Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Patrick and Maggie O’Gorman settled in Wooroolin on Por 164v about 1929 with their 4 children, Basil, Mervyn, Beryll & Melville. They previously lived at Goodger Siding where Patrick was a Lengthsman on the railway and Maggie was the Gatekeeper.
The history of the Goodger store, featured in Burnett Today in 2020, mentions the O’Gorman family: After the line was opened on 15 December 1915, the Goodger railway station became very well equipped with the gate-keeper’s residence, a telephone, a station office and waiting room, two goods sheds (one large, one small), stock trucking yards, a cream shed with platform and scales to weigh the cream cans and a weigh bridge for produce over 12 tonnes. A local farmer, Soren (Dadda) Nielsen and his family established the Goodger General Store in 1920. In 1924 the Nielsen’s sold the store to Paddy O’Gorman whose wife was the first gatekeeper at the railway station. In 1928 the O’Gorman family sold the store to Bob Geale.
A photo of Basil O’Gorman at Goodger School in 1921 was posted on the Kinga~all Facebook group by Beck Cross.
When the O’Gorman family moved to Por 164v at Wooroolin the children must have gone to Tingoora School as there is no record of them in the Wooroolin School centenary book.
Basil Vincent O’Gorman was born 24 Dec 1915 at Gympie and was 13 years old when his family moved to Wooroolin. He passed his State Scholarship examination in 1928 at Kingaroy School. I am told that Basil was a bit of a larrikin and I posted a photo of a sulky hanging in a tree at Wooroolin in the Kinga~All group some time ago. It was a young Basil O’Gorman with his mates Bill Woltmann and Alick Cavanagh who were a tad over indulged after a dance at the Wooroolin Hall and used a pulley to winch the sulky up the tree. My grandparents had this picture hanging in their home when I grew up, then Mum & Dad and now my brother.
Basil was a labourer in the Peanut industry and an article in the Maryborough Chronicle during 1937 tells how a painful accident befell Mr. Basil O'Gorman of Wooroolin whilst he was assisting in threshing peanuts on a Wooroolin farm. A fellow assistant was plying a hay fork when the implement was deflected from its intended course and a prong was driven through Mr. O'Gorman's left ankle. Mr. O'Gorman was conveyed to Wondai to seek medical attention. Ouch!
He was also a keen sportsman, both Football and Cricket, more on that later.
Basil joined the Australian Army on 10 Jun 1940 at Brisbane giving his father Patrick O’Gorman, Wooroolin as next of kin. He was assigned to the 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment which had been formed near Redbank, Brisbane in Queensland in May 1940.
Basil embarked from Sydney for the Middle East on 28 Oct 1940. The regiment trained in Palestine, then moved to Egypt and the Western Desert. There they took up defence of Mersa Matruh before moving to the north of Palestine to take part in the invasion of Syria. The regiment returned to Australia, serving within Australia (Darwin, Northern Territory), New Guinea and Borneo.
For those interested in more information on this regiment go to this website. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/2/2nd_Anti-Tank_Regiment_(Australia)
Basil was a Driver Mechanic per his army records which are available on the NAA website and was promoted to Lance Sargent. The Maryborough Chronicle featured an article on 8 Sep 1941 where Basil O’Gorman praised the action of War Correspondents in a letter home. Writing home, he said: ''I often wondered how authentic war news and pictures were and was sceptical, thinking it was all stage managed miles behind the lines. Now I am satisfied that they are the real thing. War correspondents and newsreel men have a touchy job, and have got what it takes. They go right up to the front. I have seen newsreel men right among shells with their cameras. War correspondents also are game coves. They wander around amid it all, poking about right out in front.
He was almost at Port Moresby when the “Battle of Brisbane” occurred on 26 Nov 1942 and a member of the Regiment shot by a US Military Policeman! Another Wooroolin man, Charles Klass, joined the same regiment but not until Basil had already left for the middle East. Wonder if they ever met up during their war service?
Basil was discharged at Redbank on 10 Jan 1944 and returned to Wooroolin where he lived with his parents and siblings. His sister Berryll had married Alick Cavanagh in Jan 1942 while Basil was in the Middle East. I wrote a story about the Cavanagh Brothers in Jul 2021 but didn’t realise their sister’s husband on the same WW11 Honour Board. The Cavanagh and O’Gorman farms were across the road from each other on what is now called Wellers Rd.
A great surprise for me was to find that Basil O’Gorman played at Country Week Cricket in 1946 with my Dad, Laurie Jones, and that there is a photo of them together in our family photo collection. Basil must have really enjoyed Cricket and Country Cricket Week as in 1950 newspaper articles mention thirty-eight year old veteran, Basil O'Gorman, playing in his nineteenth country week, scored the only century. 100 not out for Murgon in the drawn match.
Another surprise was to find that Basil O’Gorman was elected President at the first meeting of the newly formed Wooroolin Tingoora RSL committee on 13 Apr 1946. He only served 1 year as president as the family moved to Cloyna.
In 1949 the O’Gorman family moved to Cloyna as Farmers and it looks like Basil married Thelma during that year. By 1954 Basil & Thelma lived at Ben Dor Weir near Inglewood and he was the Timekeeper. By 1958 they were living in Brisbane where Basil worked as a Timekeeper, Clerk, Storeman & driver. It seems Basil & Thelma separated during the 1960’s. He died in 1972 and is remembered at Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery and Crematorium.
The Queensland Garden of Remembrance is situated within the Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery and is operated and maintained by the Office of Australian War Graves. My father is remembered there as I am sure many of the other people on the Wooroolin WW11 Honour Board,
Lest We Forget