Camp Strathpine

Petrie, Joyner, Cashmere, Warner

Type

Training facility

Region

South-East

Various access areas, Strathpine 4500

History

Camp Strathpine was built between December 1942 and July 1943 to accommodate the US 1st Cavalry Division, one of the four US Divisions (also including the 24th, 32nd and 41st Divisions) which trained in Queensland before being sent to New Guinea. The main body of the 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Brisbane on 26 July 1943 on the troopships USS George Washington and USS Monterey, an advanced echelon having arrived in late June on board the USS Maui. The 1st Cavalry, under Major General Innis P. Swift, was shipped as a Light Infantry division of 15,000 men equipped with vehicles instead of horses, and was assigned to the US Sixth Army.

Camp Strathpine was constructed by US troopers and Australian civilians, and the area’s forests, undergrowth, streams and ravines were used for jungle training. The men of the division also received amphibious warfare training at Toorbul Point, with practice landings on Bribie Island, while some trained at Port Stephens in NSW. Accommodation for most of the men was in tents, although the camp had plenty of buildings, including latrines, ablutions, shower enclosures, kitchens, canteens, recreation huts, water and power supply buildings, mess sheds and shelters, warehouses, various huts and store buildings, offices (at the HQ), picture theatres, and a prison stockade. Some log cabins were also built as mess halls.

Although the original design of the camp intended to make maximum use of natural cover, the felling of trees to erect rows of tents negated this plan. Tented areas had pathways gravelled with log edges, with logs also laid around the tents, while trees and stumps were painted white to 4′ (1.2m) high, to assist night navigation around the camp. The main fresh water pumping plant for the camp was at Gordon’s Crossing, with another pumping station at Young’s Crossing.

The site of Camp Strathpine stretched from Lakeside Road near Dakabin Station in the north to just south of the South Pine River at Albany Creek. However, the actual camp sites for units consisted of six main areas. Area 1 was located in Joyner, west of One Mile Creek, north of Samsonvale Road (then called Swift Drive), east of Forgan Road (then called Pershing Drive) and south of Protheroe Road (then called Scenic Drive). Units in this area included the 8th Engineer Squadron, 1st Medical Squadron, 27th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company, and the 1st Signals Troop. The HQ was roughly where Ribblesdale Court is now located.

Area 2 was located in Cashmere and Warner south of Samsonvale Road and north of Kremzow Road (then called Forrest Road), between the Old North Road on the east and One Mile Creek on the west. This camp area was based around three wartime roads which no longer exist: Howze Road, Stuart Road and Pleasanton Road. The units camped here were most likely the Military Police Platoon; the 302nd Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanised); the 603rd Light (later Medium) Tank Company; and the 16th Quartermaster Squadron. The 302nd and the 603rd were created in December 1943 out of the 7th Reconnaissance Squadron. The 302nd included a unique radio unit with Lakota and Dakota Indians (The Code Talkers") who used the Sioux language to thwart Japanese attempts to listen in on US radio communications.

Area 3 was located in Warner, to the north and south of Kremzow Road, bounded by Brisbane Road (then called Castner Road) and Four Mile Creek on the west, and a tributary of Four Mile Creek on the east. The area was based around the no-longer extant Sheridan Road, which ran northeast-southwest. This was the campsite of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, made up of the 5th and 12th Calvary Regiments.

Area 4 was located mostly south of Kremzow Road, and north of Warner Road West (then Hueco Road), between Area 3 to the west and Wilson Road (no longer extant) to the east. The area was based around the no-longer extant Armstrong Road, Wainwright Circle and Custer Road, and was the campsite of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and its 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments.

Area 5 was the artillery area in Petrie. This was bounded by the North Coast Railway to the east, Dayboro Road to the south, Sidling Creek to the west, and around the area of Lyons Road in the north. It was based around Frenchs Road (then called Juarez Street), Bellview Road (then called Plaza Del Toros), Torrens Road (then called Mayo Street), and the no longer extant Comancho Street, Quione Street and Pancho Villa Street. The Field Artillery (FA) Battalions camped here included the 61st, 82nd, 99th, and after October 1943, the 271st. Eventually, each battalion received 105mm guns. The artillery units had a firing range at Flinders, Clear Mountain (to the west of Camp Strathpine), and the “Grasshopper” spotter aircraft of the division’s artillery used, among other places, the Strathpine A1 and A3 airstrips (at Lawnton and Brendale respectively).

