The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Robert Squires worked for Pool Petroleum during the war. He was based in Townsville where they were fuelling hundreds of vehicles and ships from 1943-1945. He comments on the National Day of Prayer, called for when Singapore fell. He mentions evacuations to the south of the Queensland population. Comments on the Americans in Townsville and the Australian personnel - over 90,000 uniformed personnel passed through Townsville in 1943. Discusses the water supplies in Brisbane. He comments on the effect of the Americans on the local population - hotels and stores were taken over as military headquarters and offices. He comments on sandbagging in Brisbane and Townsville and the lack of it in Sydney. Mr Squires mentions the airfields and strips in Far North Queensland: 44 in 1942-43. He comments that Japanese internees received little sympathy from the locals. His impression of the war years was that it was interesting and exciting. He concludes that Townsville was the forward supply base for the whole Pacific area, and the Atherton Tablelands was used as training grounds.
Mr Fields was a boy of twelve when war broke out. He discusses the knowledge of war gained by the civilian population: the phoney war; knowledge of the Nazis from refugees; heard the Nuremburg rally o
In 1940 Ralph Doig was the Private Secretary to the Premier of Western Australia. He joined the Citizen's Military Force and became a platoon commander. After six months' service he had to return to t
Mrs Doig recounts her experiences of life in Perth during the war. She discusses the availability of chocolate, underwear, tinned food- all from the eastern states. Appliances eg refrigerators were bo
Mrs Batt was a ballet mistress who enlisted as an Army Amenities officer in 1943 in the Northern Territory. She discusses the entertainment provided by the army for the troops: revues, dances. She men
Mr Hinde was a journalist with the ABC at the beginning of the war. Frank Dixon was in charge of the news, Warren Denning was the second in charge. He discusses the night the Japanese submarine shelle
Mrs MacDonald went to the Footscray Ammunition factory when the war broke out. She describes it as working long hours, tiring, dirty, boring, depressing, cold, unhealthy, night shifts but reasonable p