In 1942, an airfield was created in Leyburn, Queensland, during World War II. The location of the airfield is barely visible if viewed from Google Maps. The monument is the only clearly visibly reminder of what used to be here.
From the airfield, the RAAF 200 Liberator Special Duties Flight (200 Flight RAAF) flew covert operations deep into enemy held territories in support of the Z Special Units. Z Special Unit was a predominantly Australian joint Allied special forces unit formed to operate behind Japanese lines. The monument is in remembrance of those who served here. In particular, the crews of A72-191 (failed to return from a mission bound for Borneo), A72-159 (shot down near Dili, Timor), A72-177 (crashed near Melabong, North Borneo), and the Z Team Operatives.
B-24 Liberator aircraft were used extensively in Australia, including the Beautiful Betsy B-24 Liberator, crashing at Kroombit Tops in 1945, where it still resides today after being found 50 years later.
We drove right passed the monument when we were looking for it. On Google Maps, the Leyburn Airstrip is closer to the monument for the 1949 Australian Grand Prix Motor Racing Circuit is located. If you follow the directions from this page, you will be taken to the correct monument.
Mounted next to the monument is a poem on a stone:
The Old Airfield
Beside the road I lie here still, abandoned long to Nature’s will
My buildings down. My people gone. My only sounds the wild birds’ song.But my mighty birds will rise no more. No more I hear the Liberators’ roar.
And never now my bosom feels the pounding of their giant wheels.From the ageless plain their voices cast thunderous echoes of the past.
And still in lonely reverie, their great dark wings sweep down on me.Laughter, sorrow, hope and pain, I shall never know these things again.
Emotions that I came to know of strange young men so long ago.Who knows as evening shadows meet, are they with me still, a phantom fleet?
And do my ghosts still stride unseen across my face so wide and green?And in the future should structures tall bury me beyond recall,
I shall still remember them, my metal birds, and long-dead men.Now weeds frow high, obscure the sky.
Please remember me when you pass by.
