109th Australian Casualty Clearing Station

Surgical Ward on Bougainville 118 Jun 1945 AWM photo 093184
History
Name	109th Australian Casualty Clearing Station
Where formed	Brighton, Tasmania
Date formed	June 1941

General Information

This unit was initially only a nucleus administered by the 12th Field Ambulance, and was known as the 9th Australian Casualty Clearing Station until June 1941 when it was brought up to strength and moved to Brighton in December 1941. Here it was mobilised and then moved in February 1942 to Oatlands, from where it serviced all units in Tasmania.

In October it returned to Brighton before moving to Armidale in New South Wales. Renamed as the 109th Australian Casualty Clearing Station in April 1943 they moved to Ravenshoe in Queensland to service units of the 7th Aust Infantry Division. When the 7th Division moved to New Guinea, the CCS moved to Wondecla to service the 6th Aust Infantry Division.

In March 1944 they relocated to Wongabel, and in late 1944 when Australian troops took over responsibility for those areas of New Guinea then covered by US troops, the unit moved in October 1944 to Torokina on Bougainville to service units on the south coast. Their Light Section moved to Mawarak in March 1945, and the main unit moved to Motupena in May, from where they continued their support for the 3rd Aust Infantry Division until the end of the war. One man died of injuries while posted to the unit, and one Officer died in 1947 from self inflicted wounds.

Individual Awards

• 7 x mentioned in Despatches

Staff

Patients

Ravenshoe, North Queensland

• Edwin Reed Marshall 29 - 30 Jun 1943
• Edmond Hepple Brown MID28 Sep - 12 Oct 1943
• † Douglas Windsor Parkin 26 Oct - 5 Nov 1943

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 4 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 4.098 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018