Queens Park Stockade (United States)

800th United States Military Police Battalion

Type
Internment/POW facility
Region
Townsville

Sporting fields near Queens park, North Ward 4810

A stockade was a jail or detention facility for military prisoners. The Queens Park stockade was managed by the United States 800th Military Police Battalion and was located between the Sports Reserve and Queens Gardens in North Ward. This stockade was for less serious offences.

Headquarters for the 800th Military Police were at Beak House on the corner of Flinders and Stokes Streets.

History

Another stockade at Garbutt held military prisoners that were awaiting execution, court martial or were considered to be violent. In 1942, Colonel Patterson, the US Provost Marshal was given approval to use the Stewart Creek civilian jail as an auxiliary to the Garbutt stockade. Another stockade for Australian military prisoners was at Kissing Point. This stockade also held Japanese prisoners of war briefly whist in transit to southern internment camps.

In August 1943 plans were made to show the Australian Public a real American Football game (Gridiron). The 800th MP Battalion and 167th Field Artillery volunteered as teams and the games staged at the nearby North Ward Sports Reserve. A first for Townsville, the event attracted ten thousand people and was complete with a cheering section and team mascots.

Source/comments

Base Two, The Bayonet of Australia, Volume One, Notes from American War Records of World War Two, Volume 3 Base Finance. [Typescript held in North Queensland Collection, James Cook University].

Stephenson, John R. Nor Iron Bars A Cage, Boolarong Publications, Ascot, 1982.

Base Two Restricted Telephone Book, July 1943. Author’s collection.

"The North Queensland Line: The Defence of Townsville in 1942". Ray Holyoak unpublished Honours Thesis, James Cook University, Townsville 1998.