Robert Barham Black

Robert Barham Black was born in North Adelaide on 28 November 1938, a twin son of Geoffrey Howard Barham Black and Catherine Gilmore Reid. His father, a doctor who became an ophthalmologist served in both World War 1 and World War 2. Enlisting in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1916, he saw service on the Western Front with the 1st Australian General Hospital, 1st Field Ambulance and 1st Field Artillery, and was gassed at Passchendaele on 28th Oct 1917. He was evacuated by the 3rd Field Ambulance and then to 3rd London General Hospital where he recovered before returning to the Western Front serving with the 73rd Field Ambulance, Royal West Kents, and 3rd Australian General Hospital.

Between the wars, he worked privately and at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and served in the Inter War Service Militia from 1927 where he was promoted to Major in October 1934. He also served in World War 2 as Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services, 105th Australian Military Hospital at Daw Park, Commanding Officer, 3 Field Ambulance and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on the Reserve of Officers from 2 March 1942. It is a family understanding that his command of 3 Field Ambulance was terminated as he was deemed unfit to serve overseas following his WW1 gassing. It was a bitter blow to Black, exacerbated by the subsequent receipt of a white feather in the mail. He then wore his uniform at every opportunity even when consulting to show that he had not shirked his responsibility.

Robert Black was educated at St Peters College in Adelaide from 1945 to 1956 and served in the cadets as a youth. Excelling academically, he received an ‘Intermediate’ Exhibition in 1953, a ‘Leaving’ Commonwealth Scholarship in 1954 and a ‘Leaving’ State Bursary in 1954.

He considered a military career as a youth but elected to study medicine at Adelaide University. However, while at university and noting that his number was not picked for National Service, he enlisted in the Citizen Air Force as a cadet along with his twin brother, Andrew, with the Adelaide University Squadron based at Barton Terrace, North Adelaide, on 5 July 1957.

Formed as the Adelaide University Squadron on 10 November 1950, the unit was one of six state-based university squadrons established to provide officer training to undergraduates who would then serve as commissioned officers in the RAAF General Reserve. Each squadron comprised a number of flights including Flying, Medical, Equipment, Administrative and Technical. Personnel served for two years while studying as cadets and then commissioned as officers serving another five years in the CAF Reserve with options to continue beyond their initial period of service. The squadrons were disbanded in 1973 following the end of conscription with approximately 3,100 commissioned officers trained by the various squadrons over 24 years.

Noting Robert was studying medicine, he enlisted as an air cadet (medical). As a young cadet in the CAF, Robert worked various days during the year including camps and bivouacs on weekends and university holidays. While routine days were conducted at Barton Terrace, he also completed time at Mallala, Point Cook and Rathmines. Having completed his initial two years as a cadet, Robert was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in 1959. In January 1959, he completed a week long course at the Institute of Aviation Medicine and then a week long officer training course at Officer Training School, Point Cook. Graduating from Adelaide University in 1963, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. After graduating he notified Air Force of his willingness to serve but he never got called up despite the war in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Robert proceeded to complete a Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons by 1968 and then overseas to complete a Master of Surgery. He was a Lecturer in Surgery in Sheffield, then Senior Lecturer in Perth WA and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Adelaide, completing a Doctor of Medicine in 1980. During this period, he remained on the CAF Reserve but did not complete any service.

In 1980, Robert was contacted by the RAAF and invited to be appointed to the RAAF Specialist Reserve as a Reserve Medical Officer. The move followed a RAAF reorganisation where the Citizen Air Force was disbanded and a RAAF Reserve was established comprising RAAF Active Reserve including the former CAF squadrons, the RAAF Specialist Reserve comprising specialist medical, legal and chaplaincy personnel and a RAAF general reserve comprising inactive reserve personnel. Robert accepted the invitation and was appointed a Squadron Leader in the RAAF Specialist Reserve.

The appointment to the specialist reserve saw Robert reacquainted with the RAAF uniform and service. Conducting an initial rotation with No 4 RAAF Hospital at RAAF Butterworth as a surgeon in September 1980 for which he was specifically reappointed to the RAAF Reserve, he completed two follow-on rotations in September 1983 and March 1987.

