The booklet printed for the opening ceremony states:
"The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial is dedicated to all Australians who became prisoners of war while fighting the enemy.
The names include: those who were serving in the Australian Defence Forces; Australians serving in the Merchant Navy; and Australians who enlisted in the allied Defence Forces and were made prisoners of war while fighting the common enemy.
No complete list of names of Australian prisoners of war has previously been compiled. Records from the Australian War Memorial, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the National Archives of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, military histories, history web-pages, newspapers and replies resulting from an Australia-wide appeal for names have been consulted. There are errors and gaps in the records available. Unfortunately some names will have been overlooked. Provision has been made for additional names to be added to the Memorial.
Montevideo Maru Memorial
Memorial
to those who died on the
Montevideo Maru
1st July 1942On the 23rd January 1942 Japanese forces invaded Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, and quickly defeated the small Australian Garrison - Lark Force.
About 160 of the Australian soldiers who surrendered were massacred in February at Tol Plantation.
On 22nd June 1942, the Japanese ordered 852 Australian Prisoners of War and 208 civilian internees to board the Japanese ship, Montevideo Maru, for transport to Japan. The ship bore no markings to indicate that it carried Prisoners of War.
The Prisoners of War included members of the 2/22nd Battalion. 1st Independent Company, Fortress Artillery, Engineers, Signal Units, No. 17 Anti/Tank Battery, Anti/Aircraft Battery, No. 19 Special Dental Unit; detachments from: New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, 2/10 Field Ambulance. Ordinance Corps, 8 Division Supply Column, Canteen Services HQ NG area, Royal Australian Airforce and the Royal Australian Navy. The 2/22 Battalion Bandsmen were all members of Salvation Army Bands.
On 1st July 1942 an American submarine, the USS Sturgeon, attacked and sank the Montevideo Maru unaware that more than 1000 Prisoners of War were locked in the holds.
There were no survivors - No indication of the sinking, nor of the tragic loss of life, was given by the Japanese Government.
The sinking of the Montevideo Maru is the largest maritime disaster in Australian History.
Australian Ex-POW Memorial website - This Unique Memorial was opened on the 6th February 2004 to recognise and remember those Australians who became Prisoners of War during the Wars of the 20th Century.
The Memorial symbolises that all Australian prisoners embarked to serve away from their homeland and acknowledges the hardship, deprivation, brutality, starvation and disease endured by Prisoners of War during their capture and the scars many continued to endure upon their repatriation to Australia.
In these magnificent Botanical Gardens the Memorial is a place of quite reflection and a place to remember loved ones and to mourn those 8,600 Prisoners of War that died in captivity and remain buried on foreign shores.
Rabaul & Montevideo Maru Society - The Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society was established in 2009 to represent the interests of the families of the soldiers and civilians captured in Rabaul and the New Guinea Islands after the Japanese invasion in January 1942, many of whom are believed to have perished on the Montevideo Maru when it was torpedoed off the Philippines on 1 July 1942.
Ex-POW Memorial information on Ballarat.com
Ex-POW Memorial information on Papua New Guinea Association of Australia website
Lark Force - New Britain (Lost Lives Website)
Montevideo Maru Memorial at Ballarat Ex-POW Memorial (Lost Lives Website)
The Sinking of the Montevideo Maru (Australian War Memorial)
World War One Nominal Roll (Australia)
Ballarat WW1 Avenue of Honour on Ballarat.com
Page compiled by Daryl Povey