In July 1942, already 1,500 Australian prisoners of war were transferred from Singapore to Sandakan as a forced labour to build a military airfield.

In 1995, an agreement between the state government of Sabah, the government of Australia, the veterans association Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) and the Sandakan Municipal Council resulted in the creation of this memorial site.

[2] The memorial park is located about 1.5 kilometres southwest of present-day Sandakan Airport, which occupies part of the former camp of the Australian B Force.

The Sandakan Commemorative Pavilion was opened on 18 March 1999 by the Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott of Australia.

It contains a permanent exhibition about the POW camp and the death marches in both English and Malay language.

The "Sandakan Memorial" obelisk is a black stele, on a circular, cobbled square diameter of about ten metres.