'Operation Alien' and the Cold War in Australia, 1950-1953

Abstract

Shortly before daybreak on Wednesday 2 September 1953, Bowen, a small port over 700 miles north of Brisbane, was awakened by the first of seven flights to land on the airfield at the outskirts of town. People feared that an air-borne invasion had occurred, but the troops were Australian, not foreign or Communist, and as was soon revealed, their target was the troubled waterfront. * Under a blanket of secrecy, they had been concentrated at Enoggera Army Camp and on Tuesday evening trucked to Eagle Farm airport in Brisbane. The vanguard boarded a Skymaster at 11.50 pm and took off at 12.07 am. Commandeer orders had been issued to the civil airlines, Trans Australian Airlines and Australian National Airways, and now in the early hours their planes ferried 220 troops to Bowen. They arrived armed, and were encamped at the Drill Hall and the old sea plane base. As it was planned that the state police should be responsible for protective duties, the Queensland Government was given notice of the troop movement at the last minute on Tuesday 1 September. That was passed on to Police Commissioner Smith, and police reinforcements were rushed to Bowen to patrol the wharf and the town, which was declared out of bounds to the troops. Army experts set up radio communication between the wharf and headquarters, and the Army and Australian Stevedoring Industry Board (ASIB) had priority use of the two telephone lines out of Bowen. On the afternoon of their arrival the troops, now unarmed, were taken to the wharf. The force was under the command of 11 Infantry Brigade, and included Korean veterans and technical experts. Under the supervision of senior ASIB officials, troops commenced loading meat on the Port Wellington. The waterside workers in protest refused to work the sugar ships Kookaburra and General Guisan, and the troops were directed to do so. As rail way men refused to shunt wagons to the wharf, at 7.30 pm on Thursday 3 September the army commandeered the Bowen railway yards and a steam locomotive, which soldiers manned, to haul sugar to the wharf. In response, engine drivers pulled the fires on eight locos, and with members of the Australian Railways Union held up the north and south bound mail trains and threatened to close down the entire rail system. With the Bowen Trades and Labour Council taking the lead, miners at Collinsville and Scottville (inland from Bowen) and meatworkers at the nearby Merinda works held 24 hour protest strikes. The meatworkers refused to load meat for the wharf and threatened to shut down the works if troops were used.