WWII USA and Australian base / camps

[Trident III]

Hi ~ As a new member I have to says yours is avery impressive site ~
I live in Far North Queensland in Australia ~

This region was very heavily populated by extensive USA and Australian forces during WWII. From US and allied air forces plus naval and army forces of a wide description/s, numbers were in excess of 500,00.

One of the blokes at work bought a property on Bauld Rd near Malanda, 4885 (This is easily accessible via Google earth.)

He initially found that even in our 'dry season' there were patches of symmetrical squares of green grass. This sparked his curiosity and he asked an old timer down the road if he knew what was the story. The old man explained that during WWII there was a military base. But did not expand on that.

I have made extensive local inquiries but no one seems to know of the bases identity. I have an extensive map of all the recognised Australian bases. And there were a lot!! Some 80 from Innisfail to Cook Town and Cairns ~

Appreciate any pointers, or references as to USA or even Australian references to the bases that were here from 1942 to the end of the Pacific war. ( For example I know that US forces did not vacate the Brisbane carnival/ show ground till 1948. )

[Ed Robinson]

A place to start is the Booklet North Queensland WWII 1942-1945.
This was published by the Dept of Geographic Information 1988. By the Government printing office Brisbane.

Not only does it cover the history of the various bases but it has a large fold out map showing all the bases. Army, Air force, Navy.

[Ed Robinson]

The Atherton Table lands was well used by the Australian army during WW2 and there are a lot of ranges and camps through out the area. Malanda was an Australian camp.

I did exercises with the Australian Army in the area during the 1980’s.

[T3ngu]

Welcome to the Site. Is SS as waffen SS, or SS commodore, just checking as you may wish to change your user name in any case.

Try Peter Dunn's site http://www.ozatwar.com/. He has got a fair bit of info. When driving between Mareeba and Atherton IIRC there is an old base there, which is now a museum, i really regret not stopping there last time i was working up there.

And yes, the old bases are interesting. I worked with a guy whos parents had a cane farm around Mackay which still had bunkers on it. They used to store "stuff" there as a) nobody knew about them b) they were really secure.

[SuchIsLife]

If i recall correctly a MOD here (Digrar) has a mate digging up old US relics from various sites/old bases he may be able to help.....

[Trident III]

Thats my Initials.. Stuart Stirling and has NO obtuse or negative affiliation ~

Peter Dun and I have exchanged extensive emails regarding this and other issues such as the theory of Japanese sub crews landing on the SE NSW coast around Bermagui ~

I also had an extensive yarn with Michael Musemeci who wrote the book regarding the Black mountain Iron range base/s during the same period of WWII.
He suggests that this scenario of unidentified bases is not unusual .

He has given me a further lead locally ~

[Kant]

If i recall correctly a MOD here (Digrar) has a mate digging up old US relics from various sites/old bases he may be able to help.....

Haha. Like those people who try to find all the abandoned American equipment they supposedly buried into the side of Mount Louisa in Townsville.
Every year a new group of people would go looking for it, but no one would find it.

[Trident III]

Kant

It seems around these parts many folk manage to find a few less than safe items on a regular basis/

Some time back last year I think.. one bloke was mowing his back yard in one of Cairns newer burbs and three times, (I think) he hit some thing.. before checking to find a Mills Grenade ~ Opps !

Another couple were clearing the scrub on their extended block; just a few clicks from us and came across a mortar shell ~

Over the years there has been a string of finds ~ and some with nasty results ~

The Athertion Tableands & Cairns must have been quite a sight in those years from 1942 to 1945 ~

[Kant]

Kant

It seems around these parts many folk manage to find a few less than safe items on a regular basis/

Some time back last year I think.. one bloke was mowing his back yard in one of Cairns newer burbs and three times, (I think) he hit some thing.. before checking to find a Mills Grenade ~ Opps !

Another couple were clearing the scrub on their extended block; just a few clicks from us and came across a mortar shell ~

Over the years there has been a string of finds ~ and some with nasty results ~

The Athertion Tableands & Cairns must have been quite a sight in those years from 1942 to 1945 ~

Stuart

I spent my early years in Townsville in a house built on top of the main American Airforce base in Townsville during World War 2.
In my sand pit out the back I dug up an old ciggerette tin with "Baltimore, Maryland" engraved in the top, as well as finding numerous Pennies, nickels,dimes and quarters and pieces of scrap metal. But my best find was an original zippo lighter, which I got cleaned up and still use to this day. Everytime I light a ciggarette I think that some young guy, thousands of miles from home bought this with him and used it whilst he was risking his life for my future. Do you know if your mates done any digging out there?, cause it worked for me.
P.S They still have Malanda milk up there?

