United States Army Officers’ accommodation/billet

'Broomham' Residence

Military accommodation
Brisbane City

152 Groth Road, Boondall 4034

The small cottage at 152 Groth Street was originally located next-door at the corner of Groth and Beams Roads. During the latter part of World War Two, it was leased by the US Army to provide officers’ billets.

History

The house at 152 Groth Road had been built on the adjacent block (now 154 Groth Road) and it was built on high stumps. During the early 1930s it was the home of the Broomham Family. The US Army leased the vacant small workers cottage at the corner of Groth and Beams Roads, Boondall sometime between 1942 and 1944 to provide officers’ accommodation. The surrounding district was mainly farmland with only a few isolated houses usually located along the main roads.

While enlisted men and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in the US Army were housed in barracks, officers were sometimes allowed to seek private billets outside of an army camp. High-ranking officers were usually allotted a residence as a private billet, which they only shared with a cook and a maid. Junior officers had to share a house as a billet and this would have been the case with the rental cottage on Groth Road.

It is uncertain as to which units these officers belonged to but it is probable that they came from the US Army Services of Supply (USASOS). The USASOS had the majority of American units based permanently in Brisbane as the Queensland capital had become a major supply base for General Douglas MacArthur’s South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) Command. The US Army officers living in the Boondall cottage were most likely associated with nearby military sites, such as the US Army Ordnance Depot on Bilsen Road, Geebung or the two US Army warehouses in St. Achs Street, Nudgee. Given the sparsety of housing in the area, this cottage may have been the only rental property available to the US Army.

Post-war, the workers cottage was shifted next door onto the block at 152 Groth Road, to make way for the construction of a brick home at 154 Groth Road.

Source/comments

Barbara Bow, Welcome to Boondall, (Brisbane: Sandgate & Diistrict Historical Society and Museum inc., 1997) p54.