Originally established as one of 7 RAAF Hospitals in World War 2, 4 RAAF Hospital was reformed in March 1965 at RAAF Butterworth with a complement of 146 personnel to provide medical services not just to the base but also support aeromedical evacuation from the Vietnam War and Confrontation in Malaya. The hospital provided services beyond that of a civilian hospital including general practitioner, specialist medical, preventative and curative dental, environmental health, aviation medicine, aeromedical evacuation, and medical fitness of serving personnel. Specialist services such as surgical, anaesthetic, psychiatry, gynaecology, obstetrics and ophthalmology were provided by specialist reserve medical officers on one-month rotations from Australia such as what Robert provided. The hospital closed in July 1987.

He served on three occasions in northern Australia on major exercises including KANGAROO and PITCH BLACK. In January 1982, he was appointed a Senior Visiting Medical Specialist position at the Daws Park Repatriation General Hospital, the successor to the 105 Australian Military Hospital that his father served at during World War 2. In 1987, he was promoted to Wing Commander in the RAAF Specialist Reserve and appointed Principal Reserve Medical Officer (South Australia and Northern Territory).

In November 1988, Rob was the specialist aviation medical officer in support of Blackhawk trialsat RAAF Amberley.

In 1990, Robert was awarded the Reserve Force Decoration. The Reserve Force Decoration was awarded to an officer who had, on or after 14 February 1975 and before 20 April 1999, completed 15 years efficient commissioned service in the Reserve Forces. Clasps were awarded for each additional period of five years efficient commissioned Reserve service after qualifying for the medal. Regular service did not qualify towards clasps for this award.

Due to his extended service, Rob was awarded four clasps to his Reserve Force Decoration. From 20 April 1999, the Reserve Force Decoration was replaced by the Defence Long Service Medal and so long-serving Air Force reservists wear the medal with pride noting it is a postnominal.

In 1994, Robert was selected for his first of several United Nations peacekeeping deployments deploying on the second United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR II). The UNAMIR peacekeeping mission was established by United Nations in late 1993 aimed at facilitating the peace process for the devastating Rwandan Civil War between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). UNAMIR 1, comprising just over 2,000 personnel, deployed to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, in late 1993 with the goals to:

• help ensure the security of the capital, Kigali
• monitor the ceasefire agreement
• monitor the security situation leading up to elections
• help with landmine clearance
• help coordinate humanitarian activities.

In early 1994, the peace process broke down. The presidents of Burundi and Rwanda were killed when their plane was shot down on 6 April 1994. In response, prominent Hutu figures seized control of the Rwandan government. Blaming the Tutsi RPF for shooting down the plane, the Hutu’s unleashed a wave of violence, massacring Tutsis in what has become known as the Rwandan genocide or what Peacekeeping official historian Garth Pratten has described as 'an orgy of violence unparalleled in the post-war world'. UNAMIR was unable to stop the violence. Ten Belgian peacekeepers who had been sent to protect the Hutu moderate prime minister were beaten and killed the day after the plane crash. In May 1994, the UN mission was expanded with an additional 5,000 troops and reworked as UNAMIR II with the mission to 'to contribute to the security and protection of displaced persons, refugees and civilians at risk in Rwanda'.

The Australian Government sent two ADF contingents to Rwanda, each serving for 6 months (August 1994 to February 1995 and from February to August 1995). In total, 612 Australians deployed as part of Operation TAMAR as part of the UNAMIR operation. The contingents' primary focus was to provide medical support to the existing UN mission, other UN agencies, contractors, and employees and members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Rwanda.

Despite the humanitarian crisis underway in the country, it was not intended that the Australians would provide humanitarian assistance. However, the changing situations experienced on the ground saw the Australians provide significant medical and other support to Rwanda civilians. The second contingent comprised:

• B Company 2nd Battalion, RAR
• engineers from the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment
• armoured personnel carriers from B Squadron 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment
• surgeons and other medical specialists, mainly from the Army, RAN and RAAF Reserves, who were rotated through the force in 6-week periods.

