Bankstown Bunker
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The Bankstown Bunker was a top secret Australian Air Force base that was once used during the Second World War. During the war it was Australia's main air defence base. It is not being used any more and at the moment the bunker is buried underneath a public park in a suburb called Condell Park in the City of Bankstown, which is in the State of New South Wales Australia. It is still possible to go into the bunker through a secret passage way.[1][2]
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[change] History
The Bankstown bunker is a three story building that was mostly underground. It was secretly used during the Second World War by the Australian air force. Builders started to build the bunker in 1942. Workers and volunteers (people who work for free) began to work inside the bunker in January 1945, it was called the Sydney "Air Defence Headquarters", it replaced another secret air force base that was located in a sectret tunnel, called the Number One Fighter Sector Headquarters underneath St, James train station in Sydney. After that it was moved to a picture thearte in Bankstown called the Capital Hall.[3]The main job for the people who worked in the bunker, was to keep an eye on all planes in the eastern area of the South West Pacific. Some of the people who worked in the bunker were from the No.2 Volunteer Air Observer Corps (VOAC), The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force and a few members of the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. Workers worked in the bunker 24 hours a day seven days a week in shifts called "Flights". The people who worked inside the bunker traveled to work in buses with tinted windows. Anyone that worked in the bunker had to receive special training.
At the end of the war, the people who worked at the bunker simply got up and left. It was then forgotten about for many years. It wasn't until 1971 that it was rediscovered by a reporter who worked for a local newspaper in the area. In 1972 the bunker was set on fire. In 1976 houses were built over part of the building, whilst the main part is underneath a public park.
[change] Inside the bunker
The bunker was built in the same fashion as the underground Operations rooms of wartime England, which planned Britain's air defence fighter plane attacks on the invading German Luftwaffe.
To get inside the bunker you had to enter through a secret passageway which was hidden under a grassy hill. Stairs led to a maze of hallways that lead to different sections. There were two different entrances to get inside the bunker. The two doors were guarded by special police that worked for the military.[4]
The bunker walls were 1.5 metres thick[5] and it was almost bomb proof. It had all the lates equipment of the time to allow it to run as a top secret defence base, it had its own code room, plotting rooms, two escape tunnels, radio transmitter room, kitchen, dining area, bathrooms and bedrooms. In the center of the bunker was a large operations room, it was a large room that was about two stories high. It was the control centre for all air force missions in the Pacific area. The room also had a big map of the South West Pacific theater of World War II. The bunker also had its own generator', air conditioning and switchboards which directed fifty telephone lines.[6] The telephone lines went to various locations including radar stations and VAOC lookout posts which reported aircraft locations to the bunker.[7] There are rumours of a tunnel running from the bunker to an unknown location.
[change] Location
There is a small park at the end of Taylor Street. In this park there is a large hill that looks totaly out of place. It is under this hill that the bunker has been buried. It is still possible to get in through a secret door that not too many people know about.[8]
[change] Other bunkers in Bankstown
There is another bunker in Bankstown. This one is called a "Remote Receiving station" not much is known about its history. It was in Picnic Point National Park, near the South Sydney Power station,[9] People who live in the area say that it is still there. There are many other rumours of bunkers in the Bankstown area, such as under an electricity block house on the corner of Milpera road and Henry Lawson Drive, a demolished bunker under Condell Park High School.
[change] The Bankstown Bunker on TV
The Bankstown Bunker was on a TV show called Bourke's Backyard. Don Bourke the main presenter that works on the show conducted the episode from inside the bunker. To get inside the bunker he used the secret passage way that not many people know about.[needs proving][10]
[change] References
- ↑ Images of the Bankstown Bunker located in Condell Park.
- ↑ Veitch, Alen. "The Bankstown Bunker", Australian Post, June 24 1971 page 12-13.
- ↑ http://www.sandgate.net/~dunn/raaf/1fshq.htm
- ↑ (information supplied by R. Eyers VAOC worker)
- ↑ http://www.bunkerboyz.org/bankbunk2.htm More images and proof of the Bankstown Bunker.
- ↑ Lawrence, Joan.; Brian Madden and Lesliie Muir. (1999). http://www.kingsclearbooks.com.au/cb.html Pictorial History of Canterbury Bankstown.. Kingsclear Books, 89. ISBN 0-908272-55-3. .
- ↑ Peters, Merle. "Historian's account", Bankstown Torch Newspaper, 20.1.93. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
- ↑ Harris, Sarah. "Moves to restore old war rooms", Sunday Telegraph, 19th of October 1997. Retrieved on 13-09-2007.
- ↑ see map - Image:Bankstown01.jpg
- ↑ Video available from Bankstown Library, Local Studies collection, level 3
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