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2nd / 3rd Australian Machine Gun BattalionPrint Page Print this page

24-October -2014
24-October -2014
Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

A Plaque commemorates those who served with the 2nd / 3rd Australian Machine Gun Battalion during World War Two.

Members of the 2/3rd battalion were captured by the Japanese in Java in 1942. Those who had survived the fighting spent the rest of the war as prisoners. For the next three years they were used for labour, most of them working on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway or languishing in prison camps. One-hundred-and-thirty-nine men from the 2/3rd died while prisoners.

Location

Address:Kennedy Highway, Rocky Creek Memorial Park, Rocky Creek, 4882
State:QLD
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -17.182329
Long: 145.454925
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Plaque
Monument Theme:Conflict
Sub-Theme:WW2
Actual Event Start Date:03-September-1939
Actual Event End Date:15-August-1945
Link:http://www.rockycreek.com.au

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Sunday 13th August, 2000
Front Inscription
    2/3rd AUSTRALIAN MACHINE
              GUN BATTALION

SERVED IN PALESTINE, LEBANON AND SYRIA

710 OFFICERS AND MEN TAKEN PRISONER OF WAR IN JAVA
                ON 8TH MARCH 1942

REMAINDER OF BATTALION REINFORCED IN AUSTRALIA
UNDER THE COMMAND OF LT. COL.R.R. GORDON

UNIT SERVED IN NEW GUINEA, MERAUKE, AITAPE
                       AND WEWAK
Source: RCMP, MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au