Camp Freeman

main camp

Type
Military camp
Region
Brisbane City

Freeman Road and Rosemary Street, Inala 4077

Approximately 75000 American troops were stationed in Greater Brisbane in December 1943. This massive influx of U.S. troops brought swift change to the city, altering its infrastructure, industry and society. By April 1944 there were 1,028 African-American personnel stationed in Brisbane. S

egregated from white troops, and not permitted to participate in active combat, they were usually in labouring or transport units. Camp Freeman, was one of the major camps for African-American troops based in Brisbane.

History

Camp Freeman was named for the road on which it was established -Freeman Rd. 1946 aerial photographs indicated the Camp was located on both sides of Freeman Rd and bounded by Archerfield and Orchard Rds. There is some suggestion that one of the camps may have been known as Camp Inala. US service personnel working at the Darra Ordnance Depot, were housed in this camp as well as at Camps Darra and Oxley. African-American units including the 577th Ammunition Ordnance Company, the 48th Quartermaster Truck Regiment and the 5203rd Quartermaster Truck Battalion, 2052nd, 2053rd, and 2058th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation) were also housed at this site. It is likely that the Truck Regiments were involved in the transportation of munitions to and from the Darra Ordnance Depot. Camp Freeman is believed to have been used by the Allied Intelligence Bureau after the withdrawal of US forces.

Source/comments

U.S. Army Ordnance Corps online.

E. Daniel Potts and Annette Potts, Yanks Downunder 1941–1945: The American Impact on Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985.

Kay Saunders, “Racial Conflict in Brisbane in WWII: The Imposition of Patterns of Segregation upon Black American Servicemen", Brisbane at War, Brisbane History Group Papers, No. 4, p 29–34.

Kay Saunders, War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland, 1938–1948, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1993.

Vicki Mynott, World War Two Stories From Brisbane’s South West: Richlands, Darra, Wacol, Goodna and Oxley, Richlands, Inala and Suburbs History Group Inc, 2006.

Dan Leach, “An Incident at the Upper Ross: Remembering Black Servicemen in Australia During the Second World War", Overland, 2004, p. 82–87.

Australia @ War

BCC Heritage Unit files