North-Eastern Area Headquarters RAAF, the Commonwealth Building, Sturt Street, Townsville

NORTH-EASTERN AREA HEADQUARTERS RAAF
THE COMMONWEALTH BUILDING
STURT STREET, TOWNSVILLE

Headquarters Northern Area was formed in Townsville on 8 May 1941 and established itself in the Commonwealth Offices at 42 Sturt Street, Townsville. An Area Combined Headquarters was also established on 8 May 1941 in the Commonwealth Building.

Northern Area Headquarters was renamed to North-Eastern Area Headquarters on 15 January 1942.

The first stage of the building was originally built for the British drapery firm of Scott, Dawson & Stewart in 1884 and the second stage completed in about 1889. D & W Murray Warehouse leased the building from 1899 and purchased it in 1913. Rooneys Ltd. purchased the Building in 1933 and moved out of the building in about 1938. The building remained vacant for a number of years until it was acquired by the Commonwealth Government in mid 1941 to become Headquarters Northern Area. The building is now listed on the Queensland State Heritage list.

On 10 June 1941, the Senior Air Staff Officer, for Group Captain, Air Officer Commanding Northern Area wrote to the Secretary of the Air Board in Melbourne to advise on progress in establishing Headquarters Northern Area at 42 Sturt Street. Below are some excerpts from his letter:-

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Northern Area Headquarters
Box 447, Post Office,
TOWNSVILLE

Ref.: 9/1/AIR (11A)

The Secretary,
AIR BOARD,
MELBOURNE

(Attention D.C.A.S. and D.O.I.)

HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN AREA - READINESS TO
TAKE OVER FULL FUNCTIONAL DUTIES

Headquarters Northern Area was formed in TOWNSVILLE on 8th. May 1941.

2. The top floor of the Headquarters building was not completed at this date. The top floor has now been painted throughout and the C.O.I.C., M.M.S., Air Intel., C.D.H. and L.D.C.C. rooms are now ready for furnishing but no furniture is available at the moment.

3. The Signals Office adjoining the A.C.H. is being filled with the necessary receiving equipment and at present rate of progress should be completed in three weeks.

4. In the meantime signals are being received at 24 Squadron and passed by teleprinter to Northern Area Headquarters. This is considered a temporary arrangement and will continue to cause delay until the Signals Room at this Headquarters is completed.

5. A temporary switchboard is in operation and all telephones fitted are of a temporary nature. They must remain so until the furniture arrives.

6. It will be some time before the PABX system is fitted for use. It is being tested in Brisbane at the present moment.

7. The A.C.H. itself has been constructed but until properly lighted, the floor covered with linoleum and air draft fans fitted it cannot be considered complete.

8. No furniture has arrived for the A.C.H.

9. The normal intelligence boards for the A.C.H. have been completed. The strategic chart is in course of preparation but it is not considered that the draughtsman will be able to complete his work before June 20th.

10. Two controllers have arrived here after having completed a course at A.C.H. Melbourne; period six weeks.

11. It is submitted that in six week a considerable amount of work should have been completed.

12. ...............

13. ...............

14. ...............

15. Whereas the M.M.S. and V.A.I. plot are in full swing here, the control of air operations at the moment must be personally supervised by the A.O.C and S.A.S.O. If we were committed to full scale air operations tomorrow the present organisation would break down after a few days.

16. It is considered that the A.C.H. must be brought up to war establishment as a matter of priority. Until the controllers of the type set out in my letter 9/1/AIR (5a) are able to run the detailed operations, then the main tasks of the Air Staff, namely, organising and ensuring the preparedness of operational squadrons for war, will be seriously hampered.

17. The second floor of the Northern Area Headquarters building is nearing completion and should be ready for completion within 10 days. Considerable work, such as painting, telephone installations, installations of furniture etc., will take place after that period.

18. The ground floor is still occupied by KJELLBERG and will not be ready until teh end of June by the very earliest at the present rate of progress.

