Beaudesert’s rural lands are filled with plenty of secrets, but did you know that Round Mountain holds a secret of its own?
For some, it may not be a secret at all, but Round Mountain was once the temporary home to hundreds of prisoners from World War II.
In the late 1942, the Government established a US Army Detention and Rehabilitation Centre at Round Mountain to confine soldiers sentenced for major offences.
The stockade contained timber buildings, including a hospital and chapel, a tennis court and pool located at their headquarters, parade ground, inmate and officer tents, poultry farm, dance floor and more.
Although the Detention Centre may be gone, its memories and ruins still reside in Josephville.
After a trip to the Beaudesert Historical Museum, they shared a few locals who remember growing up during this development.
“I went to the dances held at the American camp at Josephville. They had built a bridge over the local creek near there and they reckoned it could last forever, but it washed away in the next flood,” Dinah Buchanan said.
It has been said that the locals warned the soldiers that the bridge would not last, however they built it anyways; goes to say, the locals were right!
Alwyn Todd recorded the events and memories in a self-made memoir, including his experience of the Round Mountain camp being built a mile from his home.
“The camp also served as a major stores depot for the US army – we got to know many of the soldiers and some of them were still corresponding with us for years after the war.”
By 1944, the American army evacuated the camp, moving on as the Japanese army retreated.
The Australian army took over for some years until the camp was closed and the land was returned to the original owners, the Dennis and Walsh families.
The rest of the Dennis and Walsh land was eventually sold and has been subdivided into many smaller holdings owned by other families.
To this day, little pieces of its history can be located in the property of local farmers: the Brook family and the Thomas family.
Both properties have an old chimney which still remains intact and functional.
The Brook family lit up the old cookhouse chimney six months ago for a family bomb fire where the chimney set fire as it would have decades beforehand.
The Brook property was assumed to have been built over the original parade ground and officer tents where the soldiers resided.
The Thomas property not only has a red brick chimney that was part of the Officers’ Recreational Hall, but multiple concrete foundations of the Stores Depot are littered around their yard.
This is only a peek into the mysteries uncovered in Beaudesert.