The Bankstown Bunker, formerly known as Air Defence Headquarters Sydney (ADHQ Sydney), is a heritage-listed defunct Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operations facility, located on the corner of Marion and Edgar Street, in Condell Park, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by the Allied Works Council and built from 1943 to 1944 by Stuart Bros Pty Ltd of Sydney. It is also known as Air Defence Headquarters Ruin Sydney (former), No. 1 Fighter Section Headquarters, 1FSHQ, Bankstown Bunker and RAAF No. 1 Installation Bankstown; No. 101 Fighter Sector. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 November 2011.
After the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur in Australia during World War II, Bankstown Airport was established as a key strategic air force base to support the war effort. During this period the specially constructed bunker became an important RAAF headquarters from 1945 until its closure in 1947. The Bankstown bunker is currently buried under a public park which lies at the end of Taylor Street, and is not accessible by the general public.
History.
From 1945 to 1947 the Bankstown bunker was used as a covert Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base. Construction of the facility commenced in late 1942 at a cost of A£30,579 with its official commissioning in January 1945 as the headquarters for No. 1 Fighter Sector RAAF. This unit had previously operated from the Capital Hall picture theatre in Bankstown and a tunnel under the St James railway station.
The bunker was manned at all times in shifts that the Air Force called "Flights". Most of the personnel that worked in the bunker were local. Even so, the Air Force provided accommodation for them in Chapel Road, Bankstown whilst buses with blacked-out windows transported military personnel to the bunker. All staff for the bunker had to undergo special training, including 'plane identification' training that also took place at Chapel Road.
The bunker was manned by members of the No.2 Volunteer Air Observer Corps, the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, members of the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces.
A transmitting station for the bunker was located in Johnston Road, Bass Hill and was a building of above ground construction.
The bunker appears to have been decommissioned when the ADHQ was disbanded in 1947. A caretaker was then assigned to the take care of the bunker.
It wasn't until 1971 that members of No. 2 Stores Depot RAAF in Regents Park invited the then editor of the "Bankstown Torch", Phil Engisch into the bunker. Many photos were taken and an article was placed in local newspapers detailing the find. In 1972, arsonists set the bunker on fire. In 1976 the NSW Department of Housing acquired the land the bunker is built under and redeveloped the area into the townhouses that now cover most of the site. The area now comprises a number of separate complexes or "Closes" containing eight to eleven villas. Each Close is named appropriately after a type of aeroplane that flew from Bankstown during World War II.
No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters Unit.
With the fall of Rabaul and Singapore to the Japanese Army in January and February 1942 and the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, the Australian government and many Australians became fearful that Japan would invade the Australian mainland. As part of the Federal Government's response to this threat, the 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, Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville, Darwin, Perth and 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:
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 16 April, 1FSHQ handed over its responsibilities to the US Army Air Corps and the unit was disbanded. In the next few months, the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) relocated air defence operations to a disused railway tunnel near St James railway station in the city.
On 3 August 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;
Between October 1943 and January 1945 the 1FSHQ underwent several name changes. On 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 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 A£20,400. The final cost of the project was A£36,255.
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 personnel 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 WWII 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 c. 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 Phil Engisch, editor of the "Bankstown - Canterbury Torch" newspaper, accompanied by Alderman 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 "Sydney Morning Herald".
In the article Engisch recorded 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 9 August and is said to have burned for more than a week.
In the early 1970s the Department of Defence handed over the site to the Commonwealth Department of Housing. In 1976 a 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.
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