St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

While Australia’s Navy, Army and Air Force produced many heroes in the defence of Australia, there were also many unsung heroes who laboured hard to defend the nation during the Second World War. These included civilians at home, many of them women, who manufactured munitions for use in the Pacific theatre. From 1942, these workers rapidly placed Australia’s manufacturing base onto a total war footing, producing guns, landmines, grenades, torpedoes, armoured cars, tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft, advanced optical aids and camouflage. Included in the production were 50,000 Owen machine guns, invented by 24-year-old Australian Evelyn Owen, which became hugely popular with Australian soldiers for its unique ability to operate in the jungle environment of New Guinea.

Without the effort of these munitions workers, Australian forces would have been starved of vital equipment. Since the end of the Second World War, Australia has fought as an ally of the United States in every major conflict in which the US has been engaged, as part of our alliance commitments. In October 2000, St John’s Cathedral unveiled two striking stained-glass windows in the south west aisle of the building which recall the alliance between the two countries, established initially during the First World War on the Western Front in Europe, and then more definitively during the Second World War when the two allies fought together against Japan in the Pacific. The unveiling of the windows was an imposing ceremony indeed.

Women working in a munitions factory in Brisbane during the Second World War.

State Library of Queensland

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