Camp Maryborough

Camp Maryborough, south of Tinana, was built as a divisional camp for the US Army’s 27th Infantry Division, due to arrive in November 1943. Construction was ordered on 31 July 1943, but as Camp Maryborough was only half finished by November, construction continued as a lower priority to the end of January 1944.

However, the 27th Division did not come to Queensland, and the two US Divisions which did arrive in Queensland during 1943, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 24th Infantry Division, were sent to Camp Strathpine near Brisbane (in June-July) and Camp Caves near Rockhampton (in September) respectively. The vacant Camp Maryborough appears to have been used by the RAAF as a bivouac site for No.6 Recruit Depot during 1945.

A camp site for one division was located south of Tinana, between Teddington Road and Tinana Creek, with positions for support units marked out between Woongool Road and Iindah Road East; for artillery units and Tank Destroyers between Iindah Road East and McDonald Road; and for three infantry regiments from McDonald Road south almost to the intersection of Teddington Road and Six Mile Road East. A possible campsite for a second division was indicated on a map west of Teddington Road to the Bruce Highway, with areas for additional troops south of the above camps.

Like Camp Cable (between Logan Village and Tamborine) Camp Maryborough was a tented camp, with more permanent buildings for kitchens, recreation rooms, stores, ablution blocks and the like. The Queensland Main Roads Commission laid down about 25 miles (40km) of gravelled roadway in the area of the camp and the main approaches. Roads and paths were also constructed for a 500 bed hospital.

Some concrete slabs survive, along with pit trench latrines, on private land. At least one camp building, in poor condition, survives on private land.