Lieutenant Kathleen NeussPrint Page

The bottlebrush tree commemorates Lieutenant Kathleen Neuss who was shot by the Japanese on Banka Island in 1942 during World War Two.

Mr.and Mrs. J. H. Neuss, of Bannockburn, have received official notification that their daughter Lieut. K. M. Neuss is missing, believed killed. Sister Neuss was an Army nurse at the time of the capture of Singapore. With many others she was evacuated but the ship on which the refugees were taken was bombed off Sumatra and no definite word as to the fate of Sister Neuss had been heard since —February 12, 1941—until this official communication. On one occasion Mr and Mrs Neuss received a letter from the Nurses' Association expressing the hope that she was safe. Apart from the numerous friends whom Sister Neuss had in the vicinity of her home she was well and favorably known in the district. In her earlier years she was nursing at Craignish where she manifested considerable capacity and interest in her profession. Her bright disposition and her ever-willing desire to be of assistance earned her the esteem and gratitude of the patients with whom she came into contact. She is now to be numbered among the gallant band who have given their lives for Australia.
Inverell Times (NSW), 26 June 1944.

On Banka Island in 1942, twenty-two Australian nurses who were on the Vyner Brook which was sunk by the Japanese were then ordered by the Japanese to form a line and walk into the sea. The women knew what was going to happen to them, but none panicked or pleaded for mercy. When the water had reached the nurses` waists, the Japanese opened fire on them. Sister Bullwinkel was hit in the back by a bullet and knocked off her feet.

Upon discovering that she was only wounded, she pretended to be dead. She later gave herself up to the Japanese. Realising that the lives of other survivors of the Vyner Brooke would be at risk if the Japanese discovered what she had seen, Sister Bullwinkel concealed her wound from the Japanese and treated it herself. She survived harsh imprisonment to give evidence of the massacre at a war crimes trial in Tokyo in 1947.

Location

Details

Dedication