Segregation as brought to Brisbane with the US troops. The US Army formed coloured troops into coloured units (which were not armed-always transport and labour units), housed them in separate camps (e.g. Camp Freeman in. Richlands) and prevented them from entering the Brisbane ‘CBD (West End across the river was designated their Reg.R area).
NB-The unofficial White Australia Policy meant the Australian government had initially requested that no coloured troops be brought to Australia. It seems that the Pope (Pius XII) made a similar request when US forces went into Italy lthat coloured troops not be stationed in Rome). The Australian request was ignored by the USA. But the Australian government later received agreement that only white troops serving in the Pacific be brought to Brisbane for R&R – the coloured troops could not return. The state censor directed the newspapers to make no mention of the coloured soldiers.
Neville Bonner (later Queensland’s first Aboriginal senator) was refused when he tried to enlist. Later there was just one all-Aboriginal platoon of volunteers in the Australian Military Forces: Aboriginal volunteers normally enlisted with other locals.
• The first coloured US Army officer commissioned at Camp Columbia, Wacol in 1943 was Capt E Lowe.
The first Aboriginal officer in the Australian Army was at about the same time – Lt Reg Saunders was commissioned in November 1944 in Seymour, Victoria.
Local hero Sergeant Len Waters was the only Aboriginal pilot to serve in the RAAF. He lived in Inala after the war and brought up his children in the area.