Memorial honours Diggers lost in Borneo

A new memorial to honour those who perished in the Sandakan Death Marches during World War II has been unveiled in Boyup Brook with veterans from all over the South West attending. The former Sandakan memorial was replaced with a new monument after the Shire secured a grant from the Federal Government to help refurbish the town’s cenotaph. The revitalisation project cost about $11,300 with $5090 coming from a Federal Government grant. A service was held on September 14 to mark the unveiling of the World War II memorial and was attended by Returned Services League members and veterans from all over the Lower South West, including State RSL president David Aspinall. The Sandakan Death Marches were a series of forced marches stretching hundreds of kilometres through the Borneo jungle. They claimed the lives of an estimated 2500 Allied PoWs between January and August 1945. The soldiers, who had been captured by the Imperial Japanese Army, were originally being herded over the Indonesian island between Sandakan and Ranau to build an airstrip for the Japanese military. However, because of limited rations, brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese soldiers and unsanitary conditions at camps, thousands of people perished during the journey. Of the soldiers forced to march only six soldiers, all of whom were Australian, would survive and make it home after the war.