11th Australian Workshop & Park Company

28 Oct 1943. 11th Australian Workshop & Park Company RAE loading a timber jinker.

Brief History

Formed in mid 1941 as the RAE Base Workshop (Southern Command) in December 1941 it was at Seymour, Victoria when it was restructured as the 11th Australian Workshop & Park Company. They moved to St Kilda from August until November 1942, after which they moved to the RAE Training Centre at Kapooka in New South Wales.

In January 1943 they moved to Kathrine in the Northern Territory, with detachments along the north-south road at Larrimah, Barrow Creek, Morphett Creek, Alice Springs and Mt Isa. In February 1944 the unit HQ moved to Noonamah until they were relieved in October 1944 and left the Northern Territory for South Queensland where they, with other units were gathered to accompany the 1st Australian Corps in its move to areas north of New Guinea. The 11th Australian Workshop & Park Company was at Strathpine until they were allocated to the force being assembled to capture the oil port of Balikpapan and moved to Morotai in May 1945. At the end of the war they were managing the supply of engineer sequipment for the units developing facilities at Balikpapan and restoring the oilfields.

Unit Personnel

• William Francis Buck 7 - 27 Jul 1944 & 23 Aug 1944 - 16 Jan 1946
• Robert Thomas Buckenara 14 Oct 1945 - 11 Jan 1946

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 3 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 3.511 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018