AIRCRAFT BURNT AND BURIED AT ROSENEATH
NEAR TOWNSVILLE
AFTER WORLD WAR 2

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Ray Smith, Manager of Donnington Airport, 41 kms west of Townsville, said in an article in "The Independent News" on Wednesday 9 August 1995, that he could remember that many military aircraft from all parts of Townsville were burnt after the war in a large fire at Roseneath in Stuart Creek near Stuart in Townsville.

Apparently rain water runoff eventually exposed many of the aircraft and components and some industrious person recovered much of the metal and it was shipped to Japan as scrap metal for recycling. Quite ironic!

Matthew Carthew grew up at Roseneath and he can remember playing in an area on the bank of Stuart Creek that had numerous pieces of steel breaking out of the soil. As a child he always believed that this was a dump site from WWII.  The site was the north western bank of where Bouganville Road crosses Stuart Creek this area is now over grown with grass but has no large trees. 

Pio Vic Armati purchased a couple of acres of land in the Roseneath Subdivision Estate, on the outskirts of Townsville, in 1884. During World War II the Army took over this land and built reinforced-concrete bunkers on it. Clive Vivian Armati bequeathed this land to his son Clive Hylton Armati, who eventually sold it to Mr. Gallaway. Mr. Gallaway converted the bunker into a house, with some difficulty. The house is still in use today.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Peter Armati and Terry Gallaway for their assistance with this web page.

 

Can you help me with more information on
exactly where these aircraft were burnt and buried?

How many aircraft, what types of aircraft, etc?

 

Can anyone help me with more information?

 

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

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©  Peter Dunn OAM 2020

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This page first produced 17 September 2000

This page last updated 23 February 2020