Canal Creek air crash

The Canal Creek air crash occurred on 19 December 1943 when a C-47 aircraft of the 22d Troop Carrier Squadron 374th Troop Carrier Group crashed at Canal Creek, Queensland, fifty kilometres north of Rockhampton, killing all 31 people on board.[1]

The aircraft was enroute from Townsville to Brisbane with a scheduled stop in Rockhampton.[2] It's believed the crash was caused by a fire in one of the engines which caused an explosion, destroying part of the aircraft causing it to disintegrate and crash.[1][3]

Those killed included twenty United States Armed Forces personnel, eight Australian Defence Force personnel, an Australian war photographer, a representative from the YMCA and an adjutant from the Salvation Army.[4]

Due to wartime censorship, there was very little press coverage of the accident, with the few newspaper articles that were published focusing on the non-combatants on-board such as Harold Dick (war photographer), Nigel James MacDonald (YMCA) and William Tibbs (Salvation Army).[5][6][7] However, those stories only mentioned that they had been "killed in a plane accident" with no specific details about the disaster.[5][6][7]

With so many locals still unaware of the disaster at the turn of the century, Yeppoon resident John Millroy began campaigning for a permanent memorial at the crash site to commemorate those who died.[1][8] After securing $14,000 in government funding, a monument was unveiled by World War II servicemen Neville Hewitt and Yeppoon RSL president Wayne Carter on 16 June 2012.[9][10] Rockhampton mayor Margaret Strelow and Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley attended the ceremony.[9] Wensley said it was good the tragedy was being remembered while Strelow praised Millroy for his part in organising the memorial.[9]

Annual memorial services are now held at the crash site.[11] A 75th anniversary commemoration was held in 2018.[12][13]

The Canal Creek air crash occurred just a month after the Rewan air crash near Rolleston, in which 19 Australian and American personnel were killed[14][15][16] and six months after the Bakers Creek air crash near Mackay in which 40 military personnel were killed.[17]

References
  1. Roberts, Alice; Mackay, Jacquie (22 May 2012) A site to remember: Canal Creek air disaster, ABC Capricornia. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  2. Crash of C-47 of 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 374th Transport Group 30 miles north of Rockhampton, Oz at War website. Accessed 27 August 2019.
  3. (24 July 2015) Canal Creek Memorial Service, Department of Defence, Australian Government. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  4. Canal Creek Air Crash, Monuments Australia website. Accessed 27 August 2019.
  5. (21 December 1943) Cameraman dies in crash, The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  6. (30 December 1943) YMCA man killed in air crash, The Argus. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  7. (31 December 1943) Tributes to Adjutant W B Tibbs, Salvationists honour gallant comrade, The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  8. (5 January 2012) RSL plans memorial at Canal Creek, The Morning Bulletin. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  9. Robinson, Paul (18 June 2012) Memorial recognises WWII plane crash victims, ABC News. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  10. (18 June 2012) Wayne Carter and Neville Hewitt unveil the stone at the Canal Creek plane crash memorial, ABC News. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  11. (15 July 2015) Canal Ck memorial service to honour lives lost in crash, The Morning Bulletin. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  12. (18 December 2018) CQ community commemorates 75th anniversary of air diaster, The Morning Bulletin. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  13. (20 December 2018) 75th Canal Creek air disaster memorial, The Morning Bulletin. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  14. (23 April 2004) Memorial to honour war crash victims, ABC News. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  15. Dakota C-47 Air Crash Memorial, Monuments Australia website. Accessed 27 August 2019.
  16. Crash of a C-47A Dakota on Rewan Station, south of Springsure, Oz at War website. Accessed 27 August 2019.
  17. Meixner, Sophie (14 June 2018) Remembering Australia's worst air disaster and the cover-up that echoed for decades, ABC News. Retrieved 27 August 2019.

Further reading
  • O'Brien, Mary; Capricorn Coast Historical Society (issuing body.) (2013), The 1943 Canal Creek air crash : and other aircraft disasters in Central Queensland during WW2, Yeppoon, Qld. Capricorn Coast Historical Society, retrieved 18 October 2019

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