About This Unit
Employment and Works Companies - RAE WW2
During the Second World War, the Australian Army established 39 Employment Companies, totaling by war’s end about 15,000 men. While the name of these army units occasionally varied – Employment Company, Labour Company, Works Company, Labour Unit, Labour Corps – their function did not. They were established to ensure that the Australian Defence Forces had a large workforce of soldiers dedicated to essential labouring tasks, the hard physical labour needed to maintain the war effort and support the fighting forces. Of the 39 Companies, 11 were in part or whole made up of ‘aliens’, or 'non-British' citizens.
Employment and Works Companies were essentially construction / maintenance / labour teams that were assembled and deployed to build, maintain and sometimes operate the infrastructure needed to support military operations on the Australian mainland and in some cases in the neighboring Territories and Islands, during WW2.
The road and remote facilities network was rudimentary at best by modern standards, and in some cases non-existent at the outbreak of war. Ports, railheads, supply dumps, transhipment and handling facilities, roads, transit camps and all manner of temporary accommodation had to be built maintained, moved and rebuilt throughout the war.
1 Works Company
2 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' formed in NSW
3 Works Company -'Alien Coy' formed in NSW
4 Works Company -'Alien Coy' formed in VIC
5 Works Company
6 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' formed in VIC
7 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' of Chinese ethnicity
8 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' formed in VIC 'The Enjoyment Company' / Dunera Boys
9 Works Company
10 Works Company - SA
11 Works Company - amalgamated with the 12th NT
12 Works Company - formed in WA but relocated to NT
13 Works Company
14 Works Company
15 Works Company
16 Works Company
17 Works Company
18 Works Company
19 Works Company
20 Works Company
21 Works Company
22 Works Company
23 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' of Koepangese (Netherlands East Indies) ethnicity
24 Works Company
25 Works Company
26 Works Company
27 Works Company
28 Works Company
29 Works Company
30 Works Company
31 Works Company
32 Works Company
33 Works Company
34 Works Company
35 Works Company
36 Works Company - 'Alien Coy' comprised of men of Javanese ethnicity
37 Works Company
38 Works Company
39 Works Company
This is a 'work in progress' which we hope will be augmented by user contributions.
Compiled by Steve Larkins July 2021
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