Alba Wool Scour, near Hughenden, Queensland, used as a US Army Motor Transport Fuel Depot

ALBA WOOL SCOUR
NEAR HUGHENDEN, QLD
USED AS A US ARMY MOTOR TRANSPORT FUEL DEPOT
IN AUSTRALIA, DURING WWII

The Alba wool scour about 18 miles south west of Hughenden in western Queensland was owned by Andrew McMaster, who was a brother of Fergus McMaster, the founding chairman of Qantas. The two brothers owned a number of grazing properties in the Winton and Longreach districts. When Qantas was formed at Winton on 16 November 1920, Andrew McMaster made the wool store at Alba wool scour available to Qantas as their first aircraft maintenance hangar.

Alba Scour near Hughenden early/mid 1940’s front row Mavis Garrett the
cook, Edward Lynch (manager), and Cliff Garrett. Other workers unknown.

The Alba wool scour was a large two-storey corrugated iron and timber building, located at Alba railway siding on the Hughenden to Winton railway line. The scouring plant was located on the ground floor and the upper level housed the wool room which was used for dances during the 1920s and 1930s. Steam boilers and a tall brick chimney (see above photo) stood beside the wool scour. There was also a wool store, workers barracks and a kitchen.

Sometime between the years 1942 and 1945, the Alba wool scour was taken over by the US Army and became a motor transport fuel and maintenance depot It was operated mostly by African-American troops until about 1944.

Queensland Country Life, Thursday 11 June 1942

ALBA NOW AT WINTON ONLY
___________

In the interests of the war effort the operations carried on at the Alba Wool Scouring Co.'s Alba works have been suspended. All scouring will, in future, be centralised at the Company's Winton Scour. Clients are asked to consign to Winton only.

The Australian Army's 2/2nd Australian General Hospital was located nearby at Watten Railway Siding which is about 3 km north east of the Alba Wool Scour. The hospital moved to Watten Siding from Canberra in June 1942. The 2/2nd General Hospital serviced the Australian Army training units around Hughenden and backed up the 116th General Hospital in Charters Towers. A Detachment of the 1st Mobile Laundry & Fwd Decontamination Unit was also located at Watten siding to service the 2/2nd General Hospital. The hospital site was abandoned in December 1942 due to serious flooding due to a cyclone. The hospital relocated to Rocky Creek on the Atherton Tablelands in January 1943. A detachment of the 160th Australian General Transport Company was also located at Watten Siding from about April 1944.

After the war, anything moveable at the Alba Wool Scour was sold and the remaining buildings were demolished. Mr. George Price who lived next door to the wool scour bought the property in about 1950.

When the Alba Wool Scour closed, Lachlan Terry's grandfather bought the actual scour building and had it disassembled, with half of it being reassembled on Elton Downs and the other half on Nottingham Downs as shearing sheds. The shed at Elton Downs fell into massive disrepair through lack of use and was eventually bull dozed into a hole. Lachlan Terry remembered that for many years there used to be a chimney built of fired red bricks at the old Alba Wool Scour site (see above photo) until it was demolished probably in the mid 1980s.

Anne Alloway of Landsborough, told me in February 2011, that she had been told by a reliable source, that there was the grave of an African American on the north side of the old road, between Hughenden and Prairie. He was supposedly shot by white American soldiers for no reason, and buried there. Unfortunately, Anne does not have a date, or a name.

I'd like to thank Colleen Mullins for her assistance with this web page. Mavis Garrett the cook in the above photo, was her grandmother, Edward Lynch, the manager, was her great grandfather and Cliff Garrett was her grandfather.

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