| Historical notes: | Aboriginal occupation:
Prior to European settlement the Cooks River Valley was the home of a number of clans of the Aboriginal people. The Gameygal lived on the northern side of Botany Bay, between present day La Perouse and the mouth of the Cooks River. To the north of the Cooks River between South Head and present day Darling Harbour lived the Cadigal people and the Wangal people lived in an area between the Parramatta River and the Cooks River from Darling Harbour to Rose Bay. To the south of Botany Bay in the coastal area including Kurnell and Cronulla and the south coastal strip to Nowra lived the Gweagal people. While there is some argument about the location of land of the Bidiagal clan, there is some evidence that this clan lived in the area between the southern bank of the Cooks River and the northern bank of the Georges River. It is also thought the Cooks River formed the boundary between two dialect groups, the Bidiagal and the Gweagal. Previous reports on the Aboriginal past of the area have suggested that it was occupied by the Bidiagal. (Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative College, 1986; King, 1999; McDonald, 2005). The potential association of the Bidiagal people should not be discounted as a result of this lack of historical detail as after the collapse of the clan structure due to the smallpox epidemic of 1788 and general impact of European invasion, individuals travelled beyond the pre-1788 traditional boundaries. It is thought that the warmer months were spent nearer the coast and the cold months of winter were spent further inland. (Muir L 2007 Cooks River Valley Thematic History)
Due to the impact of the arrival of European colonists from 1788 and the almost immediate impact that this had on established patterns of subsistence, our knowledge of the Aboriginal people of the Sydney district is limited. Some eight individual groups or clans within the vicinity of the Parramatta area have been identified and two, the Cadigal and Wangal, most likely lived in the area that now makes up the Ashfield municipality (Attenbrow, V. & Pratten, C., quoted in SWC, 2005, 5).
Aboriginal people lived along the Cooks River for thousands of years prior to European arrival...The Cadigal and Wangal peoples made use of the land and seasons to hunt, trap, fish and forage for fruit and plants. As firestick farmers, they burned off scrub near rivers leaving only large trees spaced several meters apart, creating an open, park-like appearance (Marrickville Council website, quoted in ibid, 2005, 5).
While land closer to the town of Sydney was relatively quickly carved up as land grants to settlers in the first years of the European colony, the land on the southern side of the Cooks River was not subject to land granting until 1904. It was not until 1808 when a number of very large land grants were made over land which traditionally provided Aboriginal people access to the resource rich area of the Georges River, Kurnell Bay and Salt Pan Creek that land became the reason for conflict between the Bidiagal and European settlers. In 1809, an attack was made on two farms at Punchbowl led by a Bidiagal man named Tedbury. Tedbury was the son of Pemulway who had led perhaps the best-known campaign of resistance in the Sydney Basin including a spear attack on Governor Phillip's game keeper, a man renowned for his hostility to the Aboriginal people of the Sydney area. Pemulway and Tedbury spoke the Bidiagal dialect, and are known to have come from around Botany Bay (King, 1999)
The attack at Punchbowl was the last reported act of Aboriginal resistance to European settlement in the Cooks River Valley. In the following years due to alienation from their land and its resources and being subject to the devastation of European infectious diseases, the Aboriginal population in the area dramatically reduced. In 1845 it was reported to the NSW Legislative Select Committee that there were only 3 people of the Botany Bay clan and only fifty Aboriginal people were living in the area between the Cooks and Georges River. (Muir, L., 2007, Cooks River Valley Thematic History).
During the 19th Century European settlers transformed the land along both banks of the Cooks river as farms were established for grazing, family food needs and for other industries such as tanning, production of sugar, harvesting of timber and production of lime from many middens left by the Aboriginal people of the area for thousands of years. Lime was a scarce and necessary commodity for European settlement in the early years of the colony. (Renwick, C., Pastorelli, C., Muir, L., Sheppard, H., Denby, J., Chalcroft, G., 2008, Cooks River Interpretation Strategy).
Post-contact, the stretch of land between Iron Cove and the Cook's River was known as the Kangaroo Ground, the natural woodland would have provided a suitable habitat for possums, fern rhizomes and tubers, all of which would have been identified as valuable food sources for the Wangal (Pratten, C., quoted in SWC, 2005, 5).
