Australian Dictionary of Biography

Raymond Trebilco (1951-54)

Australian War Memorial

Raymond Edward Trebilco (1926–1998), air force officer, linguist, and administrator of Norfolk Island, was born on 28 April 1926 at Rose Bay, Sydney, only son and younger child of Edward Trebilco, musician, and his wife Eva Maud, née Grubb, both Victorian born. Ray’s parents divorced in 1930 and the children lived with his mother who married Reynold Western Carse in Victoria in 1931. While attending Box Hill High School (1938–42), Trebilco in September 1942 joined No. 3 Squadron, Air Training Corps, Camberwell. Years later he admitted that this had been at the behest of his mates and was for the sport, with flying at that time turning out to be an experience which ‘didn’t really excite me’ (Trebilco 1994, 2). He studied engineering drawing at Melbourne Technical College and worked as a cadet draughtsman with the Postmaster-General’s Department until he was called up for pilot training with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 12 January 1945. Due to a surfeit of trainee pilots at war’s end, before completing his training he was selected for a Japanese language course, then posted to Japan as an interpreter with the Combined Services Interrogation Unit, British Commonwealth Occupation Force (1946–48).

Trebilco resumed pilot training at Point Cook, Victoria, in February 1948. He received his wings in August 1949, completed a conversion course to fly the P-51 Mustang, and in December was posted to No. 77 Squadron at Iwakuni, Japan. After war broke out on the Korean peninsula from July 1950, over two tours of duty he flew 101 missions in Mustangs and a further seventy-one in Gloster Meteors, dropping bombs and incendiaries, and strafing and firing rockets in support of United Nations ground forces. He was promoted to pilot officer in November 1950 and flying officer in November 1951. During eighteen months of service, for his courage and skill as an operational pilot he was awarded the United States of America’s Air Medal (1950) and a Distinguished Flying Cross (1951), and was mentioned in dispatches (1952). As his career unfolded, his senior officers generally found him to be likeable, intelligent, and committed, with a good sense of humour, backed by robust self-confidence.

In February 1952 Trebilco undertook an intensive Russian language course at the RAAF School of Languages, Point Cook, then continued language and intelligence studies while based at RAAF Overseas Headquarters, London (1954–57), gaining further training and experience in Paris, the British embassy in Moscow, the Joint Services School for Linguists, Scotland, and in West Germany. An accomplished all-round sportsman himself, on 17 March 1953 he had married a champion golfer, Victorian-born Janette Isobel Pierce Wellard, at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Box Hill, Victoria. He was promoted to flight lieutenant in May 1954.

Posted back to Australia, in February 1957 Trebilco was assigned to the Air Trials Unit, Woomera, South Australia, to work on improving the performance of Jindivik radio-controlled target drones. He also flew in the Meteor during successful trials of autonomously controlled total auto-pilot flight. In January 1959 he was promoted to squadron leader, while engaged in intelligence liaison duties at the Department of Air, Melbourne (1958–60).

Having attended the RAAF Staff College, Point Cook, in 1960, Trebilco completed a conversion course at Williamtown, New South Wales, to fly the Sabre jet fighter, and in 1961 was posted as flight commander, and from August 1962 commanding officer, of No. 77 Squadron at RAAF Butterworth, Malaysia. He regarded this phase, with new combinations of weaponry and tactics, as ‘the real start of air combat proficiency’ in the RAAF (Trebilco 1994, 27). During this time of fears of the spread of communism in South-East Asia, he oversaw the deployment of eight F-86 Sabre aircraft from Butterworth to Ubon, Thailand, where they reformed as No. 79 Squadron.

Trebilco performed intelligence liaison duties at the Department of Air, Canberra, from January 1964. Having been promoted to wing commander (acting September 1963, substantive January 1965), in 1965 he attended the United States Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, before being appointed intelligence staff officer in the Office of the Air Attaché, Washington, DC (1966–67). From 1968 to 1970 he served as commanding officer of No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit, Williamtown, during which the unit introduced the Mirage III fighter and the MB-326H Macchi trainer. In January 1970 he was promoted to group captain and appointed Australian services attaché in Tokyo, Japan, for three years. He served as director general recruiting, Department of Air, Canberra (1973–74), before attending the Royal College of Defence Studies, London (1975), and was again posted as officer commanding RAAF Butterworth (1976–77).

As an air commodore, Trebilco was appointed director general of operational requirements–Air Force, Canberra (1977–79), then air officer commanding Support Command, Melbourne (1979–80), following which he was promoted to acting (26 February 1979) and substantive (12 March) air vice-marshal. His final RAAF appointment was as chief of air force personnel (1981–82). He reflected in later years that he had found satisfaction at each step of his military career: ‘every rank was a highlight … I wouldn't have changed that for anything’ (Trebilco 1994, 32).

Trebilco was placed on the retired list on 27 January 1982 and was appointed AO. He immediately took up his first civilian posting, as administrator of Norfolk Island (1982–85) in the early days of the territory’s period of limited self-government. During a sometimes tumultuous stint, featuring local discord over the island’s governance and its relationship with the Australian government, Trebilco authorised the deportation of a former teacher who subsequently issued a bomb threat and demanded that the administrator be placed on a plane to the mainland. From 1987 he returned to Japan as a vice-president of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, a post he held for four years.

Retiring to the Gold Coast, Trebilco was active on the Anzac Korean Memorial Committee and as a member of the Queensland Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry; he also worked on improving his golf game. He died of brain cancer on 15 June 1998. His funeral was held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Canberra, on 22 June 1998. He was survived by wife Janette, and children Peter, Sally, and Andrew.