I came to Brisbane with General MacArthur – his whole office moved from Melbourne to Brisbane in July ’42. I was a Staff Sergeant in Supply and Logistics – moving troops, ships and supplies. We moved into the AMP building in Queen Street, now MacArthur Chambers. I still visit there often, as I am involved […]
Bill Bentson – studied at the US Officers School Read More »
Bryan was in the US Army, 32nd infantry division-“The Red Arrows.” The departure of their fleet of 43 ships for New Guinea was headlined in the US newspapers – and then they set off from San Francisco with just one light carrier escort! There were 40,000 men-and they had three sleeping shifts to share the
Before the War My Dad’s great-grandparents were local pioneers. They homesteaded The Blunder – when the first selections were opened up there in 1865. King Avenue in Durack (then Oxley) bears their name. Dad’s parents came out from England as children, the Weekes from Devon, Prices from Oxfordshire. They met in Oxley and married in
Lona Grantham (nee Price) – WWII and Oxley Read More »
Background In 1863, John Andrew Dunlop arrived in Moreton Bay from Scotland. Just nineteen years old, he soon found a place, clearing land along Oxley Creek for a pioneer farmer. Eventually, he became a land-owning farmer himself and grew cotton and other crops along Oxley Creek for many years. Dunlop Park at Corinda was created
Ted Dunlop Remembering Oxley/Corinda during WWII Read More »
By Val Jackson (nee Valma Jones of Redbank Plains & Goodna) During WW2 a large Australian Army camp was established at Redbank in S.Qld. Raw recruits entered the camp, were trained, then shipped off to various theatres of war. My sister Queenie & her husband, Ted Evans, lived close to the Goodna Railway Station, one
WWII stories from Redbank by Val Jackson Read More »
Dated : Kamp Columbia 3-8-45 This digitised copy of the original booklet provides a satirical overview of the people at Camp Columbia. The author most likely uses a fictional name: Prof. Dr. K.F. Pescator. Through descriptions of flora, he portrays the various military and civilian ranks and positions of the personnel. Perhaps it was presented
Satirical publication Camp Columbia (Dutch) Read More »
Patricia (Pat) Metcalfe (born 1929 in Cairns) moved to Brisbane when she was 4 years old and after she finished the St Columba school at Wilson, was employed at Camp Columbia as a typist and secretary, first with the Americans and since 1945 with the Netherlands-East-Indies Government. Here she worked for the Department of Works
Patricia Metcalfe and Wim van Wely met at Camp Columbia Read More »
ATIS was an integrated unit composed of Australian and American intelligence personnel and staff from the other Allied Forces (the Netherlands and China) Their primary responsibilities were the interrogation of Japanese POWs from Gaythorne POW Camp and the interpretation of captured Japanese documents. Given the low surrender rate of Japanese soldiers, ATIS placed greater emphasis
Allied Translator and Interpreter Section at Indooroopilly Read More »
I was not quite six when war broke out. I lived with my parents, Ted and Queenie Evans, my older sister Shirley, and (from 1942) my younger sister Kaye, behind the H.L. Jones Beegoods Factory opposite the Goodna Railway Station. In the cottage beside us lived my Grandmother Jones, my aunt Audrey Jones, and Miss
A Goodna child’s view of WWII – by Claire Wilson (nee Evans) Read More »
I was born in 1927 in a Railway house at Wacol (then Wolston), the youngest of six children. Dr. Moray, a woman doctor from the Wolston Park hospital, delivered me. My father was the local Ganger—responsible for maintenance of the railway line from Darra to Goodna. He was from Roma, and my mother was from
Joan Lord (nee Murphy) – Wacol during WWII Read More »
I was born in the family home in Wacol, on 14 December 1923. The house was behind my present house at the golf course end of Wuriga Street. (Then the road was called Florence Street—and the suburb was Wolston). My father Fred was born in Wolston too, in 1896, in a slab hut just two
Dick Holland – joined the Australian Imperial Force Read More »
My mother’s parents were born in Australia, of Irish stock, and my father’s parents were English. My parents were married in Paddington in about 1925. I was born in Paddington in 1927, the eldest of five children. My father had a milk and ice run in Paddington and Toowong, but when the Depression came, custom
Norm Bremner’s war memories Read More »
Darra Before the WarBoth my parents were of Irish extraction, from families who came to Ipswich (which was then expected to become the capital of Queensland) and then to Grandchester in the mid-1800s. Both were born here—Father in 1878, Mother in 1893. I was born in 1923, at St Mary’s Hospital in Ipswich, and my
Mary Wilson (nee Hogan) – Americans in Darra Read More »
Les: My parents were married in England, but I was born here, and I was two months old when I came to Darra in 1924. Gwen: I was born in England in 1924 too. My father came out here first to get a job and find a house. He had a brother in Ipswich who
Les and Gwen Perry (nee Brown) – WWII memories from around Darra Read More »
The Loff FamilyMy mother Tilly was born in Darra on 4 November 1905. The youngest of six children, she was born at home, in a railway house. Darra was little more than a fettler’s camp then—though Brittain’s Brickworks had been going since 1899. The fettler’s houses were beyond the brickworks, near the “Nine-foot bridge”—which was
Desley Lansbury (nee Scott) – WWII stories from Darra Read More »
My father, Bill Eason, was born in Highgate Hill in 1886. Mother was born in England in 1890 and came out in 1909. They met and married in 1911. My father and his brother Len took the train from Indooroopilly to look at land in Darra in 1914, when the first advertisements for town blocks
Bob Eason – a teenager during WWII Read More »
Pino in 1939 I was fourteen when war was declared. I was attending Central Tech three days a week, studying architecture. I would ride my bike the three miles (5 km) from Richlands to Darra, put it under the Station Master’s house, take the train to Brisbane, then walk to the Tech (now QUT). Even
Pino Zerlotti farm boy – exempt from military services Read More »
ParadeMy grandfather Robert Burke Sparrow was from Sandgate. He worked at the Ipswich Railway Workshops, and he bought land for a “hobby farm” in Richlands from the Dynes about 1910. He retired there to his poultry farm on Archerfield Road. Dad (Howard Sparrow) was born in 1904, and he worked with my grandfather on the
Noel Sparrow – remembering US soldiers Read More »
Memories From The War Years The Reed family arrived from England in 1928 and settled in Richlands in 1931. Milly, the elder daughter, provided these anecdotes for the book Richlands State School – 60th Anniversary 1934-1994, which was written and produced by Ric Formigoni, a teacher and former pupil at the school. Service Industries (P63
Milly Yarnold (nee Reed) – Memories From The War Years Read More »
It was the early part of 1942, and I was seventeen, when the Americans came. One morning I was standing in Archerfield Road, talking to a friend, when four or five trucks came up the road and pulled up right in front of us. Dozens of soldiers got out and set to making a clearing
Alido Vincenzi – delivered ice to Camp Columbia Read More »
