Saluting Their Service
This book, ‘Saluting Their Service’, pays homage to many thousands of Veterans involved during WWII in the Pine Rivers Shire, including Australian and foreign services.
Foreword
As time passes over the millennia, we slowly lose sight of the past, not only in our own lives, yet moreover as a community. This book focuses on the period of activity during World War II in Queensland, in particular the Pine Rivers region as it was, which now is included in the City of Moreton Bay. It is a collection of the many contributions made by numerous military historians who have researched and documented our military heritage during this time.
Volumes of war history have been written since the end of hostilities in 1945, and much of that history is buried within libraries, war museums and a plethora of other similar facilities. Our ongoing task is keeping the military heritage from this era alive in our community. To that end, we have not set out to cover the broader geographical areas other than the Pine Rivers Shire, during WWII circa 1939 -1945.
Historically, WWII came during a period not long after the great depression of the 1920’s and 30’s, where the country was still recovering from the after effects of WWI. The greater Australian population was struggling financially, materially, and emotionally from the great war. In many ways, had it not been for the military support of the United States of America (USA), our community as we know it, may well have looked very different today. It was a period in time where our shores had been infiltrated by Japanese bombings in Darwin, an intrusion by enemy submarines in our coastal waters and mini submarines having entered Sydney Harbour. Not too far off our local mainland, adjacent to Moreton Island lighthouse, an Australian hospital ship, the Centaur, was sunk by an enemy submarine torpedo. Of the 332 people on board, only 64 survived. The marine area around that site is now a declared war grave. A Japanese invasion of mainland Australia was a distinct prospect, with a considerably large enemy force occupying mainland New Guinea, with plans for a southward intrusion into Australia as their imminent goal.
This book, ‘Saluting Their Service’, pays homage to many thousands of Veterans involved during WWII in the Pine Rivers Shire, including Australian and foreign services. The impetus of ‘keeping our military heritage alive’ is due to an Australian Government – Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) initiative, seeking interest from community groups to assist in progressing this program. We acknowledge without the support of DVA, this project would not be possible. The content of this book is a collection of previously published works from many sources and historical archives. It is our intention to embed this book within the 20+ schools within our geographic region. We acknowledge the involvement of Bray Park State High School, who have assisted with the book launch.
I must pay homage to my colleagues within our RSL Sub Branch, namely Scott Harris, Terri Tonkin and Sean Layton; without whom this project would have been difficult and may not have happened. To the team, thank you. To my wife Trish, thank you for understanding my quest to finish this book within a tight timeframe. We acknowledge others who have contributed to the material used, with a special thank you to Mr Peter Dunn OAM, for allowing us to recycle much of his published information and for assisting in the refinement of the completed book and to Mr Brian Avery, thank you for your contribution and additional input.
To Bec Rigoni (Defence Liaison Officer) of Bray Park State School, thank you for planting the seed for this project. Saluting Their Service‐ ‘Keeping our Pine Rivers Military Heritage Alive’ Page 4 | 164 To the many school students and community leaders, I challenge you to closely consider the information within the book and consider what the community would look like had our combined military forces veterans not gathered to form a formidable deterrent against the invading forces. Above all, I respectfully ask that you all do what you can, to keep the military heritage alive and pay a sincere and heartfelt appreciation to the brave folk who fought to keep Australia safe and from falling to the invaders.
We all owe them respect for their individual courage, resilience, and bravery in defending our shores.To those who perished, we say thank you.
We will remember them………. lest we forget.
Greg Searle
President
Bray Park-Strathpine RSL Sub Branch Inc.
