Fraser Island and Z Special Unit - Upstreampaddleupstreampaddle.com/media/Mackenzie's Wharf, Fraser Island...Untitled Document Fraser Island and Z Special Unit In 1942, at the height

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Fraser Island and Z Special Unit

The sea kayaker who visits Mackenzie's Wharf in 2007 will find the satinay wood log structure in fair condition for something that was built ninety years ago, and has withstood a working life, time and tides. The original wharf swept out in a curve from the beach, less than half of which remains. The timber piles nearest to the water have been subject to the most deterioration from marine borers, and some logs are no thicker than your wrist. The wharf sits where a very small creek meets the sea between two high steep dune ridges. The track up to the Fraser Commando School can be found on the northern side of the creek. Find the start and from there follow the signposts. two hundred metres up the track from the beach the track branches; straight ahead to the remnants of Mackenzie's Mill, and then on to Lake Mackenzie (8 kilometres return), or turn left for 270 metres back around the hill seen in the photograph below, to the Commando School site.

Alternatively, approach from the north along the track from Kingfisher Bay Resort some three kilometres way. The school lies on a lower section of dune to the north, abutting the coast. Lying on the beach front is a large rusty iron boiler tank, said to have been used by School trainees for practice in fixing magntic ship mines.

A notice board on the track recounts the story of the Commando School, its graduates, and the role of the Folboat.. Little sign remains of the buildings. There are some building stumps, some concrete walls and foundations, and the rusted out remains of logging trucks. A concrete relief map that shows local terrain, (photograph next page), was used as a training aid. It is surrounded by a low metal pipe railing, and it is easy to miss its significance, as the she-oak pine needles carpet it thickly.

Mackenzie's Wharf is one on the prettiest places on the west coast. A wide beach, water so clear it seems you are suspended in the air above a sandy bottom, high sand ridges above, and the grand old timber wharf itself.

Mackenzie's Wharf 2007 - access track to School starts at the tree line as measured one third along the wharf from right. School lies behind low dune far left.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/alma/My%20Docu...zine/z%20force%20fraser%20island/web/z%20unit09.html (1 of 2)4/26/2007 9:01:31 AM

Upstreampaddle Winter 2007 37

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In 1942, at the height of World war II, when Australia was locked in a war with Imperial Japanese Forces, a special operations unit was formed to gather military intelligence, carry out covert operations, and train resistance fighters from nations that were occupied by Japanese forces.

This unit was known as Z Special Unit, and the details of its operations are still not well known today. The unit operated in secrecy, with sub units being sepatated on a Cell system, so that if one unit was compromised, others would not be threatened.

Training and operational schools were set up at different locations in Australia, including Refuge Bay (Broken Bay NSW), The House on the Hill (Cairns Qld), Garden Island (WA) and Fraser Commando School, Fraser Island (Qld).

The most famous of Z Unit's operations was Operation Jaywick in 1943, where a combined force of Australian, New Zealand and British Army and navy personnel took a captured Japanese fishing boat from Darwin to near Singapore. Travelling at night, Commandos in three teams of two, paddled folding kayaks called Folboats, island hopping their way closer to Singapore, the teams hiding concealed on small islands during the day.

Nothing much of the Fraser Island Commando School is left today, but the sea kayaker visiting Fraser Island can still find some remnants. Mackenzie's Wharf location is 25° 24’ 25” S, 153° 00’ 46” E. The camp is located on the high ground a little north behind Mackenzie's Wharf on the west coast of Fraser. Mackenzie Lake lies 6.5 kilometres away on a track.

The wharf is derelict, lying about ten kilometres due east of the small town of River Heads across the Great Sandy Strait. Kingfisher Bay resort lies a couple of kilometres to the north, and a National Parks walk called The Commando Trail leads to the site.

Commandos were trained in using the Folboats, signals, using explosives and limpet mines, (magnetic charges to be placed on ships hulls) navigation, and foreign languages. A former Commando recalled that on parade were ten different nationaliies, including Timorese, New Caledonians, and Chinese from IndoChina (Vietnam).

The two seat Folboat was approximately 16 feet long and was made up of plywood frames notched around the edges to accommodate ½" wooden dowels or bamboo rods fitted with brass joining sleeves. When the frame was assembled, a skin of several layers of rubberized canvas was stretched over it, making a watertight and seaworthy kayak. At night, a black silk sail could be used. The low silhouette and quietness of the boat allowed commandos to travel undetected.

British S Class submarine and Folboat. Image: Royal Navy Submarine Museum

The trainees honed their skills in the sheltered waters between Fraser Island and the mainland. They paddled up to Duck Island and Woody Island and bivouaced, finding time to catch fresh fish and gather oysters.

The School operated in secrecy, and was supposedly unknown to the townspeople living in Maryborough. No leave was permitted in town. As the Commando became proficient in the use of their craft,, they would undertake training raids against targets in Maryborough. The town lies over thirty kilometres away, more than twenty kilometres upstream from the mouth of the Mary River. Paddling the folboats, the Commandos would make a nightime voyage across the Great Sandy Strait from Mackenzie's Wharf and go upriver. The first night they would make a reconnaisance, then lie up during the daytime in mangrove swamps downstream.



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Trainees from Fraser Commando School (FCS) went on to serve in many overseas actions. While British submarines could unload an assembled folboat through the forward hatch, the US submarines could not, and the folboat would be assembled in the dark on the deck. Other teams were launched from American PT boats. Commandos saw action in Borneo, the Celebes, islands in the South China Sea, Guadalcanal, Philippines and Solomon Islands. By 1945 the School was a sizeable little village, with power and water pumping plant, a cinema, post office, library, hospital, lecture rooms, mess and canteens, and accomodation for 100 students. Thanks to Joseph (Henry) Fawkes, Penrith, NSW, who was at FCS for his recollections of Folboat training and service life on Fraser during World War 2.

In 1919 Hepburn McKenzie, a large New South Wales timber merchant company, built a sawmill at White Cliffs on the Fraser west coast, and constructed a tramline from the mill to Lake Mackenzie, with two branch lines spreading out from the lake. The tramlines were steel railed, and the log bogies were pulled by a steam engine. Timber getters had been operating on Fraser from the late 1860's. Due to lack of profitability, Mackenzie's mill was auctioned off in 1926, and the tramway and wharf sold to the Queensland Forestry Board. The Forestry Department sold the rails from McKenzie's tramway in 1935 and the locomotive in 1941.

As the black and white photograph of the wharf shows, the structure was quite large. In 1943, when the Commando School was established, the wharf was still in good condition. Army barges from Urangan would discharge passengers and stores at the wharf. In 2007 only the uprights and some crossbeams are still evident, with most of the decking gone.

McKenzies Wharf, Fraser Island. Source - Christiansen Collection, Hervey Bay Library, Queensland.ID qhbp00101

Tramway, loco, and loaded log wagons on Mackenzie's Wharf in mid 1920's



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Notice Board

Concrete relief map of local terrain



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McKenzie's Wharf 2007

