General News
27 June, 2026
Murder on the Queenscliff fort
VETERAN VOICES: Private Arthur Roy Willis was born on January 31, 1900, in Stawell, to parents Henry and Rosina Willis of 56 Winsor Street, Footscray, Victoria.
He enlisted for service on April 8, 1916, giving his age as 18 and 2 months.
His WWI service number was 2574, and his WWII service number was V160322.
In the First World War, Arthur was allocated to the 46th Battalion, 5th Reinforcements, 1st AIF, and embarked for England on HMAS A15 from Port Sydney, and received further training on September 7.
He disembarked from Plymouth on October 29, 1916.
On November 19, he was posted to No. 12 Training Battalion Camp.
By March 1917, Arthur had arrived in France, where he was sent to the ‘Bull Ring’ at Etaples for his final phase of training before entering the trenches.
He was admitted to the hospital with scabies on March 16, 1917, and was discharged three days later.
Arthur was posted to the Australian Infantry Base Depot at Havre on February 27, 1918, before being returned to the 46th Battalion, where he was taken on strength in the field on August 22.
Arthur remained in the trenches for the duration of the war before being sent back to England, where he began his repatriation to Australia.
Arthur was demobilised on October 6, 1919.
Having returned to Australia, Arthur was formally discharged from the 1st AIF on December 28, 1919, for his re-entry into civilian life.
He received the 1914-1918 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal for his service in WWI.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Arthur had been a bus proprietor when he again enlisted at Merino on January 17, 1942.
At that time, his locality on enlistment was Paschendale, Victoria.
Arthur was accepted for service and was taken on strength with the 3rd Garrison Battalion.
On May 29, 1942, whilst on service in the vicinity of the Bellarine coastline, Arthur was murdered, being shot at least four times with a .45 revolver.
Rumours circulated that Arthur had been murdered to prevent him from revealing black marketeering activity among his comrades.
Following his premature death at the age of forty-two whilst on service, Arthur had a formal military funeral, and to this day rests in an Official War Grave at the Williamstown General Cemetery, Victoria.
Private John ‘Johnny’ Joseph Hulston was born on June 18, 1924, in Dimboola.
He was illiterate and had left school at age nine to work on a relative's farm in Jeparit during the depression.
He enlisted in Ballarat on June 23, 1942.
Johnny was posted to the fixed defences at Fort Queenscliff, the coastal artillery command established by the Royal Australian Artillery to protect Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne from naval attacks.
John was on sentry duty at Crows Nest battery near Queenscliff when he went missing on September 1, 1942.
John’s torn trousers were found on the beach, and his service rifle was in the water.
A soldier, nine days after John’s disappearance, discovered his body while fishing.
His body had been weighed under rocks about 300m from where he had disappeared.
He had been shot in the chest with a .45 revolver at close range.
Theories circulated as to the motive of his murder.
Many believed that he was killed to stop him from giving evidence at the coronial inquest into the murder of Arthur Willis, which was due to open in Geelong two days later.
The deaths of Private Arthur Willis and John Hulston remain unsolved.
In 2002, the army renamed the fort’s Soldiers’ Club the J.J. Hulston Club.