Project 81: Operations and Signals Building, RAAF North East Area Command

State Emergency Services Centre

Radar/signal station
Townsville

Green Street, West End, Townsville 4810

Project 81 was constructed in 1942 as an Operations and Signals building for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), North East Area Command, in association with the RAAF Base at Garbutt several kilometres to the west. The building survives on Green Street, on the southwest side of Castle Hill in Townsville.

The place comprises two main sections: a large Operations building constructed of reinforced concrete; and a house which was constructed on top as a form of camouflage. Internally, the Operations building has a central corridor running roughly southeast to northwest lengthways, with rooms opening off the corridor. The section remains largely in its original form with only minor alterations. The upper section is a typical timber house, apart from a strong room located in the north-east section of the house.

A concrete fan room still exists to the northwest of the Operations building, and the concrete slab of the former latrines is located near the southwest corner of the Operations building. The former Photographic Intelligence Section building, a low set hut with a combination of a gabled roof and skillion roof disguising the size of its single internal space, is located behind the Operations building and is used as a recreation room by the State Emergency Service (SES). Project 81 was constructed in 1942 as an Operations and Signals building for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), North East Area Command, in association with the RAAF Base at Garbutt several kilometres to the west. The building survives on Green Street, on the southwest side of Castle Hill in Townsville.

The place comprises two main sections: a large Operations building constructed of reinforced concrete; and a house which was constructed on top as a form of camouflage. Internally, the Operations building has a central corridor running roughly southeast to northwest lengthways, with rooms opening off the corridor. The section remains largely in its original form with only minor alterations. The upper section is a typical timber house, apart from a strong room located in the north-east section of the house.

A concrete fan room still exists to the northwest of the Operations building, and the concrete slab of the former latrines is located near the southwest corner of the Operations building. The former Photographic Intelligence Section building, a low set hut with a combination of a gabled roof and skillion roof disguising the size of its single internal space, is located behind the Operations building and is used as a recreation room by the State Emergency Service (SES).

History

In late 1942 Townsville was the principle port for those Allied troops serving in the New Guinea campaign and Cleveland Bay between Magnetic Island and Townsville was an important assembly point for shipping. The Australian forces chose Townsville as the Area Combined Headquarters for the North East Area, while the American forces used Townsville as the headquarters of the United States Army Base Section Two and the Fourth Air Depot of the United States Army Airforce (USAAF).

There was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) station at Garbutt, and a number of air bases used by Australian and US aircraft were established between Townsville and Charters Towers, and west to Cloncurry. Between 1942 and 1945 the Townsville and Charters Towers region became one of the largest concentrations of airfields, stores, ammunition depots and port operations in the South West Pacific Theatre.

The Operations building at Green Street was constructed in early 1942 as part of the rapid development of the Garbutt air base. Drawings for the building were prepared by engineers in the Department of the Interior, and it is likely that the building was constructed by the Allied Works Council (AWC), the organisation established to coordinate the construction of wartime buildings in Australia. AWC records indicate that a reinforced concrete operational control building in Townsville had been completed by June 1942. Its construction had been designated an 'A1' priority, and its total cost was £30,000.

The Operations building functioned as the communications centre for the RAAF North East Area Command. The movements of Australian aircraft within this strategic area were controlled from this building. Flight operations were planned and monitored from here, and briefing and debriefing sessions with pilots were carried out.

Internally, the reinforced concrete Operations building contained a crew room; operations room; a signals office with adjacent cypher room and strong room; receiving room; meteorological room; rooms for intelligence, navigations, signals and meteorological officers; an emergency power plant; men’s lavatories; and a telephone exchange.

A 'traverse' or protective wall, three metres high, was also shown on wartime drawings, constructed around the perimeter of the Operations building. A fan room and a condenser room for air conditioning (set within the traverse) were located in a concrete structure (still extant) outside the west end of the Operations building. A latrine block was set at the southwest corner of the traverse, but only the concrete slab survives.

To disguise the concrete Operations building from the air, a timber house was constructed on one end of the flat roof. An L-shaped structure, the house contained rooms for a commanding officer, adjutant, orderlies, a warrant officer and an engineer officer, as well as another strong room. There were no internal links between the buildings, the timber building being accessed by timber staircases to the ground. A flower box, shrubs and an artificial tree were placed around the building to emphasise its domestic appearance. The house also had a verandah, which covered the walkway between the western end of the Operations building and the traverse. On plans the latter was to be painted with stumps and a timber valance to make it look like the understorey of the house. Further camouflage work was undertaken on the remaining section of the Operation building’s roof, in the form of garnished netting. In aerial photographs at the time, only the timber house was obvious.

Other structures which existed near the Operations building in 1944 included a guard room and guard house, Photographic and Intelligence Section, Airman’s quarters, store room, canteen, WAAF mess room and Airman’s mess room, general offices, three aerial masts supporting a triangle of wires over the Operations building, another latrine, and two sheds. The office building and Photographic and Intelligence Section building both had fake stove recesses to help disguise the nature of the site. A 25 yard pistol range existed to the north west of the Operations building. Of the above structures, only the Photographic Intelligence Section building survives, to the rear of the former Operations building.

The RAAF was located at the Green Street site until the late 1960s, when the State Emergency Service (SES) in Townsville occupied the building. The Townsville City Council has owned the site since 2001.

Source/comments

RAAF Operations Building Site (former). Queensland Heritage Register 602260

Holyoak, R. 1998. The North Queensland Line: The defence of Townsville in 1942. Unpublished Honours Thesis, James Cook University, Townsville.

Pearce, Howard. January 2009. WWII-NQ: A cultural heritage overview of significant places in the defence of north Queensland during World War II. EPA, Brisbane.

National Australian Archives, AT43/44/390. RAAF Project Number 81, Sidney Street. 1944

Dunn, P. Project 81, the Green Street Bunker