| Physical description: | Encompassing an area of approximately 38 hectares, the former RAAF Stores Depot is located south east of the centre of Dubbo and is surrounded by suburban development. The site is fenced and buildings are dispersed around its perimeter, connected to an internal sealed road network, which was aligned with the nearby urban blocks to suggest that the area was effectively an extension of the town. Buildings are surrounded by grassed areas, with forest remnants also present, predominantly in the southern and western areas of the site. The vegetation includes features remnant Eucalypt species, with grassland dominating in the north and east, and remnant pine forest (Callitris endlicheri) dominating the remainder (AHC, 2002). The site is currently used by "mobile fauna", such as threatened bats and birds, as a habitat area and stepping stone corridor between the Macquarie River and larger bushland tracts (GHD, 2002, 57).
The eastern boundary of the site is defined by the line of the now disused Dubbo to Molong railway. This meant that short spur railways lines could be run to the site and into the two adjacent stores buildings, without the construction of a larger spur line which might have been visible from the air. The Mitchell Highway, the northern frontage of the site, is defined by a row of large trees, in contrast to the Palmer Street and High Street, western and southern, frontages which are dominated by callitris pine. Within the area the relief is less than five metres and slopes towards the north-east. The 30 buildings on site include five Igloo Stores buildings, three Bellman hangars, a Rabaul Store, a Sidney Williams Hut, a large semi-underground PBX bunker, a former Inflammable Liquids store, the Administration building and the Pump House, as well as the road system and railway spur lines (AHC, 2002).
Entry to the site is from Palmer Street through the administration buildings, at the northern end of the site. The five Igloo Stores buildings are scattered at some distance from each other to suggest that they are hills rather than buildings, in order to reduce the impact of aerial attack. This effect was reinforced by the use of camouflage to break up the outlines of the buildings, and by their orientation, designed to throw as little shadow as possible. Igloo Stores buildings 4 and 5 were located to take advantage of the existing railway line. Igloo Stores 7, 8 and 10 and the other structures were serviced by the internal roads (AHC, 2002).
The Heritage Impact Assessment by Graham Brooks (2003, 18) divides the site into eight precincts composed of: (1) Special Uses Precinct (now owned by the Health Department and the Baptist Church); (2) Cobra Street Precinct including buildings 1, 2, 11 and 13; (3) the Entry Precinct including buildings 14, 15 and 37; (4) the Central Northern Precinct with buildings 3, 43 and 46; (5) the Central Southern Precinct, largely forest but including building 36; (6) the Western Precinct with Igloo building 10; (7) the Railway Precinct with Igloo buildings 4,5, the double Bellman hangar building 70, and buildings 39 and 73; and (8) the Southern Precinct with Igloo buildings 7 and 8, building 42 and the section occupied by the Vietnam Veterans.
ABORIGINAL RELICS:
In 1999, the Graham Brooks team consulted with the Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Wirrimbah Direct Descendant Aboriginal Corporation. Two scarred trees on the site were identified as Aboriginal (Brooks, 2003, 6-7). Scarred trees result when bark or wood has been removed from a tree for the purpose of manufacturing material items such as shields, canoes or coolamon dishes and containers. Scars may also be the result of making footholds in a tree to collect food, such as possums or honey, or to facilitate the removal of bark. They are protected under the NPWS Act 1974. The study also identified an area of "open artefact scatter" on the basis of two stone artefacts found 30m apart on an exposed road cutting on the western side of the site. The artefacts may represent a camp site but elaboration of their significance requires more extensive archaeological investigation (Steele & Dallas, 2003, 23-28).