Deploying as a surgeon, Robert conducted pre-deployment training at Randwick Barracks in Sydney in mid-December and arrived in Nairobi on Christmas Day 1994 and then into Rwanda as one of a four-person surgical team. He has later described his time in Rwanda as a busy one performing clinical work each day. His tri-service medical staff treated the many victims of the previous genocide, of current fighting, and land mines. This included difficult amputation of limbs from children after land mine injuries and being unable to save victims from catastrophic head trauma or abdominal injuries that would be saved in Australian Hospitals with better ward care.

He later recalled two remarkable successes including saving a middle-aged woman who presented several months after a neighbour’s abdominal slash to separate, for separate burial, her dead foetus presumed dead after 48 hours of obstructed labour. Likewise, saving a man’s voice who might give evidence at a war crimes trial after he was bashed unconscious and chopped by a machete dividing his larynx. The man was so thrilled when he found he could talk after surgery that he offered one of his cows as a present to the surgical team.

His first surgical procedure in Rwanda was on his first day in country; a plastic surgical procedure to put skin grafts onto the injured thigh of a two-year-old boy whose mother had died in a blast that injured him. He was carried to theatre by his nine-year-old sister who wore her late mother’s shoes. She remained with her little brother throughout his long admission. Skin grafting was the commonest procedure that he performed in Rwanda. He later said that “dealing with shattered limbs, amputating legs of children, is not a most satisfying task. Nor is it one that would appear often on a general surgeon’s list in Australia. But it had to be done.”

However, he also later recalled that he had some memorable and satisfying experiences helping to treat some of the countless victims of war. He met many local Rwandan citizens and every person he treated had lost family members and many were sole survivors. A few were still at grave risk, as they would become important witnesses to the genocide that would later be tried in the International Courts prosecuting war crimes.

During the rotation he visited Cyanika, one of the UN tented camps for displaced persons. He visited the UN Headquarters and the Australian Medical Support Force HQ most weeks, and the Australian Support Force camp on many occasions. There was ongoing risk that further fighting might break out but Robert later said he did not feel in personal danger during the deployment.

On his last day on deployment, he performed two operations on UN Peacekeepers – conducting a hernia repair and treating an anal condition. There were other UN soldiers requiring his services: two required laparotomies after trauma, another an appendicectomy and others needed treatment of various other injuries.

Completing his first United Nations peacekeeping operation, he returned to his special reserve medical officer’s duties. In this capacity, he was appointed in 1997 Surgical Consultant to Director General of Air Force Health Services.

In July 1998, he deployed on the first of two peace monitoring deployments to Bougainville as part of OP BELISI Bougainville. In the 1990’s, the PNG government requested the Australian and New Zealand governments to provide a monitoring group to oversee a ceasefire on Bougainville Island in eastern Papua New Guinea. Australia subsequently participated in three peace related operations on Bougainville including a South Pacific Peacekeeping Force (SPPKF) in 1994, a Truce Monitoring Group (TMG) from 1997–1998 and a Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) from 1998– 2003. The Peace Monitoring Group, comprising civilian and military elements from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu and deployed and established on the island on 1 May 1998. Approximately 2,100 Australian personnel served in the PMG, with around 230 personnel on Bougainville at any one time.

Robert deployed on OP BELISI in July 1998 and again in April 2001. After conducting pre-deployment training, he flew from RAAF Townsville by RAAF C- 130 aircraft arriving at Aropa, the main airfield on the island and travelled by road north to Loloho, the main port town on the eastern coast of Bougainville. Serving for almost three weeks each, he worked as part of a tri-service full time/reserve ADF Combined Health Element of 25, including Pathology, Radiology and Dental sections.

The medical detachment was collocated with the Loloho Support Team operating in the remnants of the Loloho port facility. Living and working in tents and damaged and abandoned damaged buildings, conditions were simple.

