A Part of Buderim's History

The World War 2 Years on Buderim
by Joyce Short
September 2011

Once Japan entered the war and was so quickly and easily heading down through Asia and the Pacific Islands towards Australia, the whole of the Maroochy Shire found itself a giant training place for soldiers destined to fight in New Guinea.

The lantana slopes and bush areas surrounding Buderim Mountain became soldier camps.  After their exercises of fighting through the lantana scrub we heard quite a few soldiers swear to go back home and dig out every trace of garden lantana they’d had in their own gardens.  How they hated it!

Nobody could argue with the Army.  One local resident had his late model utility commandeered for Army use and it had to be delivered to Brisbane.

When a Battalion of soldiers camped in the bush, where Kunda Park is now, a nearby house found its kitchen with a phone on the wall, taken over as the Head Quarters of the Officers of the Battalion for the weeks that they were there.

Ploughed ground (my Dad’s bean patch) became a target spot for small planes to practice dropping military dispatches to a group of soldiers on maneuvers for several days.

A light Horse Brigade chose to ride up to Buderim along the disused tram line, cutting wire fences in their way and leaving irate farmers to hunt up farm animals that had got out.

Civilian traveling was frowned upon and had to be very important to be allowed, otherwise it was quite possible you would be apprehended at some point and told to go home again.

Letters to and from soldiers were all censored.  Even civilian mail was censored at times and a letter could arrive looking like a paper doyley with pieces cut out of it, even though you couldn’t imagine what military significance they could ever have found in the deleted words or sentences.

Very stringent petrol rationing for private use really left everyone grounded in his own little area.

After the war ended it took several years to gradually have the restrictions removed.  The world emerged as a very different place and it seemed like a whole new beginning had started.  The war certainly had been a very hefty milestone in our lives.