Camp Columbia (Wacol)

Camp Columbia was a United States Army military camp located in Wacol, near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built during World War II to accommodate American troops.[1] The Sixth US Army Headquarters was stationed there and it was an Officer Candidate School from 1942 to 1945. After World War II, it was used by the Australian military and then served as a migrant reception and training center.[2] The camp was then known as the "Wacol East Dependants Holding Camp for Displaced Persons".[1] The old Wacol Army Barracks had been converted into the Wacol Military Museum.[3]

Dutch Occupation

As the war progressed further north through the Pacific, the American moved out of Camp Columbia and part of it was transferred to the Netherlands East Indies Government-In-Exile. It was then occupied by soldiers of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, or in Dutch, Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (KNIL). The Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) was headquartered here and conducted training to enable operations in support of the Allied campaigns in the South West Pacific. It also housed the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Womens Corp after it was formed from Dutch civilians within Australia, Dutch colonies and from liberated regions of the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) was a semi-military and civilian organisation responsible for restoring the civil administration of the Dutch East Indies upon liberation. It also handled civilian refugees from the Dutch East Indies, their welfare and eventual repatriation.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Wacol Remembered 1949–1987
  2. ^ "Yungaba Immigration Depot (entry 600245)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  3. ^ "Wacol Military Museum | Brisbane Open House | Unlock your city". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.

27°34′59.86″S 152°56′12.78″E / 27.5832944°S 152.9368833°E / -27.5832944; 152.9368833


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.