Australian Forestry Group UK

The Australian Forestry Group returned to Australia via the United States in 1943, and its three companies later served in the Northern Territory and New Guinea.

The first Forestry Company (2/1) was in Sydney with men from NSW, Queensland and South Australia led by Captain Cyril Richard Cole, a professional forester from the Australian Capital Territory, while a second Forestry Company (2/2) was raised in Melbourne under the command of Captain Andrew Leonard (Ben) Benallack from the Forests Commission Victoria with soldiers recruited from Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.

[1]The two Forestry Companies sailed from Fremantle on the Stratheden on 30 May 1940 destined for the Suez Canal but were diverted to England via Cape Town after France fell to Germany and the subsequent Dunkirk evacuation.

Another shock was the British requirement to cut trees flush at ground level rather than at two or three feet which meant sometimes kneeling in the snow and mud using clumsy knee pads.

[6] To maximise the Australian foresters' productivity, less skilled forestry workers from Honduras and Italian Prisoners Of War (POWs) were placed under their control to undertake unskilled work.

Also known as LumberJills, they worked alongside other military units such as the Australian forestry companies to produce timber for the war effort.

Their tasks included felling, stripping bark and branches, loading, crosscutting, driving tractors, trucks, working with horses and operating sawmills.

[9] Following their return to Australia in November, the forestry companies, undertook jungle warfare training at Canungra and received some new equipment and were later deployed to the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea.

[6][10] In PNG the Forestry Companies operated different machinery in several locations but continued to harvest logs and produce much needed sawn timber including durable material for wharfs and jetties.

At the cessation of hostilities in 1945 all three Australian forestry companies were progressively disbanded but some men remained as late as 1946 to help with reconstruction.