Manson Park

Manson Park, formerly known as the USAF Military Cemetery, is a park and former cemetery located in the Ipswich suburb of Raceview on Cemetery Road.

Initially opening in 1942, the area was used to bury American servicemen killed in action in Australia and south-east Asia. By 1947, there were 1,402 burials and the area was filled with small white crosses.

In November 1947, the American ship Goucher Victory arrived in Australia to return the deceased to the United States. 190 Australian civilians were employed to exhume those buried (presumably with the exception of the three members of the Javanese Dutch Army). They placed a four-metre high fence around the cemetery to screen it from public view and began work. They completed the exhumations on December 20 and two days later a ceremony was held at Brisbane City Hall to honour the American dead.

The cemetery formally became Manson Park sometime after 1947. Its new name commemorates Rose Manson, a local woman who wrote to the families of those buried at the USAF Military Cemetery.