Dakota C-47 Air Crash MemorialPrint Page

The monument commemorates fourteen Australian soldiers and five United States military personnel killed in an aircrash near Rolleston during World War Two. 

A handful of dedicated people built the new memorial which is based on the USAAF blue World War Two roundel with a white star. Father Rod Hart of St. Peter's Anglican Church, Springsure had created the vision for the memorial in 1999. The concept for the memorial was suggested by Ms Tracey Wallin who works for the local shire council. It features the World War Two USAAF blue roundel with a white star, 17 metres in diameter, formed from blue road metal and white pebbles. A wingtip with the roundel clearly visible after 60 years is mounted vertically at the centre of the star. The two engines are mounted towards the rear in the blue area. Two prominent boulders support a plaque for the new memorial, and one from the original memorial at Carnarvon Gorge. A damaged wing has been mounted to the right on tall steel pylons so that people can view its underneath. 

The five people who contributed most made daily round trips on weekends of up to 160 kilometres with a cement truck and a small excavator. Someone also brought a larger excavator and a low-loader a long distance to carry a C-47 wing four miles from a cattle property to the memorial site where it has been mounted high on steel pylons for people to look at the underside.

The daughter of an Australian airmen killed in the crash attended, but unfortunately there were no United States of America representative, although the United States Embassy loaned a United States Flag. The RAAF re-tasked eight troops to attend. They had attended the ANZAC Day services the previous day at Longreach, a few hundred miles westwards. 

Bauhinia Shire Council, Councillor Mal Siegmeir, Councillor Clem Clark, Tracey Wallin, Derek Rowlands, Carnarvon Resort, and others were heavily involved in the creation of this new memorial.

The Dakota C-47 of the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron of the 374th Troop Carrier Group left Batchelor airfield in the Northern Territory at 7.30am on Tuesday 16 November 1943 heading for Archerfield airfield in Brisbane, via Gorrie, Daly Waters and Cloncurry. When the the C-47 left Batchelor airfield it carried the American crew of four plus an American Sergeant and fourteen Australian soldiers.

The aircraft was not able to land at Gorrie because the airfield was out of order, so they landed at Daly Waters where it picked up another passenger. RAAF A/Sgt Pitchford. They arrived at Cloncurry at 1245 pm where three more Australian soldiers boarded the aircraft. The aircraft broke up in mid-air in a violent storm over Rewan Station south of Springsure (about 200 miles south west of Rockhampton, and about 400 miles south of Mackay) at 3.00 pm killing the crew of four and all fifteen passengers on board .

The aircraft seemed to have disintegrated during a wild electrical storm as determined by a watch that had stopped at 4.25 p.m. There were no survivors. The bodies of the deceased were brought to a small park in Springsure before being relocated to Rockhampton. The American dead are believed to have been eventually returned to the United States of America after the war ended, in late 1947 or early 1948 and the 14 Australians were buried in Rockhampton Cemetery.

A memorial will be unveiled in central Queensland next Monday to commemorate 14 Australian soldiers who died in a plane crash near Rolleston in World War II. More than 100 people are expected to attend the service on the "Rewan" property.

Bauhinia Shire councillor Mal Siegmeier says eight Royal Australian Air Force members from Townsville will form a guard of honour. The memorial includes two engines from the plane, part of the wings and some of the undercarriage.

"It was caught in a violent storm over Rewan Station and appears to have broken up over Rewan Station in mid-air," Cr Siegmeier said. "The wreckage was strewn over quite an area and so were the bodies unfortunately of the passengers."
ABC News 23 April 2004.

Location

Details

Dedication