WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

the war effort in the region. In 1942 the mission helped rescue the stranded crew
members of the ship Koolama and her cargo. Father Sanz, assisted by Aboriginal
mission residents, moved 127 distressed people to Pago and Kalumburu.
After the fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin, the Broome airport runway
was extended for military use. With the imminent takeover of Java by the Japanese in
1942, allied personnel and their families were ordered to be evacuated from Java, and
Dutch flying boats and American aircraft ferried refugees to Australia. Broome was a
staging post for between 7,000 and 8,000 servicemen and evacuees from Java
(Edwards 1983).
In response to the threat of invasion by the Japanese, most of the luggers in Broome
were either burned or requisitioned by the navy, and indentured Chinese, Malay and
Koepang men were signed on by the navy to sail luggers to Port Hedland. The
remaining indentured workers were either sent to Melbourne for deportation or
ordered to stay in Broome to repair the airfield landing strip (Sickert 2003).
On 3 March 1942, sixteen flying boats were moored in Roebuck Bay. Because of a
shortage of accommodation in Broome, all of the passengers had to remain onboard
(Tyler 1987). When the Japanese raid began, the flying boats were an easy target.
Around 100 people were killed, including 50 Dutch refugees, mainly women and
children, as well as 32 US servicemen and five air force members. All the flying boats
anchored in Roebuck Bay and all the aircraft at the Broome airfield were destroyed,
and the airfield itself took heavy damage (Tyler 1987; Sickert 2003; Prime 1992). Just
over a fortnight later a second raid was made on Broome, but this time there was only
one death (Tyler 1987; Edwards 1983). For the remainder of the war, Broome existed
as little more than an army base for servicemen.
War casualties from enemy attack were significant in the west Kimberley, and not
only in Broome. In 1942 and 1943, Broome, Derby, Wyndham, Drysdale and
Kalumburu all experienced Japanese bombing and strafing raids. The other site of
significant casualties was the Kalumburu mission, adjacent to Drysdale airbase. On
the morning of 27 September 1943, the mission was attacked by Japanese bombers.
Six people were killed, including the mission superintendent. The church, convent and
workshop were severely damaged (AHDB Kalumburu: ID 100984).
As the war effort stepped up, a new northern base was needed; the runways at the
Drysdale Airfield could not support heavy bombers. Truscott Airbase was established
on the Anjo Peninsula, 35 kilometres north-west of Drysdale. Raids were launched
from Truscott by medium and heavy bombers against Borneo, Java, Timor and the
Celebes, where the remaining Japanese forces were located. From July 1944 to
October 1945, hundreds of missions were flown from Truscott by many of the Allied
squadrons based in the Northern Territory. At the peak of operations, 1,500 Australian
military personnel were stationed at Truscott. Some people died there, including the
12-person crew of a bomber which crashed on take off. The crew were initially buried
at Truscott, but were later re-interred in the War Cemetery at Adelaide River, in the
Northern Territory. A small stone cairn commemorating the crash sits among the
wreckage, and can still be seen today. At the end of the war the Truscott base was
abandoned, and the site and its contents put up for sale at the post war disposals
auctions.
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