down these coppers for having held me there for so many hours, and not allowing me to make my phone call, and all of that sort of stuff, he was reading the riot act to them, I ninjaed the statement that they'd put in the typewriter. It still was sitting in the typewriter, and I took it. So then there was all hell to pay when they realized a few days later that the statement had vanished. And they accused the solicitor of taking it. He got out of it, though. To cut a long story short, I was arrested, and I was charged with assault with a weapon, to wit, a car. Of course, when it went to court, guess what they convicted me off?
Alexandra
Nothing?
Jan Muller
Assault with a weapon, to wit, a car. The only thing that I had not done. The other four or five charges, I had done, which was obstructing and all the rest of it. I can't remember what the other four were. But anyway, anything that had any skerrick of truth in it, I was guilty of. But, of course, assault with a weapon, to wit, a car, was at odds with the other four. So the magistrate dismissed the four things that I had done, and sustained the assault with a weapon, and I got sentenced to jail. Which we immediately appealed, of course. So when it went to the County Court, I ended up with a fine. And probably a bond, a good behaviour bond, I can't remember.
But as a consequence of that, being a teacher, and having been arrested, I got hauled before the teachers tribunal. I was certain I was going to lose my job, so I had no qualms about that, and I thought – and I got up and made a political statement about the paper tiger tribunal, and blah, blah, blah, all the rest of it. They – I looked like I was about fifteen. I was a tiny, skinny little thing, even though I was twenty or twenty-one at the time. Twenty, I think.
So I made this, this bold political statement, certain that I was going to get sacked anyway. So I was gonna go – I didn't defend myself, I just thought, I'll go out with a bang. Well, they questioned me about the statement, the meaning of the words, and I answered every single one of them. And I could see their eyes widening that I knew what the word "imperialism" meant, and I knew what this meant, and I knew what that meant and, and I then got a tap on the wrist with a feather. But there was a consequence. I had to have the inspector sit in class with me for weeks on end, until the inspector said to me, "Look, I can see that you're a good teacher. I have no problems with your classroom practice. I don't think I'll have to visit you again."
Students at La Trobe were involved in many other actions aside from these three marches, of course. Some promised to be even more violent, as Deborah Towns recalls:
“as I said, some people a lot, a lot more involved a lot more involved than I was and they had boyfriends that were very active. And I think I've mentioned too that one of the people told me, I can't remember her name now, unfortunately, but she was in a room with me at Menzies College. And as I said, it's hearsay and I can't remember now who it was who told me but I suppose she was supposed to have a machine gun under her bed, because the plan was to blow up Honeywell building, which was, you know, providing all the computerisation to keep the war going over again, against, you know, in Vietnam was, and yeah, so - so there were two students arrested over that incident. I think she was the girlfriend of one of them. So here I was in a room, apparently, with a machine gun under the bed.“
Whether or not this was actually true, it certainly speaks to the feeling of the time.
Less violently, the women I spoke to recalled a lot of intense discussions.
Alexandra
Did you get involved in doing any of the backroom stuff with - protesting against Vietnam, or was your contribution turning up to the demonstrations?
Jane Stewart
Well, I think there was more to it than turning up to the demonstrations - there were lots of sort of discussion groups and talks and things like that, it wasn't sort of done in a vacuum and, and certainly I would have gone to meetings where there was planning, I wasn't - I wasn't vocal though, because I was too terrified at the sound of my own voice in public to speak. So I didn't, I was very chicken actually, I wasn't brave at all. But I did go to them. And I listened. And I would have discussed it - there was a lot of discussion in the cafe at La Trobe. And there were only a couple of places you could meet, it was very small back then. But yeah, there was a lot of discussion. And we talked about it all the time. And I talked to different groups.”
Fiona Lindsay was involved with a student paper, Rabelais:
Alexandra
With Rabelais, were you writing articles about the Vietnam War, or about politics more generally?
Fiona Lindsay
Oh often - sometimes about politics, sometimes it was book reviews. There were some people who - you'd do a diary, like a regular thing; I didn't do a regular thing.
Alexandra
Were there lots of women involved with Rabelais? Like, did it feel like -
Fiona Lindsay
Yes, there were, there were actually.”
