Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Albert John Ovens, known as John, was born in Bundaberg, the 9th of 10 children of Thomas & Ida Ovens. In 1931 his sister Ida married Hermann Weber of Wooroolin. Ida had moved from Bundaberg to Wooroolin about 1925 and was working at the Grand Hotel as a Domestic Servant. The Qld Electoral Rolls for 1937 show that John was also living at Wooroolin working as a dairy hand, probably for his brother-in-law as well as doing casual work for other farmers.
John was called up for Full Time Duty in the Citizens Military Forces on 7 Sep 1941 and assigned to the 49th Battalion. Service No Q105147. Within a week he was on his way to Port Moresby on board HMAT Zealandia, nicknamed "Z". Albert served in 49 Battalion until Apr 1942 when he was transferred to HQ New Guinea Force and promoted to Sergeant. He served at Port Moresby until Oct 1943 and was then sent to Cairns.
On 20 Dec 1943 John was sent back to New Guinea where he served in the NG Details Depot before being shipped back to Townsville on 19 Mar 1944.
On 26 Jun 1944 John was transferred to the AIF = Service No QX60899. 3 months later he was shipped back to New Guinea where he remained until 20 Feb 1945 serving in the 6 Docks Company as a Sapper at own request. John was discharged from the Army on 26 Feb 1945 and returned to Wooroolin.
Unfortunately his records do not show what he did during his service. As he was classified a “Sapper” during his AIF service I suspect he was always involved in preparing field defences and road construction and repair.
His nephew, John Weber, told me that John was a very quiet and shy man. He lived with the Weber family on their farm which was then known as Home Creek Rd, now Wellers Rd. John Ovens never spoke about the war so JW unable to help here. John worked on the farm as well as causal work. He often worked for the Fiedler transport company loading bags of peanuts but John never had a drivers licence. JW remembers that it was scary enough watching him drive the tractor down Home Creek Rd! John Ovens also used to go fishing with Alan Jessen at Frazer Island. Alan remembers that John worked on the Wharfs in New Guinea unloading Cargo Ships and that he saw a freighter sunk in Port Moresby harbour! Other than that John never talked about his years during the war.
John Ovens died in 2002 and is buried at Memerambi Cemetery. He is probably remembered at the Queensland Garden of Remembrance at Bridgeman Downs. A future task for me to go there and check the records!
Lest We Forget