During the First World War, there were many references in the local Leader newspapers to the 54th Merri Infantry Battalion and the Volunteer Forces unit base at the Drill Hall in Simpson Street in what was invariably referred to as Westgarth.
There was no secret that the Battalion encompassed companies of volunteers from Northcote, Preston and Heidelberg, the latter then including both Fairfield and Alphington; many articles in the Leader referenced their activities, but there was never the slightest
suggestion that an artillery battery was active in the newly-declared city.
The existence of such a unit must have been known to many (after all, they do tend to make a noticeably loud banging noise), but the Whalley brothers, joint proprietors of the Leader appear to have either taken it upon themselves not to make any reference or perhaps they were in some way constricted by the censorship laws of the day.
The artillery batteries only became known when the Acting Prime Minister Mr William Watt announced in early August, 1918 that an inquiry under the War Precautions Act was to be held into the activities of seven men of Irish descent (four in Sydney and three in Melbourne) who had been interned under provisions of the Act as a potential threat to security given the uprising of nationalists in Ireland against British rule.
Central to the revelations of an artillery unit operating in apparently some secrecy in Northcote was one Maurice Dalton of Alfred Crescent, North Fitzroy, and against whom allegations were subsequently made that he had plans to blow up an artillery battery “on
the Merri Creek about a mile from his home”.
At the time of the announcement into the enquiry to be conducted by Mr Justice Harvey in Sydney, there were broad accusations from Mr Watt that the seven men
were members of a shadowy group called the Irish Republican Brotherhood “engaged in a conspiracy of a highly treasonous nature, a danger to the Commonwealth and possibly the Empire, and injurious to Great Britain and her Allies”.
After an initial hearing and adjournment, the hearing lasted for several days in September, the main thrust of the Commonwealth’s case being that the men were in cohorts with a group of Sinn Feinists in the United States who were raising money to buy arms to send to the Nationalists in Ireland.
Early evidence was given that during a search of Dalton’s house by Victoria Police, he had repeatedly denied that there was such a thing in Melbourne as Sinn Fein.
Dalton was represented in court by the prominent Catholic advocate and anti-conscriptionist Frank Brennan and a Member of the House of Representatives.
Along with the Defence counsels of the other internees, there was the predictable legal argument as to the validity of the warrants issued for the internment of the men.
Police claimed that they had found coded letters at Dalton’s house which referred to a “recipe for a severe attack of cold”, where the three ingredients so coded constituted a mixture for a crude explosive said to have been used by the International Workers of the World (I.W.W. or “Wobblies” as they were known) in attacks on properties in New South
Wales.
One of the letters in un-coded form also suggested “medicine bottles are easily carried; beer bottles are too heavy” in what police alleged was a thinly-veiled reference to the possible projectiles that could be used in conjunction with the explosive mixture.
The major accusation against Dalton was that the police had found a map and diagrams of an explosive mine which they suggested “looked like a plan to blow up a magazine on the Darebin Creek“, a charge to which Dalton had made no reply.
A quick geography lesson may be in order here! Dalton’s address in Alfred Crescent was given as 117 and depending exactly where it was, “about a mile” places the battery and magazine somewhere between Northcote Park and the Heidelberg Road bridge. Perhaps
significantly, this appears to be a site that the Defence Department just after the outbreak of war considering as developing as a rifle range before it abandoned the idea and decided instead to install miniature ranges in drill halls.
If the battery was in fact firing, the creek offered a trajectory of some 600 to 700-yards south-south-east to the western section of Yarra Bend – a slight impediment being the Heidelberg Road bridge itself!
Police evidence confirmed that there were two magazines at the site indicated by Dalton’s plan.
Under cross-examination by Brennan, the main police witness Detective Sainsbury
reiterated that Dalton had denied the existence of a Sinn Fiene group in Melbourne, but that he had been a past president of the I.N.A. “… before resigning in favour of a younger man“.
And therein as they say, “lies the rub” – other letters from Dalton to a compatriot in Ireland revealed he boasted as being part of the “uprisings of ’65 and ’67“.
The pressmen and few public spectators at the inquiry were obviously aware of the true situation, but to this point, casual readers could have been forgiven for assuming Dalton was probably a wild red-headed young Irishman straight from the docks of Belfast, but the letters gave Frank Brennan the chance to paint a different picture – Dalton was actually 77 years of age and had both a son and a nephew serving with the A.I.F.!
