The shock raid on Katherine came at the tail end of the wet season in 1942, a hail of shrapnel and high explosive from high in the sky.

The bombing of this then small outback town was the furthest encroachment of enemy aggression ever recorded on mainland Australia but most people have never heard of it.

“They mostly know about the bombing raids on Darwin in the war but you would be surprised how many people are amazed when we tell them that Katherine was bombed as well,” Katherine Museum curator Simmone Croft said.

On March 22, 1942, nine “Betty” bombers from the Japanese Navy dropped between 82-92 high explosive bombs, “Dairy Cutters”, as they were popularly known.

There was a large buildup of military personnel at Katherine during World War II.

For the same reason Tindal RAAF Base, Australia’s largest air base,  is located where it is is today just outside Katherine, remote from the coast to give early warning of enemy invasion (plus it’s supposedly outside the nuclear bomb blast radius of anything dropped on Darwin), so was Katherine used as a staging post for military purposes.

It is presumed the Japanese were hoping to find either Australian or US aircraft at the Katherine airfield, which they failed to do but dropped most of their bombs in and around the airfield, location of today’s museum.

There was one fatality, an Indigenous man called Dodger Kodjalwal, and two other Indigenous people were slightly injured.

Some of the bombs fell at Knotts Crossing, just missing a telegraph line crew and few more targeted the airfield in the bush at Manbullo.

It was the most southern Japanese bombing raid in the NT during the war.

Although the bombing cause little actual damage, it did change Katherine forever.

Families were immediately evacuated south to Adelaide, whole Aboriginal tribes were herded together “for their protection” and some have said to have lost their cultural distinctions and languages as a result.

But it was the continued military buildup, as most Allied strategists thought Darwin would have to be abandoned to any Japanese land-based assault, which boosted Katherine’s growth.

After the war, local people and new arrivals built on the military framework and infrastructure which was left behind to create a much larger town than Katherine may have been if it had been left alone.

The museum, the RSL sub-branch and Katherine Town Council are working together to organise a 75^th anniversary of the bombing to be held at the museum on March 22.

Experiences from commemorations of the event from its 60^th, 65^th and 70^th anniversaries will be used to create a bigger event.

There will be a flypast organised by the 75^th Squadron at Tindal RAAF Base, vintage vehicle displays and a special feature which organisers want to keep secret until the day.

A book outlining the events of the day, and a snapshot of how Katherine was during the period will be launch during the festivities.

Katherine Times