No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters Unit
With the fall of Rabaul and Singapore to the Japanese Army in January and February of 1942 and the bombing of Darwin on the 19th February 1942, the Australian government and many Australians became fearful that Japan would invade the Australian mainland. As part of the Australian Government's response to this threat, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was greatly expanded and the RAAF for the first time was given the role of air defence of Australia's strategic areas.
Fighter Sector Headquarters were established in Sydney, New Lambton (NSW), Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville, Darwin, Perth and in Port Moresby. In addition Mobile Fighter Sector Headquarters were formed at Darwin, Perth, Townsville and Camden (NSW).
The main responsibilities of the Fighter Sector Headquarters were to:
- receive aircraft sightings from radar posts (known as Radio Direction Finding Posts) , Navy ships, Volunteer Air Observer Corps lookout posts and other sources;
- Determine whether aircraft were friendly or hostile and if hostile direct fighter squadrons and/or Navy ships and Army anti-aircraft artillery units to shoot down the aircraft;
- issue air raid warnings to RAAF, Army and Navy headquarters and civil authorities such as the police and fire brigades;
- operate search-light batteries.
Sydney Fighter Sector Headquarters, known as No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters (1FSHQ), was established on 25 February 1942 and was responsible for the aerial defence of New South Wales. A temporary operations and plotting room were set up at the Capitol Picture Theatre in Bankstown (now the site of Bankstown Town Hall). Less than two months later, on the 16 April, 1FSHQ handed over its responsibilities to the US Army Air Corps and the unit was disbanded. In the next few months the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) relocated air defence operations to a disused railway tunnel near St. James Railway Station in the city.
On the 3 August of 1942 1FSHQ was reformed under the command of the RAAF Headquarters Eastern Area and the 1FSHQ once again took over responsibility for the air defence of New South Wales. The operations room was moved back to the Capitol Theatre in Bankstown on 7 September 1942. At this time the 1FSHQ comprised 19 officers and 164 other ranks, including 119 members of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). The senior RAAF officers were largely drawn from aircrew, with junior RAAF officers being intelligence or administrative officers. Two of the unit officers were WAAAF officers and there were also Army and Navy officers in the unit for liaison duties. The enlisted personnel included:
- Operators of telephones, teleprinters, radio telegraphy and telephony equipment who received the reports on aircraft movements from: radar stations, members of the Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia), ships, No. 2 and No. 8 Fighter Sector Headquarters, and by other means;
- Clerks who plotted the location of aircraft and shipping on large maps;
- Technicians who maintained the communications equipment; and
- Support staff such as administrative clerks, cooks and drivers.
Between October 1943 and January 1945 the 1FSHQ underwent several name changes. On the 18 October 1943 it was renamed the No. 101 Fighter Sector and then on 7 March 1944 the name was changed to No. 101 Fighter Control Unit. On 21 January 1945 the unit was renamed Air Defence Headquarters Sydney (ADHQ Sydney) and air defence operations were moved into a purpose built operations room located at Condell Park. By this time many of the RAAF members of the unit had been posted to northern Australia or New Guinea and members of the No. 2 Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC) had taken their places.
Air Defence Headquarters Sydney
Documentary evidence indicates that the search for a permanent site to construct a purpose built combined Fighter Sector Headquarters and Gun Operation Room was underway by August 1942. Eventually the site of a shallow quarry on Black Charlie's Hill was selected. The site had extensive views to the east, west and to the south and on a clear day, reportedly the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge could be seen. The land, which was owned by the Bankstown Hospital Trust, was resumed under National Security Regulations. The Commonwealth Government later acquired the site in circa August 1945.
Approval for the construction of the Fighter Sector Headquarters was given by the Minister of Air, as an urgent war measure, on 7 November 1942. Work on the two-storey underground bunker was scheduled to begin in January 1943 and surviving documentation indicates that by April the foundations of the structure were well under way. Construction of the Fighter Sector Headquarters was completed by August 1944, with the exception of the installation of the telephone and signals cables, which were to be installed by the Post Master General's Office in November of that year.
The main contractor of the project was Stuart Bros Pty Ltd of Sydney. Bankstown Municipal Council carried out the electrical reticulation of the building and the air conditioning equipment appears to have been supplied and installed by Carrier Air Conditioning Limited of Spring Street, Sydney. The estimated cost to construct the bunker and the above ground, support buildings which included: an Administration Building, Rest Rooms and Kitchen, Male and Female Latrines, and Garage, was 20,400 pounds. The final cost of the project was 36,255 pounds.
