After some months of evaluation, the Reading Room in the Manuscript Collection section of the Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, now holds a piece of Rockhampton memorabilia...

It is a memoir, penned by ‘QX20125 Dvr. Dunbavan Joe. - 2/3 Res. M.T.', filling 25 closely typed foolscap pages. 

Joe Dunbavan - his memories live on

This memoir graphically details the time from 6pm on April 9, 1941 when Joe embarked on an overseas adventure, heading to Singapore as a fresh untrained recruit, after just 4 weeks in the Army.

It concludes a harrowing 4 years and 4 months later, on August 18, 1945 with ‘tears streaming down the faces of strong men' as he and other survivors were released from Pitburi Prisoner of War camp in Burma.

Mary Dunbavan of North Rockhampton, Joe's daughter in law, has fought for many years to read past the first couple of pages of Joe's memoir, so graphic are the details of his time as a POW working on the Thai Burma Railway.

Mary has been a friend of CQUniversity's Office of Development & Graduate Relations for a number of years and it was at her instigation, because of her realisation of the historical significance of the family document, that Community Relations Coordinator Glenys Kirkwood, wrote to the Australian War Memorial.

Upon accepting the memoir as a ‘significant document', Nicholas Schmidt, Assistant Curator of Private Records at the Research Centre at the Canberra Memorial commented:

"Memoirs, such as Dunbavan's manuscript, provide a useful record of wartime experiences. These documents often include personal reflections and greater detail than letters and diaries written during wartime."

The memoir numbered MSS1876 will now be available for researchers from within Australia and around the world, at the Canberra War Memorial.  

A copy of the memoirs has been donated to the CQUniversity Capricornia Collection and can be accessed through the Rockhampton Campus Library. 

Mary Dunbavan said she was happy to be able to share the story.

"I really believe he'd be a bit stunned to think it might be of interest to the nation but I also think he would be very pleased to know that the suffering and horror he experienced might serve to influence successive generations," she said.