Page 21 - Port Douglas Magazine 42

history.
“WITH ITS STRATEGIC LOCATION, THE
DOUGLAS SHIRE AND THE NEARBY TOWN
OF CAIRNS SUDDENLY BECAME A LOGISTICS
HUB FOR THE PACIFIC WAR, WHILE THE
ATHERTON TABLELANDS PROVIDED THE
PERFECT JUNGLE WARFARE TRAINING
GROUND FOR THOSE HEADING OFF TO PNG
AND BOUGAINVILLE.”
Military landing exercise on Four Mile Beach
Miallo Japanese bombing site
Lest we WORDS by Sara Mulcahy
At 928km north of Port Douglas, the Papua New Guinean capital
of Port Moresby is half the distance to Brisbane. And at no time
was its proximity more starkly apparent than in January 1942. In
the later stages of the second World War, as the Japanese forces
forget made their way down the Malay Peninsula, the front line of the
Pacific offensive reached PNG. Port Douglas and its surrounds
were on high alert.
Home to just a few hundred people at the time, the Commonwealth
Government called for voluntary evacuation of the town, and many
heeded the warnings, relocating inland or heading south to safety.
The old schoolhouse on Murphy Street closed down. It was a time of
ration cards, censorship and military exercises on Four Mile Beach.
With its strategic location, the Douglas Shire and the nearby town
of Cairns suddenly became a logistics hub for the Pacific war, while
The Japanese bombing of Darwin during the Atherton Tablelands provided the perfect jungle warfare training
World War 2 is well documented, but ground for those heading off to PNG and Bougainville. landing craft to push tracks through the jungle. Troops of the
Military control posts were established along the beaches of the Coral
many Aussies have little idea of the very Sea from Cooktown and the islands off Cape York to the north, via
real threat that was faced here in FNQ Cairns and Fitzroy Island, to Magnetic Island and Townsville to the
south.
Horn Island in the Torres Strait, 40km off the tip of Cape
York, was home to more than 5000 Australian and American
troops. The tiny island was the target of eight air raids
between from March 1942 and June 1943 making it only
military installation in Queensland to be regularly targeted
by the Japanese. It was hit by more than 500 bombs over the
18-month campaign.
To the immense relief of the dwindling number of locals in
Port Douglas, the threat of a mainland Queensland invasion
never eventuated. But there are historical sites that you can
visit in and around town to get an impression of what life
must have been like, living on a wartime knife edge.
MIALLO JAPANESE BOMBING SITE,
MIALLO-BAMBOO CREEK ROAD, MIALLO
On 31 July 1942, a Japanese air raid dropped eight 250kg
bombs over Mossman. Where most of these bombs fell has
never been established but one landed near a slaughter yard
on the Daintree Road, and another exploded on a sugar
cane farm near Bamboo Creek. It smashed the windows of
the farmhouse and a two-year-old girl was taken to hospital
with a fractured skull. The bomb left a large crater seven
metres across and one metre deep. Fifty years later the site
was recognised with a plaque bearing an inscription of the
details of the raid.
THE BUMP TRACK, CONNOLLY ROAD,
MOWBRAY
In 1942, the Bump Track was the only way over the Great
Dividing Range north of Cairns. Should the Japanese invade,
evacuation plans were put in place that a convoy of trucks
would follow the steep track to Hughenden 600km to the
west, with each passenger permitted to bring one small
suitcase. To thwart the risk that Japanese ground forces
could follow, the Australian Army placed landmines at the
800-metre mark. Once the last truck had passed this point,
the road was to be blown up, sealing off the interior from the
coast. After the war the mines were detonated, leaving behind
three large craters that over the years have been slowly filled by
erosion. The Bump Track is now a well-marked walking track.
ANZAC PARK, WHARF STREET,
PORT DOUGLAS
The Port Douglas War Memorial with its digger statue was
originally erected to commemorate the soldiers of Port
Douglas and district who served and fell in the Great War
1914-1918. A plaque was added to the memorial at a later
one of Vietnam. Mossman War Memorial (64 Front St,
date commemorating the 24 fallen of World War Two, and
Mossman) pays tribute to the same local men and boys who
lost their lives.
The sea mine that lies on the grass behind the Port Douglas
memorial is one of those laid to protect Cairns Harbour
against enemy attack in 1942. After the war, the explosives
were detonated and disposed of, but this one drifted up to
Port Douglas. It was safely disarmed on discovery in 1948.
Four Mile Beach was a popular landing strip in late 1920s
FOUR MILE BEACH, PORT DOUGLAS
and 30s for planes including the Royal Mail delivery service.
During wartime it was used as a location for military landing
exercises, including the Douglas Exercise in March 1944.
During the invasion exercise ‘enemy’ troops were cleared from
the beach and foreshores, then bulldozers were landed from
17th infantry brigade had to wade ashore through shallow
water when their landing barge was caught on a sandbar
(pictured).