The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Cairns (145.733E
16.898S) is a port on the east
coast of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Australia. The climate is tropical and much of the local coastline was mangrove swamp.
There was a small airfield here when war broke out, and the town was garrisoned by 51 Battalion reinforced with a battalion of artillery and a company of engineers.
The port later became a PT boat and escort base and an amphibious training
center. The harbor required constant dredging to maintain a depth of
22' (6.7m). By the start of 1944, the port had a 40-ton floating
drydock, a 600' (180m) timber wharf, and four 5,000-gallon (190,000 liter) water
tanks.
References
"Building the Navy's Bases in World War II" (1947; accessed 2012-12-31)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index
