Townsville (146.815E 19.249S) is located on the northeast coast of Australia. It had only a modest port, but it was a major air transport center, the 1941 equivalent of an airline “hub.” It was protected by two batteries of heavy artillery. On 7 December 1941, the town was garrisoned by 11 Brigade, a militia unit.
The port became the main transshipment point from
Australia to New Guinea. It was
notorious for the extraordinarily
poor performance of its heavily unionized dock labor force. Absenteeism
averaged 38% and it was estimated that the average American soldier assigned to
shifting cargo moved four times as much per day as the average
Australian dock worker.
Climate Information:
Elevation 48'
Temperatures: Jan 87/76, Apr 84/70, Jul 75/59, Oct 83/71, record 110/41
Rainfall: Jan 15/10.9, Apr 6/3.3, Jul 3/0.6, Oct 4/1.3 == 45.7" per annum
References
Hastings
(2007)
Leighton and
Coakley (1955)
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