Norman ‘Norm’ Jones loves Ballarat.
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The 90-year-old grew up here, fishing in Lake Wendouree and running around the yard at Urquhart Street State School in the 1930s.
Then in 1941, aged 18, Norm told a little fib and his life changed forever.
With the stroke of a pen, he miraculously aged three years and was soon on his way overseas to fight for Australia in World War II.
On his 70th wedding anniversary earlier this month, Norm and his wife Maisie returned to Ballarat for a chat with The Courier – the newspaper his father wrote for almost 90 years ago.
With Anzac Day tomorrow, Norm thought it pertinent to share his story of active service on some of the world’s most famous battlegrounds.
It began soon after that visit to Ballarat’s recruiting depot, the Town Hall, where he lied about his age. As Norm explains, it wasn’t exactly the worst crime imaginable.
“It’s wasn’t a problem – I’ll bet 50 per cent of young fellas put their age up,” he said.
“When you look at it, we were only kids, not knowing what we were getting involved in.”
Norm said originally, his reason for signing up was the same as many young men of the time: adventure.
“We were still in the throes of depression, so the only jobs I had were casual, lousy jobs,” he said.
“So I thought ‘Here’s a go ... uniform, five bob a day and a trip overseas’ – that’s how you think when you’re young.”
At a training camp in Darley with thousands of other recruits, Norm practised for the fighting to come by charging a hay bale with a bayonet – a German hay bale of course.
He took the converted luxury liner the Queen Mary to Egypt for training, then spent some time fighting in Palestine before the war got a whole lot closer to home when the Japanese entered the fray.
“That’s when the patriotism came into it; that’s when we wanted to get back here,” he said.
Norm then spent time in British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), before the war’s end.
Asked what Anzac Day meant to him, Norm teared up and nodded his head. It was all the answer anyone would need.