The team performed various surgery including facial, laparotomies and even treating old injuries dating back decades. During the 1998 deployment, he performed under local anaesthesia a flap repair removing a facial tumour from Joseph Kabui, Commander Bougainville Revolutionary Army, later Chairman of the Bougainville Interim Government and first President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Such an operation on a distinguished political figure at the time would have carried some risk if the surgery went askew. Rob recalled operating on a knee previously treated by an Australian Medical Officer in World War 2. Sadly, he unsuccessfully treated a 28-year-old woman with post malarial renal failure who despite initial surgical success returned with her husband to her village to die. He recalled seeing a patient with leprosy and villagers with exotic tropical conditions. On the 2001 deployment to Bougainville, he experienced Anzac Day while deployed with serving members and attended a service commemorating the 3rd Anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement.

In August 2001, just after his return from Bougainville, Robert deployed on the first of several peacekeeping deployments to East Timor. By August 2001, the United Nations operations in East Timor were being conducted under the authority of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) established in late October 1999. The mission's aim was to transition East Timor to an independent government in 2002. Its responsibilities included providing a peacekeeping force to maintain security and order; facilitating and co-ordinating relief assistance to the East Timorese; facilitating emergency rehabilitation of physical infrastructure; administering East Timor and creating structures for sustainable governance and the rule of law; and assisting in the drafting of a new constitution and conducting elections.

Deploying as part of OP TANAGER, the ADF operation for UNTAET, and having reached the then compulsory retirement age of 60, it was found during his pre-deployment training in Darwin that he could not deploy in uniform, and he was directed to discard his uniform and serve as a civilian. He signed a contract releasing the ADF from liability and proceeded to complete the deployment. He later recalled the deployment was a fulfilling one with respected specialist colleagues but was awkward as the RAAF officer leading the unit treated him with some disrespect.

The UN Hospital in Dili was at a former Museum in the Comoro district of Dili. Medical contingents included units from Singapore, Slovakia and Egypt. Responsibilities were shared across the nationalities making consultations and exchanging medical ideas challenging given the different languages in use. Accommodation was in airconditioned portable units.

Returning to Australia, he was appointed Emeritus Consultant in Military Surgery to the Surgeon General in November 2021 to continue his work in the Air Force Reserve.

Ironically, two years later, Robert deployed for a second time to East Timor in July 2003 but this time in uniform as the ADF had decided to continue employing its reserve specialists until age 65. By 2003, East Timor had successfully transition to an independent country of Timor-Leste and the United Nations mission was now called United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET). The mission provided assistance to the new government. This included law enforcement, and internal and external security. The Australian operation was codenamed Operation Citadel. It comprised 3,200 ADF personnel. Their functions included:

• staffing headquarters
• managing logistics
• engineering
• military liaison tasks.

Rob deployed to Maliana in southwest Timor. Working with a New Zealand anaesthetist, Robert found that surgery was seldom required and instead they provided general medical assistance, trained with ADF members and visited local clinics caring for UN staff as opposed to aiding the community.

In 2003, he retired from both the Air Force Reserve and full-time civilian practice having served in various ways over 46 years in the RAAF including multiple operational deployments in his later years.

For his military service, Robert Black was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal (Rwanda and East Timor), Australian Service Medal (clasps SE Asia, Bougainville), Reserve Force Decoration with four clasps, the National Medal and the Australian Defence Medal. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (Military Division) in 1996. The Citation stated, “Under his leadership, and his personal efforts, the South Australian Specialist Reserve Medical Panel has achieved an unequalled reputation for reliability and availability in the Specialist Reserve.” However, over the next five years, Robert again proceeded overseas in civilian medical roles as a ship’s doctor seeing service in the Arctic, Antarctic, British Isles, Azores, Greenland, Arctic Canada, Newfoundland and Norway. In 2006, he also conducted a civilian tour of East Timor working with AUSAID at the Dili General Hospital with volunteers from other nations. Although an independent country by then, Timor was still somewhat fragile with occasional violence erupting between factions and many Hospital staff lacking intact homes living in UN tents. During the deployment he treated two serious cases of head trauma requiring training and experience beyond his extensive knowledge including performing a craniotomy to manage serious bleeding on the brain from a fracture.