IGLOO STORES (Buildings 4, 5, 7, 8, 11):
The five Igloo stores buildings type W3, 94.2 x 76.2m, display innovative technical design in the use of prefabricated and pre-cut timber frames and trusses adapted from American designs to local materials. The sheer size of the Igloo buildings, both externally and internally, is breathtaking for the average person. They are an unusual, functional and attractive form of industrial structure that is evocative of war time design and construction practices. They are also significant in illustrating the techniques employed to camouflage such large structures (Graham Brooks, 2003). They were built initially at Dubbo without roof lights due to blackout requirements. They are constructed in classic post and truss framing in an arched configuration with hardwood frames, corrugated iron sheeting and concrete floors (NT, 1995). There are five longitudinal rows of solid hardwood columns supporting transverse segmented Pratt trusses. The Pratt trusses span 15.7 metres between lines of columns with spaced pairs of members for top and bottom chords, single vertical compression members and spaced pairs of diagonal members. Trusses were fabricated from local hardwood with bolts and shear connectors. Gantry cranes service the two aisles of the building above a reinforced concrete floor slab. The end gables of the building were unadorned except for personnel doors. Each side of the building features a long series of offices between the main sets of access doors. There is extensive perimeter drainage to cope with the rainwater run off generated by the roof areas and latrines on one side. The buildings were carefully oriented to minimise shadowing in order to resemble hills from an aerial perspective. On completion the profiles of the openings and gables were also modified by the use of galvanised iron sheeting cut to resemble tree shapes. The five Igloos at Dubbo, and a similar building, Warehouse 11 at the Macrossan Stores Depot in Queensland, are the only surviving examples of this building type in Australia (AHC, 2002).
BELLMAN HANGARS:
The three Bellman Hangars provide evidence of very early prefabrication techniques for buildings in used in Australia. The double hangar (building 70) and the two single hangars (buildings 2, 3) were used as mixed and bulk stores. The British design used a pitched roof and gabled steel frame to provide a standardised design for aircraft maintenance, with sliding doors at each end allowing maximum access. Internal lighting is by high level, clerestory windows (AHC, 2002). During World War II steel was considered an essential material for armaments, and although available for buildings, many Bellman Hangars were constructed with a framework of unseasoned Australian hardwood (Brew, 2001).
UNDERGROUND PBX BUNKER:
Approximatley 6 x 18m (NT, 1995), this was a component of the communications centre for the region, one of three such bunkers, which provided a critical regional command and communications role to support the operations of the depot and the RAAF during the war. It is a reinforced barrel vaulted structure partly underground covered by mounding. A simple form with one set of timber entrance doors (AHC, 2002).
RABAUL STORE (Building 1):
Steel framed construction, 84.1 x 18.3m, clad in corrugated galvanised iron. Gabled, symmetrical form with aisles. The lower level is lit by a horizontal band of windows and accessed by three sliding doors each side. Stairs at the southern end providing access to the timber framed mezzanine floor which surrounds the central areas which are open from ridge to ground floor. The Rabaul Store Building No.1 was one of two prefabricated steel buildings constructed at Laverton in Victoria. The other was sent to Toowoomba following the fall of Rabaul during the Second World War. The Rabaul Store was the only known example of its type to survive on Defence property (AHC, 2002)
THE SIDNEY WILLIAMS HUT:
The corrugated iron clad shed or workshop identified in the study by Graham Brooks (1999) is a prefabricated Sidney William's Hut. This was the colloquial name given to the Comet building designed by Sidney Williams & Co and used extensively during the Second World War. The buildings featured a light weight, rigid, steel angle frame with the walls and gabled roof clad with 26 gauge, corrugated, galvanised iron, manufactured in Sydney, NSW. The design is characterised by supporting brackets at the eaves and small rectangular windows. This is a good example of one of the earliest examples of prefabrication used by the Commonwealth from 1935. One of the few such structures still associated with a Defence site (AHC, 2002)
ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORT BUILDINGS:
These comprise storage sheds, latrines, smaller site service structures, the Motor Transport Garage and the Pump House which serviced the firefighting equipment. Storage and open service sheds and latrines are clad in corrugated galvanised iron or weatherboard below galvanised iron or asbestos cement roofing. These are in general characteristic of the range of supporting and administrative structures which housed the necessary ancillary functions on such large military sites. The Administration Building has a hipped tiled roof, characteristic of similar domestic-scale buildings erected by the Commonwealth Government at that time. Full timber cladding was used in preference to the commoner vernacular weatherboard and asbestos cement sheet cladding.The Pump House, in conjunction with the water storage tank, clearly illustrates the need to differentiate materials storage and the risks associated with such storage, and is also clearly part of the safety regime needed on such sites. The former Inflammable Liquids Store (building 11) is a good example of a medium size, pre-cut timber framed workshop. The Guardhouse (building 15) of similar design idiom, is clad with weatherboard below a gabled roof covered with corrugated galvanised iron (AHC, 2002)
ASSOCIATED RAAF FACILITIES IN DUBBO
The full extent of the RAAF military base at Dubbo comprised six sites including and clustered around the Stores Depot. These were:
Aerodrome: Prior to World War II, Dubbo already had an airstrip which was suitable for small aircraft only. During the early stages of the war, land was resumed from the Fitzgerald family for a new landing strip. It is located on the Narromine Road about 5kms from Dubbo. The aerodrome was constructed around the same time as the Stores Depot and in 1943 had as many as six planes landing per day. A weatherboard building was constructed on the site to be used as a store room for goods. Around May 1946, the aerodrome began to be used for civil operations. It was operated and managed by the RAAF for many decades after the war until it became Dubbo City airport, now owned by Dubbo City Council.
