The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Private (Pte) Charlie R Bird [WX9017 Pte Charles Roland Bird], 5 Platoon, A Company, 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion on an A frame design bed which the unit constructed for Winellie Camp. A lateral strip of bamboo at head and foot provided support for the mosquito net and personal gear could be stored on the mangrove sapling rack beneath the straw filled palliasse. When the unit arrived at the camp, galvanised huts had been erected, but many were without concrete flooring and windows, requiring the first weeks at the camp to be spent finishing off the accommodation. Pte Bird was later made prisoner of war of the Japanese and was initially interned at Changi then transferred to Sandakan, Borneo. In January 1945 the Japanese began to move prisoners from Sandakan to Ranau because they feared a coastal invasion. Large numbers died during, what has become known as, the Sandakan Death March. Pte Bird died on 26 July 1945 south of Ranau.
WX8707 Private (Pte) Frank Nazzari (rear) and John Ramsbottom [WX14836 Private (Pte) Jack Kenneth Ramsbottom, later known as John Kenneth Lane], both of 5 Platoon, A Company, 2/4th Machine Gun Battali
John Ramsbottom (left) [WX14836 Private (Pte) Jack Kenneth Ramsbottom, later known as John Kenneth Lane], and WX9226 Pte Harry ‘Sparrow’ Tysoe, both of 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion cutting bamboo to use
John Ramsbottom [WX14836 Private Jack Kenneth Ramsbottom, later known as John Kenneth Lane and John Lane], 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion, cutting mangrove saplings to use for beds at Winellie Camp. When t
Darwin, NT. c. October 1941. Members of 5 Platoon, A Company, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion sawing bamboo to be used in constructing bush beds at Winellie Camp. When the unit arrived at the camp, galvan
Darwin, NT. c. October 1941. Five members of 5 Platoon, A Company, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion constructing bush beds, cutting bamboo to use with the palliasses at Winellie Camp. When the unit arrived
Group portrait of four members of A Company, 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion in front of a train locomotive en route from Woodside camp to Alice Springs, Northern Territory. From left to right: Charlie Park
