Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) No.9 Filter Section, 33 Zone Filter Centre

Edge Hill Community (Progress) Hall

Radar/signal station
Cairns

406 Mayers Street, Edge Hill, Cairns 4870

In October 1942 RAAF No.9 Fighter Section in Cairns took possession of the Edge Hill Progress Association hall in Mayers Street, as headquarters and accommodation for 50 personnel of No.33 Zone Filter Centre. The camp was later extended to include adjacent properties. At the filter centre WAAAFs were employed as predictors and range finders to control the fire of the heavy anti-aircraft gun batteries positioned around Cairns.

History

Teleprinters kept information coming in which passed on to the RAAF operator on the main floor who controlled a simulated plot of all aircraft depicted on a large table map covering the whole far northern area including New Guinea and the Coral Sea. Gun Duty Officer Assistants manned the phones to alert aerodromes, anti-aircraft gun sites and ships in harbour of expected times of arrival and departure, and types of aircraft using the Cairns air-space. The unit was still operating from the Edge Hill hall in 1944.

Source/comments

Pearce, Howard (contributing author).

Vera Bradley. I Didn’t Know That: Cairns and districts Tully to Cape York, 1939–1946, Service personnel and civilians, Boolarong Press, Brisbane, 1995.

Peter Nielsen. Diary of WWII North Queensland, Nielsen Publishing, Gordonvale, 1993.

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