3rd Australian Infantry Division Provost Company

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Brief History

This unit was raised at Seymour, Victoria in November 1941, with a detachment at Bonegilla with the 4th Infantry Brigade Group. In March the 3rd Infantry Division Provost Company moved to Bonegilla and the detachment to Brisbane. In May the parent body moved to South Brisbane, before moving again to Maclean Bridge in June. At his time it had detachments at Chermside, Jimboomba and Casino (NSW). Still on the move it had re-located to Tinana in August, Landsborough in September and Yandina in December. In February 1943 the 4th Infantry Brigade Group had moved to Milne Bay in New Guinea and their Provost detachment was absorbed by the 5th Infantry Division Provost Company.

At this time Company HQ and the detachment with the 15th Infantry Brigade Group moved to Port Moresby, leaving the detachments at Cooroy and Nambour behind to be later absorbed into the FAA Provost Company. New detachments were sent to Wau and Bulolo in March 1943. The units Company HQ moved to Nassau Bay in August, and then to Lae in September once it had been recaptures. In December the detachment that had been at Bulola departed Port Moresby for Australia where it joined the HQ 3rd Infantry Division at Kairi. In May 1944 the rest of the unit joined them at Kairi.

In July the Divisional HQ moved back to Lae, taking with them a detachment (now known as B Section while the company moved to Mapee in August. Most of the company re-joined HQ 3rd Infantry Division at Mapee until November when they moved to Torokina, leaving two sections which moved to Aitape. In May the company had moved to Toko, with detachments with the forward brigades at Hiru Hiru and Rusei as the fighting moved towards Buin. These detachments remained there for the rest of the war. The detachment left at Aitape had a detachment at Wewak from May 1945 and although they were meant to rejoin the Company HQ unit, this had not happened before hostilities ceased. The unit was disbanded in January 1946.

Unit Personnel

• Derrick Leonard Saw 20 Apr - 3 Oct 1944

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 6 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 6.180 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018