Rabelais featured articles and letters throughout this period from students who were protesting against the Vietnam War and conscription, as well as those who were in favour of the war, primarily because of a fear or dislike of communism. I had the chance to look through pretty much every copy of Rabelais from this period, because the La Trobe University archives people are fantastic. Many of the articles are unsigned, so much of what Fiona wrote I couldn’t find. Despite her memory of many women being involved, those articles of a political nature that are signed tended to be by men, and the editorial committee was generally male dominated. The main female-authored pieces I found were letters to the editor. In 1968, a letter was sent that was signed by seven people: La Trobe students who had been involved in an act of civil disobedience in Canberra, when they sat down in front of the Prime Minister’s Lodge; of those students, two were women - Fiona Lindsay, and Beryl Cousland.
Then, in 1969, Ailsa Guthrie - a first year Humanities student - wrote a detailed letter about attending a court case with about fifty other people. The case was regarding a journalist who was refusing to register for National Service. She writes about the crowd being yelled at to be quiet when they giggled and then also being yelled at to be quiet as they left the courtroom. Her greatest snark is reserved for the ABC, though, who despite being present and interviewing people didn’t end up reporting on the event. She says, and I quote, “Non-violent demonstrations, it seems, have no sex appeal.”
Another year later, in July 1970, Rabelais published an article called July 4 - Two Views. Now the events on July the Fourth, out the front of the American Consulate, are something I cover in detail in the episode about Monash University, as students from there are usually seen as the ringleaders. The first of the views published by Rabelais is from Barry York, who gets up a good head of steam about the disgraceful behaviour of the police. The other view is from Jill Jolliffe, who was actually at Monash University. Her article is aimed squarely at decrying York’s approval of student violence. She was herself heavily involved in the protest movement, but didn’t approve of this violence.
Also in 1970, this time in April, Rabelais printed an open letter in anticipation of the May Moratorium. This was signed by post grads, academic staff and non-academic staff, advertising that they would not be doing anything on campus on the day of the moratorium. By my count, there are 139 names here. There are very few first names, but everyone has a title: there are 46 with Miss or Mrs. There are also a number that are given as Doctor, and I guess some of them could be female as well. So maybe just over a third of the people who signed are women. Now, obviously I don’t know what proportion of post-grads and staff were female, but nonetheless, a third of the signatories seems significant. It also reflects what some of the women I interviewed said, which is that many of the staff, both male and female, were supportive and sympathetic of the student protests.
I also asked these women what they thought of the presence of La Trobe women in the protest movement, and their importance.
Alexandra
Thinking a bit more broadly, I guess I'm interested in the, your perception or your memory of what it was like, do you feel like there were a lot of women involved in the marches and demonstrations? Like did you feel like you were in a minority as a female? Or was it just not an issue?
Deborah Towns
I probably would have noticed if there were fewer women, I suppose on the La Trobe campus, statistically anyway, I'd say there were more women than men anyway. Because we were on the studentships going to be teachers and so on. No, I couldn't say I pictured that - I would have seen said it was 50/50… so all my women friends that I recall were very active like I was in demonstrations and so on. Some were more like, it's a great party. I remember them calling it trucking along, are you gonna be trucking along to Burke Street, are you gonna be trucking along to the moratorium, but I was more serious. I wasn't trucking along, I wanted to have a revolution and change the world and everything. And some of them were a little bit more like that. But I would never, I couldn't possibly - no I couldn't answer that other than I didn't really notice that it was dominated. And I was very interested in feminism and so on, because Germaine Greer's book came out in the early '70s, too. So I was very aware of all of that. I would say it would have been around 50/50. The leaders weren't women. I didn't - I don't remember, especially at La Trobe, I don't really remember any women speaking, other than at a meeting, we might stand up and say something at a meeting. But we were not the speakers out front.”
Jane Stewart
“My recollections of being a young student at La Trobe - I started in '68, 1968 - the boys, "the boys", I mean, they really were boys, they were sort of like pop stars. And the women were very much relegated to the back room, it was classic, you know, making coffees and this sort of thing - not all of them, some of them were very strong and vocal, but generally speaking, even - it was very much, you know, that they were, tended to the girlfriends of the key boys. So it was just, you know - and that wasn't my focus at the time, but I was aware of it, very aware of it, that it was a male domain. I very rarely went into the student headquarters, because it was too frightening as a girl to go in there with all these big, intense guys. And very scathing, if you said something wrong. I don't remember doing it. But you know, they were very scathing of each other but particularly they weren't like that to young women but they tended to just retreat. But, but women did still talk about all that stuff. It was, it wasn't like they weren't interested. We were.”