When the war came to UQ

For more than 115 years, UQ has been ‘a place of light, of liberty and of learning' with the vision of ‘knowledge leadership for a better world’.

But, between 1939 and 1945, our ‘better world’ was under threat, and so for a brief period the University changed focus.

From 1 August 1942 until 31 December 1944, the fledgling university site at St Lucia (construction had only begun in 1938) became the Advanced Land Headquarters of the Allied Defence Forces (Landops), headed by General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces, who reported directly to MacArthur. All construction on the campus was suspended, and the Main (now Forgan Smith) and Chemistry (now Steele) buildings were repurposed to support Australia’s war effort.

Also in 1942, much of the (now) UQ Gatton was requisitioned for the 153rd Station Hospital and later the 105th General Hospital of the US Army, hosting more than 19,000 wounded servicemen plus 3,000 Army doctors, nurses and other service personnel before war’s end.

Some teaching at the University continued, mostly at George Street; however, with many students serving in the military – only students in medicine, dentistry and engineering were considered reserve professions – and several UQ buildings commandeered for other purposes, student numbers were restricted. Veterinary science and architecture ceased altogether.

At Gatton, many new buildings were constructed in 1943 to accommodate teaching and research activities. However, the main focus was on practical farm work and projects of immediate wartime value such as intensive crop and livestock production, and the growing of opium poppies to make drugs.

The war comes to Australia

At the end of February 1942, the Australian government considered the nation to be in grave danger of being invaded by Japan, and with good reason – Japanese forces had just seen major military success in Pearl Harbor, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), New Guinea and Darwin.

Australia felt defenceless, unable to rely on Britain for support, and felt that the US was its only hope.

Prime Minister John Curtin asked US President Roosevelt to ‘send him an American general to organise the American offensive against Japan’, and MacArthur – the former US Army Chief of Staff – was dispatched from the Philippines to do just that.

With North Queensland, Brisbane and Sydney seen as chief targets for potential attack, it made sense for MacArthur to be stationed in Brisbane City (now MacArthur Chambers), with Blamey based nearby to coordinate the troops.

And the new campus at St Lucia was a prime candidate for a local base – even if Blamey had concerns that it may be too exposed to enemy fire and the Queensland Government had already earmarked it for use as a 200-bed emergency hospital if Brisbane was bombed.

However, it was considered the most suitable option for its location and space.

Repurposing the University and preparing for war

In July 1942, the UQ Senate was advised that the Army was moving into the (unfinished) buildings at St Lucia – triggering the installation of secure doors and walls to protect military maps and plans; the erection of air-raid shelters, huts and temporary buildings to accommodate personnel; and the digging of slit trenches near the main building and student common rooms to provide facilities for practising first-aid, fire-fighting and other drills.

The Queensland Government retained the library basement for storing hospital equipment, and the University kept control of 2 floors of the tower for storage purposes.

Army personnel remained on-site until May 1945.

The US Army also took over the University’s veterinary sciences training building at Yeerongpilly in July 1942, returning it with some improvements in September 1944; and then in February 1943, took over the Anatomy School in Alice Street.

Blamey establishes St Lucia communication hub

While St Lucia was the main Landops headquarters during the war, hundreds of other units across Brisbane, Port Moresby and Jayapura also supported the allied war effort. In all, Blamey oversaw 373,000 Australian troops and had only limited control of US forces – of which, during 1942, around 80,000 were in Brisbane at any one time.

When he arrived from Melbourne in August 1942, Blamey’s first priority was to recapture Australian New Guinea and defend North Queensland. Along with the Melbourne War Office, St Lucia was where supplies and procurement were administered to provide upkeep in the field.

It was also where fighting strategy was determined (in the Battle Room) and was the communication hub for the daily War Diaries – delivered via letters (sent by daily air services from New Guinea to Townsville and relayed by couriers to Brisbane), telephones (a 200-extension PABX phone system had been installed, along with secure phone lines across Australia) and teleprinters.

The campus became home to hundreds of personnel – including women in the Australian Women’s Army Service – working in Operations, Intelligence, Staff Duties, Training and Liaison, Artillery, Electrical and Engineering, Survey and Signals, Medical, Supply and Transport, Ordinance, Personnel, Amenities and Maintenance. Interpreters, codebreakers, analysts and map-makers around the state also reported to St Lucia Landops, where a daily report was prepared for MacArthur’s Battle Room in Brisbane's CBD.

As well as procurement and supply, one of Landops’ most important activities was the construction (in a secret room) of detailed replica models of the New Guinea landscape, which were used to prepare for the successful 1943 Lae-Salamaua-Madang Campaign conducted by Australian and US forces to defeat Japan. 

UQ honours MacArthur for 'vital service' to Queensland

As Prime Minister Curtin’s chief adviser, Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur was widely admired – although less so by Blamey, with whom he was never close. MacArthur rarely ventured to St Lucia, except for social occasions, and all Landops reports were required to be delivered to him at his CBD headquarters.

Nevertheless, his military success in Australia prompted the University to invite him to accept an honorary Doctor of Laws in January 1945:

“…in recognition of your vital service to the State of Queensland in the part you have played, as Supreme Commander  of the Allied Forces in this theatre of war, in saving our land from invasion and thereby preserving for us intact the religious and cultural traditions of our race, our freedom and our institutions. The offer of this degree by the Senate implies further its recognition of the great work performed by the United States Armed Forces under your command.”

MacArthur accepted. Unfortunately, however, as he was stationed in Sydney at the time, he was unable to attend the ceremony in person, and so Chancellor William Forgan Smith asked him to nominate a proxy, which he did: Lieutenant General Sir Edmond Herring or “some distinguished member of the faculty of the University”.

In the end, Herring could not attend as MacArthur’s proxy, sending a telegram on the afternoon of the ceremony:

“Left arm broken. Am unable to proceed Brisbane. Terribly sorry.”

Apparently, after flying from Melbourne to Sydney where he was then to proceed to Brisbane, he was hit by a truck at Mascot aerodrome.

Senate member Chief Justice Sir William Webb was duly presented as MacArthur’s proxy instead.

Keep scrolling to reveal each letter between UQ Chancellor William Forgan Smith and General Douglas MacArthur

All correspondence documents courtesy of the UQ Archives

So, the war well and truly came to UQ, and its impact can still be felt today: not many law schools around the world can claim to have rooms with 15 centimetres of extra concrete reinforcing on all walls…

A 1945 bronze plaque commemorating the era can be seen in the Forgan Smith tower’s forecourt, as well as on the Australia: 1939–1945 frieze outside – evoking the Anzac spirit to this day.

Lest we forget.

References

• A place of light and learning: The University of Queensland’s first seventy-five years, Malcolm I Thomis, 1985, University of Queensland Press
• Carving a history: a guide to the Great Court, 2017, The University of Queensland
• Gatton campus history
• The Forgan Smith: history of a building and its people at The University of Queensland, Clive Moore, 2010, UQ School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
• The Odd Couple: Blamey and MacArthur at War, Jack Gallaway, 2000, University of Queensland Press
• Main image of General Douglas MacArthur: Bettmann/Getty Images