- Concrete Tasmania erected by men of the Tasmanian 12th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, 1943
I have been meaning to post this picture for some time and meant to post it yesterday. It is a concrete map of Tasmania that is in Oatley Park in the St George District of southern Sydney, and was erected during the Second World War by soldiers of the Tasmanian 12th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers who were based at a camp in the park. I have known about the location of this 'map' since I was a kid because I spent a lot of time in the park. The inscription has faded over time but I used to have the inscription written down somewhere, though on my recent trip to my parent’s place in Sydney I looked for where I had the inscription written but I could not find it.
I am sure the top word is “TASMANIA” and the next few words are easily made out as “ERECTED BY SAPPERS”. This is followed by the names of three or four soldiers whose names I can’t make out. The first one might be “Menzies” but it is not very clear. The second last line is unclear as well but could be a person's name or the name of the unit, though the more I look at it I think it might be "NW COAST". I think the last line is “R.A.E” (Royal Australian Engineers).
Apparently the unit was formed in Hobart in 1942 and moved to the mainland in early 1943, where they were based at Oatley Park for 10 weeks. They were there for additional training and to be equipped for tropical service. And the park has a link to the First World War since there is a pine growing near the entrance that is apparently one of two seedlings of the Lone Pine at Gallipoli that were planted in Australia! I got most of this information from this webpage -> http://off.oatleypark.com/wordpress/wp- ... istory.pdf