Area 6, located west of Young’s Crossing Road (then called El Paso Ave), on the south bank of the North Pine River, included a pumping station and buildings for the Civilian Constructional Corps (CCC) workers who had helped build the camp.

In addition to the camp sites, training facilities included two grenade ranges in Cashmere: one east of Four Mile Creek adjacent to Area 3 (west of Lilley Road) and one north of Winn Road. There were also two mortar ranges in Cashmere: one near One Mile Creek, south of Ira Buckby Road West; and another astride Winn Road.

The 1st Cavalry departed for Oro Bay in New Guinea between late December 1943 and late February 1944, to prepare for landing in the Admiralty Island Group as part of Operation Cartwheel—a campaign of 10 separate operations conducted during the second half of 1943 and early 1944 as part of General MacArthur’s plan to neutralise the major Japanese base at Rabaul. Troops from both MacArthur’s South West Pacific Area and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s Pacific Ocean Areas command participated in this twin-axis advance.

After the departure of the 1st Cavalry, Camp Strathpine was used by Australian forces, including the 7th Division, 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF). Before heading to New Guinea in late 1942 the 7th Division had been based in Woodford, with its 18th brigade in Kilcoy, 21st Brigade in Woombye, and 25th Brigade at Caboolture; during early 1943 the division trained on the Atherton Tableland before returning to New Guinea, and in 1944 the division trained at Strathpine. Other Australian units which spent time at Strathpine included the 26, 31/51, and 55/53 Infantry Battalions of the 11th Brigade (Militia); the 36th Infantry Battalion (Militia); the 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion; the 2/2 and 2/3 Anti-Aircraft Regiments and the 17th Advanced Ordnance Depot.

Since the end of World War II most of the campsites of Camp Strathpine have been developed for housing, and some fringes of the larger camp area have been submerged by Lake Samsonvale and Lake Kurwongbah. Over the years a number of artefacts have been recovered from Area 3 prior to development, and these have included items such as: live and expended ammunition (9mm, .303, .45, .50, 37mm); cutlery, US First Aid packets, bottles and jars, buttons, Australian coins and home made dog tags, Australian hat badges and shoulder bars, metal belt loops from webbing, fob watch parts, anti-gas ointment tubes, a rifle cleaning brush, rifle oil bottles, a piece of US uniform and a 1st Cavalry Division shoulder patch. Some finds have been donated to the Pine Rivers Museum at Old Petrie Town.

Source/comments

Spethman, DW; Miller, RG; Deighton, LJ, October 2000. Divisional Camp - Strathpine, 1943–45. US 1st Cavalry Division, Australian 7th Division (2nd AIF). Fort Lytton Historical Association Inc.

Charlton, P. 1991. South Queensland WWII 1941–45, Boolarong, Brisbane.

Boudreau, WH. 2002. 1st Cavalry Division—a spur ride through the 20th Century, from horses to the digital battlefield. Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, KY.

Casey, Hugh J., ed. 1951, “Volume VI: Airfield and Base Development", Engineers of the Southwest Pacific 1941–1945, Washington, D.C, United States Department of the Army.

National Archives of Australia, Folder O to S Folio 63. Strathpine Camp Military Area - Roads and Facilities of Unit Areas - Site Plan [1/S/40]. 1945

National Archives of Australia LS705. Strathpine camp area 1942.

Dunn, P. Camp Strathpine in Brisbane

Dunn, P. 1st Cavalry Division United States Army based at Camp Strathpine, Qld and Port Stephens, NSW during WW2

1st Cavalry Division

1st Cavalry Division (United States)

1st Cavalry Division Association

2/25th Battalion

7th Division (Australia)

Operation Cartwheel

31/51st Battalion (Kennedy/ Far North Queensland Regiment)

36th Battalion (St George’s English Rifle Regiment)

DERM archaeological site reconnaissance 1 October 2009.

Australian War Memorial Photographic Collection.

State Library of Queensland, John Oxley Library Photographic Collection.

Strathpine Library, Moreton Bay Region Libraries, Photographic Collection.