109th Casualty Clearing Station

18 Jun 1945 The Surgical Ward of 109th Casualty Clearing Station. AWM photo 093184

Brief History

In June 1941 the 9th Australian Casualty Clearing Station was brought up to strength and moved to Brighton, Tasmania before being mobilised in December 1941. It relocated to Oatlands in February 1942 before returning to Brighton in October. Their next moved was to Armidale in northern NSW to take over the former site of the 2/5th Australian General Hospital, and in April 1943 they were renamed 109th Australian Casualty Clearing Station before moving to Ravenshoe in north Queensland in June to service units in the 7th Australian Infantry Division. When they moved to New Guinea, the unit moved to Wondecla to service units of the 6th Australian Infantry Division. In March 1944 they moved to Wongabel.

In October 1944 the unit moved to Torokina on Bougainville to service troops in the southern advance along the coast, until the Light Section moved to Mawaraka in March 1945. In April the unit moved to Motupena and in May they absorbed the 35th Hospital Laundry Unit and continued to support the 3rd Infantry Division until the end of the war. Two members of the unit died in Australia while serving with this unit.

Patients

Ravenshoe, Queensland

• Arthur Henry Thompson ?? - 25 Aug 1943

Individual Honours

• 7 x mentioned in Despatches

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