NEWSTEAD WHARF,
NEWSTEAD, BRISBANE, QLD
USED BY THE US NAVY
DURING WWII
HMAS Bendigo arrived alongside Newstead Wharves at 1730 on 20 April 1942. The men were immediately granted leave. HMAS Bendigo shifted berth to South Brisbane wharves on 21 April 1942.
The US Navy had their "Newstead Wharf - Shipping" facility established at Newstead Wharf in Newstead, Brisbane, Queensland during WW2. Newstead Wharf was directly adjacent to Newstead Park and Newstead House.
The Naval Auxiliary Patrol (NAP) took over responsibility for the patrol of the Brisbane River from the RANR from 19 Dec 1941. The Brisbane River was broken up into 10 patrol areas. No. 4 Patrol area was from the Colonial Oil refinery oil tanks to Breakfast Creek. Their role was to protect the wharves and ships alongside New Farm, Dalgety’s Mercantile, Shell and Newstead Wharves.
Marge Mackay told me that the officers and clerical section staff belonging to the "Procurement Section" of the Seabees who possibly worked in Building 7 at Victoria Park left for the forward echelon per the "USS Blue Ridge" from Newstead Wharf after 30 October 1944.
During WW2, Americans who were killed or died in Australia were buried in local cemeteries, but in 1947, the bodies from around Australia were exhumed and temporarily stored at Mausoleum No 4 at Redbank west of Brisbane. Then eventually all of these bodies were taken back to Hawaii. The US ship "Goucher Victory" arrived at Newstead Wharf, in Brisbane in November 1947 to take the bodies back to Hawaii. A ceremony was held in the Brisbane City Hall on 22 December 1947 to honour the American dead. A coffin containing the body of an unknown American soldier was paraded ceremoniously through Brisbane to Newstead Wharf watched by approximately 30,000 Brisbane residents. The last 1,800 caskets containing US servicemen left Brisbane before Christmas 1947.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Sally Douglas and Marge Mackay for their assistance with this home page.
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced 8 July 2005
This page last updated 25 January 2020