Camp/ barracks site: The Camp or Barracks site, is the other principle site (the first being the Stores Depot). The camp was built simultaneously with the Depot and completed by November 1942. It provided all living accommodation for all staff.The Camp comprising 8.6 hectares was constructed in Thorby Ave in south Dubbo to the east of the depot. The site was stripped and replaced with a different street layout and a new infrastructure. Recently it was sold and advertised as the "Barracks Estate" for residential development. The current hospital was Building No. 31 in the Camp.
Sick Quarters: The sick quarters facility was built in north Dubbo, about two miles beyond the Camp. The buildings were reported to be complete in March 1943. They were closed on 9 April 1947. The quarters were small but separate from other civilian hospitals in the town.
Fuel depot: The fuel depot or bulk oil storage site is located at Bourke Hill along the railway, west of the station and town centre. Fuel depots were required for operational and training purposes were located at certain inland areas where they were secure from attack. The tanks were underground and constructed from concrete and steel, covered with about 0.75m of soil and with a permanent guard. Regular maintenance was undertaken by contract which continued until 1944 when the RAAF no longer controlled No. 19 Inland Fuel Depot and was handed over to the Shell company.
Wireless transmission building site: The Wireless Transmission building site, bunker or signals and cipher building is located about 2 km east of Dubbo. An underground bunker, it was reported to be 33.5m by 5.5m of concrete construction. The building was one of three communication stations forming a trinagular network which commanded the air defence system for the Dubbo region. It is now known as the Keswick Estate.
CONCLUSION
At the end of World War II the Dubbo Stores Depot was the largest stores depot of its kind in Australia in both size and stock (GHD, 2002, 6). The site features five types of prefabricated buildings and it is unusual to find all of these together. The pristine condition of the buildings is seen as the result of several factors including: superior hardwood used in construction; simple construction with no problem areas; dry climate conditions; and military standards of maintenance (NT, 1995). The buildings have a political and technical significance for indicating how standing design preferences and practices were overthrown as part of national wartime reorganisation. Technologies that had previously had little impact in Australia were used extensively while technologies introduced by the USA military were embraced. Unseasoned local hardwood, a material that had previously been regarded as unsuitable for large buildings, achieved primacy. The technical achievements of this period for timber construction can hardly be overstated. The longest span and most widespread timber structures in Australian history were constructed in this period. Almost every species of Australian timber was placed in extreme field test.
The site is a coherent and intact demonstration of a 1940s military cultural landscape. The strategic choice of Dubbo for the depot site placed it well out of range of carrier borne aircraft; the extant prominent ring road on the heavily wooded site was a natural extension of the neighbouring urban pattern; the 30 buildings were scattered around the site with the five huge Igloo store buildings fitted with jagged edge roof profiles and barrel vaulted volumes to cast broken shadows and painted in camouflage to resemble hills. The choice of a site immediately adjacent to the railway meant that spur lines could be taken into the two adjacent Igloo stores without the construction of a large spur line that would have been more easily spotted from aerial reconnaisance. All of these elements were specifically orchestrated and integrated for defence purposes and have a direct bearing on the continued cultural significance of the site. |