Len Waters

Leonard Victor "Len" Waters (20 June 1924 – 24 August 1993) was the first Aboriginal Australian military aviator, and the only one to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. Aboriginal people at the time suffered significant discrimination and disadvantages in Australian society, such as restrictions on movement, residence, employment, and access to services and citizenship. Born in northern New South Wales and raised in Queensland, Waters was working as a shearer when he joined the RAAF in 1942. Training initially as a mechanic, he volunteered for flying duties and graduated as a sergeant pilot in 1944. He flew P-40 Kittyhawks in the South West Pacific theatre, where he completed ninety-five missions, mainly close air support. By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of warrant officer. Following his discharge from the RAAF in 1946, he attempted to start a regional airline but was unable to secure financial backing and government approval. He went back to shearing, and died in 1993 aged sixty-nine.

Early life Leonard Victor (Len) Waters was born at Euraba Mission, near Boomi in northern New South Wales, on 20 June 1924. He was the fourth child of eleven born to labourer Donald Waters and his wife Grace Vera (née Bennett). They belonged to the Kamilaroi group of Aboriginal Australians, whose traditional lands encompassed southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Grace's father George Bennett was a veteran of World War I who had served with the 29th Battalion AIF on the Western Front. Donald's father was white, and Donald's skin was so light that he was not classed as Aboriginal. When Waters was two the family was moved from Euroba to the Toomelah Aboriginal Reserve. In 1931 Donald was offered work at Nindigully, near St George, Queensland, and took the opportunity to relocate his family. At a reserve such as Toomelah, the children of large families were at greater risk of being removed by the government; a town like Nindigully not only put the Waters family beyond the jurisdiction of reserve authorities but also offered the chance of better education.

Waters completed seventh grade at Nindigully State School, two grades higher than he would have been permitted at Toomelah. He excelled at mathematics and geography, boxed, played cricket and rugby, and learnt to shoot with his father's .22 rifle. Hearing tales of pioneering aviators Charles Kingsford Smith, Amy Johnson, Bert Hinkler and Charles Lindbergh, and reading stories of Biggles, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers, he had, as he put it, his "head in the clouds" from an early age. He also displayed a mechanical aptitude, helping his father maintain the family's Model T Ford. Waters' teacher had hoped he would continue his education in Brisbane but he left school, aged fourteen, to support his family, working alongside his father as a ring barker beginning in April 1938. He was paid ten shillings per week, for seven day's work, In 1939, he began working as a shearer. Having turned eighteen, Waters enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 24 August 1942, at Brisbane. The application form required the candidate to state if they were of "pure European descent", which Waters answered in the affirmative. He began training as an aircraft mechanic, but later volunteered for flying service. Completing his training on CAC Wirraways at No. 5 Service Flying Training School in Uranquinty, he received his wings as a sergeant pilot on 1 July 1944. On 14 November 1944, he was posted to No. 78 Squadron, a fighter unit based on the island of Noemfoor, off Dutch New Guinea. When he arrived, he was allocated a P-40 Kittyhawk. By chance, a previous pilot had nicknamed the plane "Black Magic" and painted those words on its nose. On 1 January 1945, he was promoted to flight sergeant. By the end of the war, Waters was commanding operations whose personnel included commissioned officers.

Post-war life and legacy

After his discharge, Waters attempted to start a regional airline serving South West Queensland, but he was not able to secure finance or bureaucratic agreement. In 2011, the Sutherland Shire Council recognised Waters' achievements by dedicating Len Waters Park, with a memorial plinth and plaque, at Timbrey Circuit, Barden Ridge, New South Wales. In October 2020, a new building at RAAF Base Williamtown was named in his honour. In 2018 Peter Rees published The Missing Man, a biography of Waters.