US MIlitary Cemetery Lutwyche, Brisbane, Queensland, during WW2

US MILITARY CEMETERY LUTWYCHE
BRISBANE, QLD DURING WW2

visits since 5 June 2004

The US Military established a cemetery plot at the Lutwyche Cemetery on Gympie Road, Lutwyche, Brisbane during WW2. It was located at the south east corner of the Lutwyche Cemetery fronting on to Gympie Road.

During WW2, Americans who were killed or died in Australia were buried in local cemeteries, but in 1945, the bodies from around Australia were exhumed and temporarily reinterred at the USAF Cemetery at Ipswich or at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. Then eventually all of these bodies were exhumed again and taken back to the United States. I assume the bodies at Lutwyche were not relocated to the USAF Cemetery at Ipswich before they were returned to the US. It is reported that American Negro soldiers erected a four meter high canvas fence around the US cemetery while the bodies were exhumed.

The US ship "Gauchec Victory" arrived in Brisbane in November 1947 to take the bodies back to America. The work to remove the bodies finished by 20 December 1945. A ceremony was held in the Brisbane City Hall on 22 December 1945 to honour the American dead. A coffin containing the body of an unknown American soldier was paraded ceremoniously through Brisbane to Newstead Wharf watched by approximately 30,000 Brisbane residents. The last 1,800 caskets containing US servicemen left Brisbane before Christmas 1947.

Today the American Cemetery area at Lutwyche still remains empty.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Russell Miller and David Spethman for their assistance with this home page.