The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
The last Australian combat troops to leave Borneo during the current Australian commitment have pulled out of Kuching, in Borneo's Sarawak State. They are gunners of the 102nd Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, who have been relieved by a British artillery unit. Their guns were lifted by helicopters from forward bases and landed near the unit's rear base, about seven miles from the Kuching waterfront. While their guns waited to be loaded into the British Army landing-craft Maxwell Brander, the artillerymen lost no time in boarding the ship to settle down for their 40-hour trip back to the unit's Malayan home base in Malacca. Loading the 105mm howitzers board the landing-craft was a midnight operation, to allow the ship to leave at high tide the next day. Working at top speed, the nimble Dyak wharf labourers loaded the unit's 45 vehicles and stowed them between decks in a record 100 minutes. At high tide the next day, the 400-ton Maxwell Brander cast-off and headed downstream for the South China Sea. There to farewell the Australian gunners were some of the many friends they made during their four-month tour of operational duty in Sarawak. Among them were Mr and Mrs Jack Smith and their two children, of Tamworth NSW. Mr Smith is a Colombo Plan instructor at Kuching Trade School and the Smith house was a home away from home for many of the Australian troops. But for the gunners, the course was set for their homes in Malacca and, later this year, back in Australia.
Troops of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, and of the 2nd Field Troop, Royal Australian Engineers, returned to Malaya last weekend (July 31 1965) after four months in Sarawak. From th
During his current tour of South East Asia, the Australian Army's Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Sir John Wilton, stopped over in Borneo to visit the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regime
Australians are not the only troops in Borneo to receive support from Australian artillery. When this Gurkha patrol moved out to patrol the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, it was accompanied by a Foward O
To the men of the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment patrolling on active service in forward positions near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border of Borneo, air drops of supplies have become more than ju
A crippled children's home in Malacca, Malaysia, has been the scene of a private civic aid programme carried out by wives of Australian soldiers serving in that theatre. The Army wives recently presen
The Minister for the Army Dr A J Forbes, visited Australian troops in Sarawak during a recent tour of Malaya, Vietnam and Borneo. On arrival at a helipad a short distance from the headquarters of the
