Lawrie Griffiths

Lawrie Griffiths grew up in Ascot Vale, delivering milk from his family dairy and sneaking into the showgrounds with any chance he got. He remembers going to the Royal Melbourne Show as a young boy and seeing all the animals competing, especially the horses, which were a real highlight for him.

It was a very, very crowded place, with people on foot walking the streets and walking all the pavilions and looking at everything that's going on. On the pavilion they had entertainment going on, grandstands around it, and people were stationed there … It was very, very interesting really.

When World War II was declared, Lawrie signed up to fight, like thousands of other young men. He chose to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The Department of Defence took over the Melbourne Showgrounds from 1940. This was initially going to be for just one year, but it soon became apparent that the war was not going to end quickly, and the department remained at the showgrounds for the duration of the war. This had happened once before in 1915, during World War I. While under military occupation, the Royal Melbourne Show did not run.

Initially, both the military and air force made use of the showgrounds, but the RAAF soon took full occupation for its Aeronautical Engineering School. The Department of Defence added additional facilities to the showgrounds as needed, and thousands of men and women received training there.

Lawrie spent nine months training at the showgrounds. He recalls that ‘the air force took over the whole place. It was mainly the training, marching, discipline’, as well as disassembling and reassembling planes. Lawrie remembers ‘marching around and around the streets. We quite often marched through to Flemington Racecourse’.