19. ........

20. Although the R.A.A.F. have been in occupation of the building for over two months, KJELLBERG received his first installment in compensation yesterday (June 9). It is expected that KJELLBERG will vacate the ground floor by June 12.

21. .......

22. In conclusion it is pointed out that the whole Air Force and Naval personnel are at present crowded on the top floor of the building and operating under extreme difficulty. The A.C.H. is not completed nor properly manned and therefore can only operate in a most sketch manner. It would appear that it will not reach full efficiency until one month hence.

23. Within one month Northern Area local receiving station will be completed and occupied. W/T and L/T circuits will be in a 24-hour operational basis with all R.A.A.F. base stations under Northern Area Command, namely, DARWIN, PORT MORESBY, TOWNSVILLE and ARCHERFIELD. Similarly, it will be linked with Air Board.

24. No reasonable estimate can be given as to the opening date of the W/T circuits to the island A.O.B.'s This is solely dependent upon:-

(a) The installation of aerial system by P.M.G. In this regard TULAGI has been completed and RABAUL is now under way.

(b) Buildings. This is undoubtedly the worst feature of the island W/T installations. As yet no work has been done to provide W/T buildings, with the exception of VILA.

(c) Supply of W/T equipment, which is dependent on Air Board. Air Board has indicated that island installations have received priority in Allotment.

25. Tests carried out at this Headquarters receiving station have shown that local reception through the high noise level due to inductive interference renders it impracticable when signal strengths are low.

26. A permanent remote receiving station is now being designed but as a permanent station will not be available for an estimated period of nine months temporary remote receiving station is being installed at R.A.A.F. Station, Garbutt.

Wing Commander,
Senior Air Staff Officer,
for Group Captain, Air Officer Commanding
NORTHERN AREA

General Kenney advised Royce that he was to return to the USA as General Arnold wanted him to run the 1st Air Force.

As a result of the formation of Eastern Area, the following units came within the command of North-Eastern Area as from 25 May 1942:-

North-Eastern Area was one of five RAAF Air Defence Areas established during WWII. On 19 August 1942, the boundaries for North-Eastern Area were revised to the following:-

The book "Royal Australia Air Force 1939 - 1942" indicates that Air Commodore A.H. Cobby had succeeded Air Commodore Lukis in command of North-eastern Area Station HQ in Townsville on 25 August 1942.

The North-Eastern Area Air Operations Room (A.O.R.) moved to Sidney Street premises at West End (Green Street Bunker) on 7 November 1942 and Townsville W/T Station took over the whole of the top floor of the North-Eastern Area Headquarters building at 42 Sturt Street. A Signals Office was established in the A.O.R. building at Sidney Street and facilities were provided for passing messages from Townsville W/T Station. The emergency Signals Office in the house at Stagpole Street was closed down at about the same time.

Commonwealth Building (large white building) with the old RAAF Recruiting
building (former Officers Mess) located to the right hand side of it.

The following units were all located on the top floor of the Commonwealth Building at 42 Sturt Street:-

I believe that the Combined Defence Headquarters was also located on the top floor of this building at some stage during WWII.

The second floor was used by the RAAF and the ground floor was also used by the RAAF with one area partitioned off for the Naval Staff Offices, which included the Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC), Secretary and Writer, the Code Room and Naval Control Services, etc.

Lt. Commander Eric Feldt, RAN the Supervising Intelligence Officer (SIO) for North-Eastern Area was located in this area. He was also acting NOIC in May 1941. Feldt was in charge of the Coastwatchers. Feldt's civilian assistant was Mr. K.L. "Paddy" Murray.

An Education Section was formed at North-Eastern Area Headquarters on 2 December 1942 to supervise:-

On 6 January 1943, an Area Publications Receipt and Despatch Section was formed at North-Eastern Area Headquarters to ensure that publications intended for Units within the Area arrived safely at those Units.

