Dubbo RAAF Stores Depot
The Dubbo RAAF Stores Depot is an heritage-listed former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) stores depot located at Cobra Street, Dubbo in the Dubbo Regional Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The depot was designed by Sidney Williams & Co and built from 1940 to 1943. It is also known as Dubbo RAAF Stores Depot (former), No. 5 (1942) and No. 6 Stores Depot (1942–52); No. 2 Stores Depot Detachment D (1952–92); Defence National Storage and Distribution Centre Detachment (1992-1995). The property is owned by private companies, Andorra Developments and Belmorgan Property Development. The depot was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 29 June 2004.
Dubbo RAAF Stores Depot
Post-war civilian uses included leasing a small block to Westhaven Sheltered Workshops 1960-1984, and another to the Health Department, eventually resulting in the sale of a section from the north-west corner of the site. This area is now owned by the NSW Department of Health and the Baptist Church. In 1976 another part of the site was leased to become the headquarters of the East Coast Plague Locust Commission. The former RAAF Stores Depot was an important component of the Civil Emergency services operations during and after the rebuilding of Darwin following Cyclone Tracy in 1974 and during a number of other civil disasters throughout the Pacific region during subsequent decades. In 1978 the Natural Disasters Organisation entered into an agreement with the Army to store materials for natural disaster relief. The Vietnam Veterans Association uses buildings at the south western corner of the site. Other storage uses have included: Harvey Norman storing furniture in the Rabaul store; Robert Holmes Transport storing palleted goods in buildings 10 and 18; police storing recovered stolen vehicles in building 5 and training police dogs; and Robert Samuels storage of baled hay in the Bellman hangars. Local craftspeople banded together in 1992, using the site as a workshop to build a new "State Coach" in honour of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1992. There was also the 1999-2000 collaboration between French company Plasticiens Volants and the troupe of Aboriginal choreographer Raymond D. Blanco to produce a street theatre based on the Aboriginal dreamtime "Rainbow Serpent", which was constructed and rehearsed in the No.4 shed. Between 1945 and 1992 the depot was used intermittently to stage events such as conference, concerts, trade fairs and rodeos.