39TH BATTALION
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII

On the way back from leave at the end of May, I got involved in a 'jack-up' on Townsville station and found myself at a Transit Depot or Staging Camp at a place called Oonoomba just south of Townsville. There I learnt that a lot of the 39th blokes (the non-AIF enlistments) were being transferred to the 36th Battalion at a place called Nome - just a camp in the scrub beside a rail loop that ran out to Crocodile Creek Abattoirs about 15 or 20 miles south of Townsville.

Only a couple of days before that I had an unexpected reunion with Bert Whelan who had been wounded in the ankle in the Owen Stanleys and was now 'B Class' and a cook's offsider at Townsville showgrounds. We made a real day of it, but unfortunately run foul of an American Military Policeman on a motor-bike. The 'Yank" MP called in some of own MP's and we finished up behind the wire at Kissing Point Detention Centre.

Back at Oonoomba I was naturally put on a charge ('conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline') and had my pay-book taken from me. That same night, minus pay-book and without transfer papers, I tacked myself onto a draft going out to the 36th Battalion (I must have been one of the very few 39th who volunteered for the 36th!). Anyway, the ruse worked quite well and my pay-book (without charge sheet) eventually turned up at the 36th Battalion orderly room, though in the meantime a couple of Provosts had shown up at home in Gunbower looking for me.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 11 July 1998

This page last updated 20 February 2020