Diver T Rubel 🫍🤿🫍🐋🇦🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This should be taught in schools........... Australian Yarns and History He flew 95 wartime missions for Australia. When he came home, the Aboriginal fighter pilot went back to shearing sheep. His name was Len Waters, and his dream of flying began long before he ever climbed into a cockpit. A Gamilaraay man born at Euraba Aboriginal Mission near Boomi in 1924, Len grew up reading about aviation and making model planes. At 14, he left school to help support his family. He worked alongside his father before becoming a shearer in outback Queensland. But he never lost his fascination with the sky. In August 1942, Len enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He initially trained as an aircraft mechanic, then earned a place in pilot training. With limited formal schooling behind him, he studied hard. In July 1944, he earned his wings, becoming Australia’s first Aboriginal fighter pilot. By November, he had joined No. 78 Squadron. His regular aircraft was a Kittyhawk named Black Magic. The previous pilot had chosen the name, and Len kept it. During 1944 and 1945, he flew 95 operational missions over New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Most were ground attack missions. On one flight, an enemy shell struck his aircraft and lodged behind the cockpit, near a fuel tank. It did not explode. Len still had to get himself and the damaged fighter safely back to base. He warned ground crews about the shell and brought the aircraft down, later recalling it as “the smoothest landing I’ve ever made”. He celebrated his 21st birthday while serving on Morotai. After the war, he dreamed of starting a regional airline to connect isolated communities with towns and services. But without financial backing, the idea never got off the ground. He took labouring jobs and eventually returned to shearing. Len said he had not experienced racial discrimination during his RAAF service. His recollection of civilian life was painfully different. Once he took off the uniform, he was “just another blackfella”. The skills that had taken him into combat had not secured him a future in aviation. Len died in 1993, aged 69. Two years later, Australia honoured him on a postage stamp. His story deserves a place in our classrooms and our national memory. A young Gamilaraay man went from the shearing sheds to the cockpit of a fighter plane, served his country through 95 wartime missions, and came home with dreams he never got the chance to fulfil. His name was Len Waters. Remember him. Sources: Australian War Memorial; Australian Dictionary of Biography; Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Anzac Portal.