On 10 June 1943 Air Board approved the establishment of Air Force Post Office 71 (AFPO 71) for North-East Area at 282 Flinders Street, Townsville and the appointment of an Area Postal Officer who commenced duties at Headquarters North-Eastern Area on 8 July 1943. AFPO 71 was a central point for distribution of all R.A.A.F. A system of Postal Group addresses had previously been introduced for all Units and Sections in North-Eastern area on 10 August 1942 mails in North-East Area. There were 42 separate Group addresses initially on 10 August 1942 which grew to 112 Group address in North-East Area by the end of December 1942. Mail was carried between Townsville and Port Moresby by Service Flying Boats and mail from Townsville to southern states was carried by Civilian Airlines, and Queensland Railways.

The RAAF combat units at Townsville, Cairns and Horn Island were attached to General Kenneth Walker for operational control. General Kenney asked Walker to reorganise the North Eastern Area Command which Kenney described as a "scrambled outfit of Australians and Americans that resembled a can of worms".

Ray Smith, Manager of Donnington Airpark, 41 kms west of Townsville, said in an article in "The Independent News" on Wednesday 9 August 1995, that he entered the Green Street bunker at West End not long after the war finished and found an old blueprint of the Ross River airfield showing the location of two aircraft that collided just after takeoff. This is probably the collision of two Kittyhawks at Ross River airfield in about April 1945. Ray was employed as a scout (runner) at North Eastern Area Command HQ in the Commonwealth Building in Sturt Street.

I rang Ray Smith on 21 September 2000, and he said that security was very tight at the Headquarters. He was eventually promoted to the 3rd floor in the teletype area. He remembers that each day, himself and another scout would be accompanied the to rear of the building by an RAAF person to witness them burning the day's teletype printouts. If one of the printouts was blown away in the breeze there was quite some excitement from the RAAF person to ensure that it was recovered and burnt. He still has the pass that was issued to him to gain access to the Headquarters.

I was told by someone of 2 tunnels which started from the basement of the Officer's Mess for North-Eastern Area Command HQ in Sturt Street. The Officers Mess building later became the RAAF Recruiting Centre in Sturt Street. He said that he had entered the tunnel that went to the basement of Buchanan's Hotel in Sturt Street and it is unclear where the other one went. There was a flight of stairs down to the entry to these two tunnels. There were no indication of the tunnels found when the adjacent Commonwealth Building was refurbished.

In April 2000, this building was owned by Brad M. Webb (my wife's cousin), a property developer, who refurbished the old building for professional offices. All of the old timber stairways and railings have been beautifully restored to their former glory. The building is now known as Federation Place.

Douglas Walker, son of Brigadier General Walker sent me the following photos, two of which appear to be a welcoming ceremony for Brigadier General Walker at the RAAF Officer's Mess, North-Eastern Area Headquarters. Douglas Walker identified Air Commodore A.H. Cobby (with the pipe) and obviously his father, who he said was overdressed for the occasion. Douglas Walker thought that the officer with the mustache may be Group Capt. William Henry "Bull" Garing.

Left to Right in Front Row:- Brigadier General Kenneth Walker (dark coat and glasses),
Group Capt. A. H. Cobby, Air Commodore F. M. Bladin, and the last person on the right is unidentified

Group Captain "Bull" Garing is the
person above the head in the right foreground

Kenneth Walker's honorary membership of the
North Eastern Area Headquarters Officers Mess

Do you know any of the above ladies? Or anyone else who worked at North Eastern Area HQ?

Does anyone know where the
North Eastern Area Headquarters Officers Mess
was located?

UPDATE:- I spoke to Fay Moore on 25 July 2001. Fay was a WAAAF who lived in the WAAAF barracks in Anne Street. Fay told me that the Officers Mess was in the building next door to the North-Eastern Area Headquarters in Sturt Street. The old RAAF Recruiting building which has since been demolished.