Albury: A Town at War
Members of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) and the Australian Army Medical Women's Service march through Albury, NSW, 4 April 1943. Photograph by the Herald Newspaper, 138806.
The inland regional town of Albury offered various advantages as a hub of military activity during the Second World War. The surrounding farmland could provide crops and livestock for civilians and service personnel; the railway station was a significant changing point for interstate trains; a pre-existing network of roads could accommodate vehicles of various sizes; and there was substantial space outside the town suitable for establishing training grounds, depots, and camps. In Albury itself, there was a variety of businesses, a local newspaper, radio station, schools, and established community centres and entertainment, including cinema and theatre. New contracts for defence-related demands proved to be a major boost to Albury’s wartime economy.
Albury has a military background dating to Federation and was home to a training battery in the 1920s and 1930s. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Albury became a hub of military activity. It was a garrison town by 1940, when the army began setting up camps and temporary accommodation in and near Albury, and there were enough people in the town and the surrounding region to raise the 2/23rd Battalion, a unit that proudly became known as Albury’s Own. There were also Australian Women‘s Army Service personnel, transferred from Sydney and assigned to various non-combat roles, who helped to manage supplies, logistics, communications and signals. The Albury Club’s building in the centre of town became a headquarters.
Geoffrey Mainwaring, Albury Station, January 1943, oil on paper, painted in Albury, 1943. ART21560
Marching to consecration of the 2/23rd Battalion colours, 3 November 1940. Photographer unknown, P09869.002
The scale of military activity soon changed town life and the surrounding area. The army established local supply contracts for a wide range of daily supplies, providing a significant boost to the local economy. Town and military connections became a part of how the local newspaper and radio reported on wartime activities, and influenced how local residents reacted and adapted to official directions about censorship.
The case making section of the 3rd Base Ordnance Depot at Kiewa Street, in the centre of town, 18 May 1944. Photograph by William Donald Martin, 066595.
The 2/23rd Battalion Army Football team, wearing borrowed South Albury Australian rules football league jerseys. The jerseys became a symbol of how the unit was adopted as Albury’s own. Photographer unknown, P05668.004
As wartime life became routine in Albury, residents and military personnel adapted to building air-raid shelters, stocking up on emergency supplies, and observing nightly restrictions to the town’s lighting. There were various wartime fundraising campaigns to support general patriotic funds and make comforts to send to troops. Local residents learnt about army ranks and acronyms, and officers thanked locals for assisting the troops. As a goodwill action for civilians or billeted personnel, members of a band in the neighbouring town of Wodonga offered free music lessons to Albury residents. Volunteer work boomed, as civilians joined the Red Cross, became air observers, completed first-aid training, and prepared comfort packages for troops overseas. With the all-in spirit meant that volunteer work helped people cross some pre-war social boundaries.
Group VI Control Office, 3rd Base Ordnance Depot at Kiewa Street in the central part of Albury, where the accounting and distribution of small arms, radio, signal and engineering equipment was carried out, 18 May 1944. Photograph by William Donald Martin, 066589
The scale of army activity and ongoing supply demands, however, led to serious housing shortages and major price hikes for rentals. Many young locals became army recruits or left the region to join navy and air force units, and farmlands were taken over by the army for war use, some on terms that farmers and their families considered unacceptable. Albury suffered from severe drought in 1942, and in the summer of 1944–45 summer, drought seriously lowered the water level in the Murray River. Drought-related losses of crops and livestock increased strains on local resources and led to tensions in the community and camps. The army’s monitoring of supplies without explanation, due to security issues, did not help improve relations.
The end of the war was widely celebrated. There were feelings of shared achievement, peace, and relief that the many sacrifices had proven worthwhile. When various units moved out of the town and nearby camps, some residents felt they were getting their town back. Large numbers of former prisoners of war from Europe and Asia came through Albury on hospital and troop trains en route to Melbourne.
Volunteers in Albury distribute fruit and ice cream to sick and wounded soldiers en route to Melbourne, 7 September 1945. Photographer unknown, 114761
The extra money brought into Albury during the war through supply contracts and troop spending enabled the town to engage in postwar building projects. Bonegilla camp was converted into a postwar migrant reception centre. Changes in train-track gauges continued to ensure the railway station’s significance. Some improvements turned out to be temporary: for many women who had gained new jobs, skills, and experiences, postwar resumption of prewar social standards limited employment and social opportunities. Farms that had been requisitioned for army use were not always quickly returned.
As a garrison town during the Second World War, Albury benefited in various ways from its wartime status and activity. The combination of personnel and local residents made it possible to have supplies, money, and entertainment options not otherwise possible. There were extra jobs to do, new business opportunities, and an all-in spirit that helped power many extra volunteer works.
Not everything always worked smoothly, and there were strains on town-army relations during the war. Enough problems were overcome, though, even if only temporarily, to get the community through to the end of the war. After the celebrations, and looking after trainloads of returned soldiers, the people of Albury had some chances to set up for a postwar world and a new stage in their town’s history.
Unit war diaries for various army units in Albury area:
2/23 Battalion: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1360744
6 Line of Communication: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1360420
57/60 Battalion: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1361189
58/59 Battalion: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1361188
3 Base Ordnance Depot: no digitised unit diary is currently available.
9 Australian Division Cavalry: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2698564
9 (Res Base) Albury Sub-Area: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1360294
Australian Women’s Army Service: limited range of digitised unit diaries are currently available. See: AWM52 1/1/22 - Headquarters Australian Women's Army Service, Australian Military Forces (HQ AWAS AMF), https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1367111.
Note: not all the units in this list were based in or near Albury at the same time, or for all of the war years.