Bungendore & District, WW2 - 8 June 1943

 Bungendore & district, NSW

8 June 1943 

Presentation by CRHR Member - David McDonald 

on 3 April 2025

This is an edited version of Author unknown 1943, ‘Fruits of war organisation in small town’, Canberra Times, 8 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2636279. The images have been added by the author of the blog post.

 

Note that the term 'War Organisation' was a short-hand expression referring to the Commonwealth Government's Department of War Organisation and Industry. 

And see: ‘Decline in rural centres’, editorial, Canberra Times, 8 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2636197, regarding the WOI: Dept of War Organisation of Industry. 

And see response (mostly off-topic): 'Nulla Nulla' 1943, 'Bungendore still alive', Queanbeyan Age, 22 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266174570. 

Note that 2025 is the 80^th anniversary of the end of WW2. We will commemorate VE Day 8 May 1945 and VP Day 15 August 1945.

A picture of what War Organisation has done in small rural centres is provided by the example of the town of Bungendore, about 25 miles from Canberra.

Source: https://hlrv.nswlrs.com.au/ Copyright expired - public domain

 

These images: Copyright expired - public domain 

The town marks the junction of the branch railway to Captain’s Flat and before the war the town served a population of 800. To-day, it is a centre of desolation, with empty houses and shops, stripped of business activity and denied elementary services.

A recent visit to the town established that for periods varying from a few days to almost a month, the residents had no supplies of lighting kerosene and had been compelled to sit in dark homes relieved only by candle light.

But the days and nights are not spent in brooding over their lot. Although Bungendore has been denuded of eligible manpower, those at home have contributed as much to the war in proportion [to their population] as any of the more fortunate centres in Australia.

Twelve months ago, when evacuees were seeking homes inland to avoid coastal and air attacks, every house in Bungendore was occupied. This relieved the depressing effects of war for a month or two, but the lack of essential services drove the new arrivals away and now none remains. War organisation has reduced Bungendore to dependence on one general store, one butcher, one baker and one bank. But the town has no doctor, dentist, chemist or hairdresser. Because the town is within a certain radius of Queanbeyan, general store, which is conducted by Mr. W. Ryan, is unable to stock medicinal preparations and other lines in common demand, including tooth paste.

Source: Google Maps

 

The inability to secure suitable supplies forced the local comforts fund to suspend sending

parcels to the more than 140 men from Bungendore who are on service with the forces. In a corner of the general store stood a pathetic group of bottles and cans, each with a tag awaiting the arrival of kerosene supplies, and this tag as well as a list of some 60 names indicated a home that had no lamp fuel.

 

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Recent loss to the town was when the town blacksmith, who also conducted the air observation post, was removed from the town.

 

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The town had at one stage a well-organised A.R.P. service [Air Raid Precautions] under Senior Warden E. Gardner, but the first-aid teacher has been transferred from the town and only two stretcher-bearers now remain to carry on with a depleted warden’s service.

There is no picture show and since the war no visiting show has passed through the town. In the main street there is a row of seven empty shops, which by no means completes the list, bearing mute testimony to the blight that has come on the centre.

But an active Red Cross branch, a local Patriotic and Comforts Fund, a tireless branch of the Country Women’s Association by their records show that Bungendore people are holding their chins up. Every call that has come to large cities and towns has been answered from Bungendore. 

The town’s contribution to the Australian Comforts Fund, for 12 months was £300, and to the Australian Red Cross £334. This came from little more than 200 homes.

 

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Clothing was sent to the bomb victims of Britain, sheep-skin vests to men overseas, funds are subscribed for the Prisoner-of-War Fund, and the camp libraries receive a quota of books and papers. Camouflage net making, in this district [the Canberra district] received its start from Bungendore, for it was the secretary of the Bungendore C.W.A. that gave instruction to the first net workers at Queanbeyan and thus to Canberra. Bungendore has contributed more than 250 nets from its own netters. More than ten tons of paper waste has been sent to the Salvage Collector.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100933778 Copyright expired - public domain 

Sheepskin vest: Flight Sergeant R J Eaton, RAAF, Australian War Memorial, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL33288 Copyright expired - public domain 

Copyright expired - public domain 

 

Recommended citation: McDonald, D 2025, Bungendore & District, WW2 - 8 June 1943. Presentation by CRHR member, David McDonald, on 3 April 2025, Canberra & Region Heritage Researchers, blog post, https://crhr-cbr.blogspot.com/2025/07/bungendore-district-ww2-8-june-1943.html.