Returning to Australia, Rob’s service to the nation did not cease. Robert became an active member of the veteran’s community, a role he continued for over 25 years serving with distinction at the local, state and national level across multiple organisations. He joined the RSL after returning from Rwanda. He became a Legatee in 2005, joined the Pensions, Personnel and Welfare Committees, and the Legacy Board in 2008 (Senior Vice-President 2009, President 2010). He chaired the National Legacy’s Statutes Revision Committee in 2012.

He was appointed to Federal Ministerial Advisory Committees in Health (Professional Services and Specialist Recognition), and Veterans’ Affairs (PMAC, 2008-2011). He was a Services Member of the Veterans’ Review Board, a member of the Veterans’ Advisory Council (SA) from 2011 to 2013, of the Veterans Health Advisory Council (2013) and Chairman of the Repat Foundation Research Grants Committee (2013)

He became a member of the RAAF Association (now Air Force Association) in 1991 serving as a committee member, Pensions Officer and President of the RAAFA / AFA Mitcham (2014-2017 and 2019 - 2026). He was elected to the AFA State Division Council in 2018 and served as the State President from Oct 2018 to October 2022 followed by a further year as a Vice-President. During his time as President of the State Division, he represented South Australia on the RAAFA/AFA National Board of Directors. He was made a Life Member of the AFA in 2017 in recognition of his services to the association.

In his time as President AFA-SA, he worked extensively on the Epic Flight Centenary, the Air Force Centenary, the establishment of the Sir Richard Williams Statue at Moonta and the Air Force Memorial at the South Australian Aviation Museum. Together with GPCAPT Greg Weller, Rob developed a strong bond and collaborative relationship between Air Force Association (South Australia) and RAAF Edinburgh where commemorations and events were managed collegiately ensuring a strong collective Air Force approach to commemoration and promoting Air Force heritage in South Australia.

He attended countless commemorations engagements and events advocating for Air Force veterans and ensuring Air Force veterans were heard and influence veteran’s agendas. He developed strong relationships with other veteran’s organisations, local, state and federal political representatives and the broader Defence community. However, he never forgot the local Air Force veterans and in particular, with aged veterans. In particular, he developed and ensured AFA remained connected with its World War 2 veterans and their families.

After 20 years of service to the St John Ambulance, he retired as State Medical Officer for SA (1996-2005) and was admitted as a Member of the Venerable Order of St John, and of Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller.

Rob served on the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons State Committee and was for eight years a Member of the Court of Examiners in General Surgery. For the Australian Association of Surgeons, he has been State Chairman, Federal Vice President, Distinguished Councillor and Board Member. He served on the State Council of the AMA, and for six years was the Chairman of the Co-ordinating Committee for Surgeons and Ophthalmologists for the Federal AMA. He was made a Fellow of the AMA in 2002. He has authored or co-authored of over 50 medical articles, in a range of subjects from fungal infections, medical student assessment, breast and colon cancer to cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a ‘Black-Hawk’ helicopter.

Robert Black’s reputation and contributions are held in the highest regard across the Air Force, AFA, the veteran community and indeed, the broader Adelaide community that he has touched in so many ways over the years. Having first enlisted in the Citizen Air Force in the late 1950’s and called in to provides his specialist medical skills in the 1980’s on rotations to Butterworth, he saw significant operational service overseas in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s in an era when the Australian Defence Force was routinely called upon by the Government to performchallenging peacekeeping operations across the globe. In Rwanda, he was tested by and had to treat horrific injuries to men, women and children in basic working conditions. Such scenes were not as intense but the challenges of treating unusual and difficult injuries in simple workplace remained in Bougainville and Timor. Reflecting the significant operational tempo of the time, Robert Black completed five operational deployments within a ten-year period at an age when most would be retired.

Incredibly, upon retiring from service in uniform, he continued to service his community and nation out of uniform. His steadfast advocacy for Air Force and veterans over many years reflects an extraordinary commitment to service. Indeed, his service across the decades as a specialist Reservist, including service in Rwanda, East Timor, Bougainville and Butterworth, as well as extensive post-service contributions through Legacy, the RSL, RAAFA/AFA-SA and multiple national advisory bodies, exemplify a lifetime of selfless service.

Greg Weller

Vice President

Air Force Association (South Australia)