When completed the building comprised a ground floor and basement, at the heart of which was a two-storey high Operations Room. The Operations Room was dominated by a large plotting table, on which the WAAAF personnel plotted aircraft movements. Other key operational areas of the bunker included: a Gun Operations Room (anti-aircraft guns), the Search-light Operations Room and the Naval Plotting Room.
The new covert Air Defence Headquarters became operational in January 1945. The unit history report for this period indicates that 49 officers and 128 other ranks of the RAAF and WAAAF staffed the ADHQ along with personel from the Army, Navy and Volunteer Air Corp. However as the ADHQ operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week not all of the assigned personnel were on duty at one time. For security reasons the personnel were transported to and from the ADHQ by bus. Accommodation for ADHQ personnel was located in the Bankstown Shopping area.
With the end of WW2 in the Pacific in September 1945, the VAOC ceased full-time operations and the RAAF and WAAAF staff were demobilised. In January 1947 the ADHQ unit was disbanded and the bunker closed. The building remained unoccupied until circa 1965, when it was briefly reoccupied by the Navy for naval manoeuvres in the Pacific. Following the conclusion of those manoeuvres the building was once again closed up. The bunker lay largely undisturbed until April 1971 when Mr Phil Engisch, editor of the Bankstown - Canterbury Torch Newspaper, accompanied by Aldman Mr Leslie Gillman and others, toured the facility. Following the tour, the location of the ADHQ was made public in an article published in the Torch Newspaper. The article, entitled 'The Torch uncovers secret RAAF war base' was also simultaneously published in The Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald.
In the article Mr Engisch records how the tour party wandered through a maze of corridors and intact rooms, likening the experience to "...something one might expect to see in a Sean Connery 007 movie." Unfortunately, approximately four months after the location of the bunker was made public, the interior of the building was destroyed by fire. The fire is thought to have been started by either homeless people taking shelter in the bunker, or vandals. The blaze began on the evening of Monday the 9th of August and is said to have burned for more than a week.
In the early 1970s the Department of Defence handed over the 9 acre site to the Commonwealth Department of Housing. In 1976 a Commonwealth Government Defence Housing Authority, medium density housing scheme designed by architectural firm Robertson and Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, was constructed on the Former ADHQ site. The housing estate was designed to ensure that the underground bunker was located in one of the open spaces of the estate. It was at this time that the above ground, support buildings for the bunker were demolished.
Today, the exact location of the main entry and exit passages into the bunker are not known, as the area over the top and sides of the building has been landscaped concealing the bunker's existence. However, in the 1980s and 1990s the bunker was entered at least three occasions. On one such occasion, a film crew from the popular television show Burke's Backyard, crawled through an air vent into the facility and the television show's host, Don Burke, hosted an episode of the show from the bunker. Footage from the television show and photographs taken by other individuals who have gained entry to the building indicate that the facility is structurally intact.
Associated Buildings
Air Board documentation indicates that the Fighter Sector VHF/RT system (Very High Frequency Radio Transmission System) was to comprise: 3 VHF/DF (Direction Finder) fixer stations, 1 VHF/DF homing station, 1 remote (local) transmitting station, 1 remote (local) receiving station and 2 relay stations (each consisting of a receiver and transmitter). In the case of the Sydney ADHQ relay stations were considered unnecessary by Defence authorities as it was anticipated that the height of the sites selected for the new VHF transmitter and receiver stations would ensure satisfactory communications. As it turned out, the new transmitting and receiver stations were never built and the Sydney ADHQ relied on the existing receiving station at Picnic Point, Revesby and the existing transmitting station at Johnston Street, Bass Hill. According to surviving documents radar stations at Robertson, Wentworth Falls and Somersby were to acted as VHF/DF Fixer stations for the ADHQ.
Other radar stations known to have passed on information (usually by telephone) to 1FSHQ and therefore probably to the ADHQ, were No. 17 Radar Station located at Moruya, No. 18 Radar Station located at Kiama, No. 19 Radar Station located at Bombi near Gosford and No. 101 Radar Station located on North Head, Sydney. Information would also have been passed on from No. 2 Fighter Sector Headquarters at Lambton and No. 8 Fighter Sector Headquarters at Brisbane.