[T3ngu]

Stuart

I spent my early years in Townsville in a house built on top of the main American Airforce base in Townsville during World War 2.
In my sand pit out the back I dug up an old ciggerette tin with "Baltimore, Maryland" engraved in the top, as well as finding numerous Pennies, nickels,dimes and quarters and pieces of scrap metal. But my best find was an original zippo lighter, which I got cleaned up and still use to this day. Everytime I light a ciggarette I think that some young guy, thousands of miles from home bought this with him and used it whilst he was risking his life for my future. Do you know if your mates done any digging out there?, cause it worked for me.
P.S They still have Malanda milk up there?

Friend of mine is very straight laced, PHD type. He told me a story about his father observing where the yanks buried stuff at the end of WW2 near Oakey where he grew up. This is not such a stretch considering what was dug up at wallangarra not so long back. Go to John Vichie Firearms in Stanthorpe if you ever get the chance. Some cool stuff in there (deactivated of course).

Anyways, my friends father approached the ADF with regard to digging some of this stuff up and was told that whatever he found was the governments (i.e. vehicles etc). Needless to say its still in the ground. This guy has no reason to lie about this stuff.

@Stuart delete your real name. Its the interwebs.

[Trident III]

Kant

I have only got into this local Camp Tablelands thing of late despite my enthusiasm and have been bogged down in several classic restoration projects ~ The last looks to finally complete after five years.

I would like to buy a good metal detector but there is good and then there is Better ~ but $6K is lot of fossicking !!

If it had been my back yard I would excavated the entire Block ~ !!!!!

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P.S They still have Malanda milk up there?

Yep they are still there and I work for them... it was Malanda Milk but changed to Dairy Farmers Corp years ago.

Then two years ago, it was consumed by ~ National Foods...AKA, Lion Nathan ...AKA ...Kirin Breweries Japan ~

Now there has been a furore over the ruthless ~ business approach to 'local' business by Woolworths ~ as they will drive ANY business into the ground in their endeavours to get cheap goods..( which is NOT Passed onto the public !! ) ~ and they fully expected us to continue supplying their stores at a cost to them LESS than what it costs us to produce the goods.

So as a result National foods Australia wide do not supply Woolworhts with their dairy produce. In fact Pauls are shipping MILK from Vic and NSW to Far North QLD to supply their stores... !!!!!!

So our great mate ~ and currently one the most popular of three men in federal parliament~ BOB KATTER ~ has taken the issue on board ~

So we have had a huge marketing campaign, via the media which promotes 'LOCAL" products, supporting the Tablelands district Dairy Farmers ~

As a result the increase in Dairy Farmers produce has boomed ~ and many - many locals through out the area have abandoned Woolworths and support local business~ Really shown the POWER of the people ~

So despite ~ the fact that Woolworths do employ locals ... the calleous attidtude of merciless Big corp Business practices are not exactly popular in far north QLD right now ~

Therefore when you or any one buys in Woolworths ~ remember some poor sod has been bayoneted on the price of their goods ~

[Trident III]

In regard to your comments about whether I had been into the military archaeology aspect of the Tablelands~ I was thinking I had an humorous moment back in 2001 when I was working on the Mt Evelyn By-pass. This road leads from the highway near Milla Milla to Ravenshoe.

Ravenshoe was the camp site for the elements of the 7th , (1943) and later the 9th Divisions. (1944).

On one of our fence repair exercises I came on a cache of some 18 long neck beer bottles ~ And all the bottles were dated 1942.

I imagined a lorry of Australian troops stopping off at the Milla Milla Pub and grabbing a few beers and stopping at the roadside and consuming their booty before heading back to Ravenshoe.

As a matter of interest , I was told the USA forces engineers constructed the water fall /swimming pool section at the edge of Malanda. Additionally they built much of the floodwater causeways in the low lands of the Cairns district. Additionally they also constructed the concrete roadways around Portsmith and the harbour areas of Cairns.
One lady recently retired recently at work , and she told me how she haunted by the memory as a young of the large numbers of American negro servicemen in Cairns during the war years.
And finally a recently establishes d friendship with a Californian bloke told me that his father was part of a bulk fuel (high octane) supply group working out of Cairns supplying the PT Boat stations of those years.

And no tobacco tins yet but the beer bottles I still use in my home brewing , although they are all very heavy glass and the inner neck is too narrow for my dispensing tube to enter the actual bottle cavity ..lol

The local tourism and Historical authority are endeavouring allow access to the remains of the USAF base remains at the Mareeba base. But it is on private property as the base was originally conscripted for the period of hostilities ~

Additionally there is a listing for a number of the radar stations but these would be barely accessible as they are fairly remote spots on top of the ranges that frequent the Tablelands.

Anyway Intriguing stories all the same ~