Brisbane’s overlooked wartime legacy: the forgotten Allied capital of Australia

In Australia, the global significance of Brisbane’s role during World War II is still not widely understood. Most Australians know that American forces were based here, and some may recall the so-called “Battle of Brisbane.” But few realise that Brisbane served as the most important Allied military hub in Australia—home to dozens of Army, Navy, and Air Force installations, the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur, and the base of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) government-in-exile.

This article is part of a three-part series exploring how Brisbane’s wartime role is reflected—or overlooked—in Australian, American, and Dutch historical narratives. This instalment focuses on the Australian perspective.

A city transformed by war

Brisbane’s transformation began in early 1942, when the Japanese advance in the Pacific—culminating in the fall of Singapore and the siege of Corregidor in the Philippines—prompted the relocation of Allied command operations to Australia. Brisbane became the headquarters of General MacArthur’s South West Pacific Area (SWPA), the central Allied command structure for the region.

MacArthur operated from the AMP Building in Queen Street, now home to the MacArthur Museum. From there, he and his multinational staff coordinated major campaigns in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Philippines.

At the same time, Brisbane hosted an expanding network of military bases and installations, including:

Camp Columbia at Wacol (U.S. Sixth Army and later Dutch HQ)
Enoggera Barracks, still an active military base today
Eagle Farm and Archerfield airfields
Kedron and Moorooka supply depots
Multiple U.S. and Australian naval facilities on the Brisbane River

By mid-1943, it is estimated that up to 100,000 American personnel were stationed in the city or passing through, with Brisbane becoming the most militarised city in Australia during the war. In all more than a million American soldiers passed through Brisbane.

Camp Columbia: A staging post and political base

One of Brisbane’s most significant but under-acknowledged installations was Camp Columbia in Wacol. Established in 1942, it served multiple roles:

Headquarters of the U.S. Sixth Army, under General Walter Krueger
A training and staging camp for U.S. troops en route to New Guinea and the Philippines
Host to the U.S. Officer Candidate School for the South West Pacific
And from 1944, the base of the Netherlands East Indies government-in-exile

This made Camp Columbia one of the most internationally significant wartime sites in Australia. It was not only a logistical and military hub, but also a place where foreign governance, propaganda (via NEIGIS), and intelligence (via NEFIS) were coordinated in support of the Allied war effort.

Australia’s war narrative: where is Brisbane?

Despite Brisbane’s role as an Allied command city, national memory tends to focus elsewhere. The dominant narratives of Australia’s WWII experience are framed by:

The fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin
The Kokoda Track campaign in Papua New Guinea
Naval battles like the Coral Sea
The home front and rationing stories across southern capitals

In many of these retellings—especially in national museums and school curricula—Brisbane is more often a staging post than a strategic actor.

Institutions like the Australian War Memorial in Canberra do document events like the Battle of Brisbane, but the city’s broader military, diplomatic, and logistical role receives limited attention. As a result, Brisbane’s contribution to the Allied victory in the Pacific is often underappreciated.

Dutch contributions to Allied operations

Another forgotten chapter is the contribution of Dutch forces operating from Australia. After the fall of the Netherlands East Indies in 1942, the Dutch military regrouped in Australia and joined Allied operations under American command.

Their roles included:

Dutch naval units operating within the U.S. Seventh Fleet
Merchant navy ships supporting Allied supply routes
The Netherlands East Indies Air Force, which conducted bombing raids from Australian bases
KNIL guerrilla fighters who continued resistance in New Guinea and Timor
Dutch intelligence and administration units headquartered at Camp Columbia

These forces were not merely guests—they were integral parts of the Allied machine, and their operations were closely intertwined with Australian and American strategy.

Limited national-level scholarship

A few notable exceptions include:

“Brisbane and World War II” (2015), edited by Barry Shaw – a valuable compilation from the Brisbane History Group that examines the city’s military and social history during the war. However, it remains largely confined to local readership.
“The Brisbane Line Controversy” by Paul Burns – investigates the controversial claim that northern Australia, including Brisbane, might have been sacrificed in the event of a Japanese invasion. While this book offers political context, it does not explore Brisbane’s role as a command centre in depth.

These works provide important insights, but they have not penetrated the national consciousness in the way stories of Kokoda, Tobruk, or Darwin have.

Why this history matters

Brisbane was not just a pit stop. It was the strategic brain of the Allied campaign in the Pacific, and it deserves to be recognised as such.

Revisiting this history invites us to:

Rebalance Australia’s wartime narrative to include Brisbane’s central role
Highlight the collaborative nature of the Pacific campaign—particularly with Dutch and American allies
Recognise the international dimensions of Australia’s military heritage

A call for renewed recognition

The Camp Columbia Heritage Association (CCHA) is working to make Brisbane’s full wartime story better known—locally, nationally, and internationally. This article is part of an ongoing series aiming to restore Brisbane to its rightful place in World War II history.

We invite educators, historians, and institutions to engage with this history and to help us share it more widely. For more resources, visit www.campcolumbia.com.au, where you can explore the rest of this series.

Paul Budde