Other Fighter Sector Headquarters
No 2. Fighter Sector Headquarters formed at New Lambton NSW on 25 February 1942. The unit commandeered the New Lambton Public School for its operations before moving to Ash Island on the 3 December 1944. No. 2 Fighter Sector Headquarters was to be responsible for fighter aircraft control and coordination for the Newcastle and Hunter region. However it appears that 2FSHQ was non-operational and functioned as a training facility while, located at New Lambton. There is no indication that a purpose built headquarters (similar to that built in Condell Park) was constructed for this unit.
No. 3 Fighter Sector Headquarters was formed at Townsville on 25 February 1942. The unit controlled fighter operations and anti-aircraft defences through North Queensland and New Guinea. The unit operated from a grammar school at North Ward until a semi underground bunker (identified as such because all the cabling was laid underground), was constructed between 1942 and 1943. The new fighter sector headquarters was built on the lower slopes of Mount Stuart and became fully operational on 20 December 1944. In 1962 or 1963 the interior of the bunker was destroyed by fire.
No. 5 Fighter Sector Headquarters was formed at Darwin on 25 February, six days after the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces. The unit was responsible for all air operations over northern Australia, from Broome to Cape York. Initially the Fighter Sector Headquarters operated out of tents and then a rough shed at Sandfly Gully, a kilometre south of the Darwin airstrip. At a later date an Operations Room was constructed at Berrimah, 15km east of Darwin. Information provided by men who worked at the site indicates that the building was a semi underground structure, that initially comprising one room but which was later expanded to two rooms. In the years following the close of WW2 the exact location of the Berrimah Operations Room was lost, however, in 1995 a search for the building was initiated and by 1997 intact concrete floors of two adjacent rooms (tentatively identified as those of the Filter Room and Operations Room) had been identified on Berrimah Farm.
No. 6 Fighter Sector Headquarters was former in Perth on 22 April 1942. An Operations Room was setup in the Alma Street Masonic Hall at Mt. Lawley. Between January and March 1945 the unit moved into a new underground bunker in Epsom Avenue in Belmont Perth. The Heritage Council of Western Australia's data inventory sheet for the Belmont Bunker, describes the bunker as having moderate to high integrity, with a few alterations taking place to convert the former Fighter Sector Headquarters to a potential operations headquarters for the Civil Defence and Emergency Department (also known as the State Emergency Service).
No 7 Fighter Sector Headquarters, like the other Fighter Sector Headquarters, was formed in haste (on 4 May 1942) and the Operations Room was setup in the Preston Town Hall, Melbourne. No. 7 Fighter Sector Headquarters appears to have remained at the Preston Town Hall until February 1946 when it was moved to the RAAF base, Point Cook. There does not appear to have been a purpose built headquarters (similar to the Condell Park facility) constructed for this unit.
No. 8 Fighter Sector Headquarters was originally operated by the US Eighth Fighter Group, USAAC. When the 8th Fighter Group was reassigned to Townsville the Fighter Sector Headquarters was briefly taken over by the by the 565th Aircraft Warning Battalion, US Army. The No. 8 Fighter Sector Headquarters RAAF was formed on 3 August 1942. The unit was located on the 3rd level of the Wills Building in Ann Street Brisbane. The building has since been demolished.
(Sources: No.1 RAAF Installion, NAA: A705,171/26/31 part 1 & 2; Information supplied by Squadron Leader Dave Burns, Office of the Air Force History; World Wars 1 & 2: Survey of Buildings, Sites & Cultural Landscapes in NSW Volume 1 & 2 by Robertson & Hindmarsh; Bankstown City Library Vertical File Local Studies - RAAF Underground Bunker; Bankstown: A Sense of Identity by Sue Rosen; History of Cinema of Bankstown City by Kevin Cork; Fighter Sector (Darwin): Control of Australia's Air War 1942-45 by Graham Calley; Item 5.5 Second World War (WW2) Bunker at Condell Park, Ordinary Meeting of Bankstown Council 25/8/09; RAAF Headquarters Bunker Belmont, http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au; www.ozatwar.com; Operations and Signals Bunker (former), www.heritage.gov.au; Footage of Burke's Backyard provided by CTC Productions) |