William Bustard (1894-1973), Soldiers at Work 1942

Lot description

WILLIAM BUSTARD (1894-1973) Soldiers at Work 1942 watercolour on paper signed and dated lower right: W BUSTARD AUG 1942 33.5 x 45.5cm OTHER NOTES This watercolour was painted from sketches Bustard made while on active service as camouflage officer with the R.A.A.F. The image illustrates a project located at Gayndah, Queensland involving the camouflaging of three storage tanks by turning them into a dummy farm. Bustard was called on to cover home front activities in 1942 after applying but not being accepted to be an official war artist. Despite never becoming an official war artist Bustard was approached by archivist John Treloar in 1949 to see if he had any war-themed artworks that might be acquired for the collection. The artist made the following detailed notations on the technical aspects of the project. 'The depot was situated at Gayndah Queensland on the Monto line and comprised of three large storage tanks of High Octane Aviation spirit. The tanks were bricked all around, the bricks were toned down, to eliminate colour, with paint. Around the base of the tanks were banks of earth to form a saucer like shape in case a blast cracked the structure to keep the petrol in a local position. The little piggery (Dummy) was placed to cover up lots of the pixing pikes, The delivery shed was camouflaged to look like an ordinary cottage. One of the large tanks was made to appear like some country flour mill and the others were made to appear like large clumps of trees that were common to the district. The earth works were a big problem on account of the enormous area they covered. The mixing room, guard room and automatic fire shed for pumping foam were all treated in a manner to fit in with the surrounding landscape. From the air at no time was it possible to see a shadow of the straight edges of the tanks as observations were made at all times of the day. The R.A.A.F took many photographs at varying stages of the work.'