WAS THERE A JAPANESE SUBMARINE
REFUELLING BASE AT PRINCESS CHARLOTTE BAY
IN NORTH QUEENSLAND DURING WW2?

visits since 22 February 2002

The 31st Battalion "The Kennedy Regiment", moved from the Townsville Showgrounds to Mango Avenue in Townsville. One day, Captain Theodore, the Officer Commanding "B" Company woke Barry Smith and asked him to go to Battalion Headquarters where he was told to lead a patrol to investigate reports that a Japanese submarine had a refuelling base somewhere in Princess Charlotte Bay in north Queensland.

Early the next morning Barry Smith and his patrol arrived at the Townsville wharves to board a Sunderland Flying Boat which would take them to Princess Charlotte Bay. The pilot was Mick Mathers or "Mad Mick" as he was known. Barry became a bit concerned when Mick showed him the charts he was using the determine the safest spot to land. It had been drawn by Captain Matthew Flinders in 1803.

The landed safely and Barry's group went ashore in a small dinghy. It was then that they discovered that the signaller attached to his group had left his equipment back at the wharf in Townsville. They used a torch to send signals back out to the Sunderland. They did not find any evidence of a Japanese presence in the area. They did find large caves that had been formed by granite boulders and further inland they found a tombstone erected in memory of the 300 or so pearling lugger sailors who were killed in the big cyclone of 1893. They also found an abandoned yacht called the "Goodwill" which had been based in Rabaul. It was waterlogged and had a cargo of Gutta Percha. They also came across some evacuees from New Guinea walking south along one of the beaches headed for Townsville.

The Flying Boat picked them up the next day and Barry Smith reported to the Brigadier at Combined Defence Headquarters in Sturt Street, Townsville.

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"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 22 February 2002

This page last updated 21 January 2004