Most of the evidence produced by the prosecution over several days was highly circumstantial – coded letters, correspondence with Irish leaders in both the U.S. and Ireland written in invisible ink, and vague reference of payments received from “customers” – of dubious quality in a court of law and before a jury, but given this was purely an Inquiry under the rather draconian regulations of the War Precautions Act, sufficiently damning for the men’s internship to continue.
(Brennan made a strong point by pointing out that whilst advocating free home rule for Ireland may have been construed as an offence under the Australian Act, it was not in fact unlawful in Ireland, nor was it in any other Commonwealth country).
Rather strangely, there was no attempt to pursue further details of the supposed threat to the batteries and magazine secreted away somewhere on the Merri Creek. The
reality may well have been that the prosecution had nothing more than the drawing, there was no evidence of any arms (other than a rather volatile cold remedy, the ingredients of which the prosecution asked not to be read out in court, although adding an aside that “sulphur” has been spelt with an “F”).
Brennan again made play of Dalton having a son in the A.I.F. and rather than making any real attempt to refute the charge instead went on to paint a picture of his client as a harmless old man with a penchant for writing letters, at one stage presenting a number of un-posted letters in Dalton’s handwriting to well-known Irish-Catholic supporters including
Archbishop Mannix and the Leader of the Victorian Opposition, George Prendergast … “he
is no German … he is at that age of life when he loves to look back and talk about the past… a harmless simple-minded man with a rich imagination deluding himself into thinking he could do something for the sake of Ireland“.
The inquiry concluded after seven days of hearing and it was another three weeks before Justice Harvey completed his report.
The “verdict” was announced by the Acting Prime Minister in the House of Representatives on 26 September. Justice Harvey reported that there while there appeared to be no evidence that any of the men had connections to “enemy persons” within Australia, but by virtue of their membership of the Irish National Brotherhood, they
had hostile associations through German agencies in America and had collected money in Australia for the purchase of war-like material from Germany for the purpose of assisting armed rebellion in Ireland against the British Government.
Reporting on each of the individuals, Justice Harvey described Maurice Dalton as an “old rebel” promoting physical force and finding and encouraging younger men to carry out his teachings. Although there was no mention of the Merri Creek “plot”, Harvey suggested the “recipe for a severe cold” in Dalton’s handwriting was “intended to be the fire dope used by the I.W.W. in Sydney for the destruction of buildings“.
The Federal Cabinet ruled that the men’s internment would continue, but because of Dalton’s advanced age, a special medical report would be sought. Around a month later, it was announced two Australia Army Medical Corps doctors had examined Dalton and determined he had no organic disability or condition other than the effects of advanced age “and his chances of longevity under the care of internment was as great if not greater than if he was released“.
Following the cessation of hostilities around five weeks later, the men were released early in January of the following year after around two months in confinement …:
“During the past fortnight, the Irishmen who were interned at Darlinghurst some time ago have been set at liberty. Mr. Maurice Dalton, who certainly looks none the worse for his experience, makes no complaint of has treatment by the authorities save in depriving him of his liberty …”
“IRISH NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. A grand Irish-Ireland night was held by the I.N.A., at the Guild Hall, Swanston-street, to welcome the I.N.A. interstate delegates to the Race Convention. Prominent among the visitors were Mr. Frank Brennan, M.H.R., and the Rev. Dr. Prendergast, of Port Augusta. A pleasing feature of the evening was the presence of Messrs. A. T. Dryer, N.
McSweeney, M. McGing, Wm. McGuinness, and Maurice Dalton, ex-Irish internees. Mr. Frank Brennan, in the course of a short speech, remarked that it gave him great pleasure to meet these gentlemen in more congenial surroundings, and he trusted that the cause in which they had
suffered would soon be triumphant …” (Catholic) Advocate, 29 November, 1919
Maurice Dalton passed away in Cheltenham 1923 at 80 years of age (a slight variation on what was suggested during the trial) – there was no obituary listed, nor was a family Death Notice placed. In the absence of the latter, it is impossible to track the son that
served – there were three of the family name that served with their place of birth listed as Ireland, but all three had nominated relatives (two their mothers, the other a brother) in Ireland as next of kin.
