NAVAL MAGAZINE TOWNSVILLE
BROOKHILL,
TOWNSVILLE, QLD
DURING WWII
The Naval Magazine was located at Brookhill near Townsville. 24 smaller Armco shelters were also constructed on the site adjacent to the Naval Magazine site.
Armco is a self-supporting heavy gauge arched and ribbed metal sheeting often used for storage shelters. They are then usually covered with soil and grass as a form of camouflage and to provide some protection.
Plan dated June 1943 showing the Naval Magazine at Brookhill showing location of some other 24 smaller Armco shelters
A different Plan 3 January 1945 of the
proposed new Armco and Quarters
at the Naval
Magazine at Brookhill, which do not appear to have been built.
On 18 January 2012, local resident Mel Dundas-Taylor took me to the site of the Naval Magazine at Brookhill. which he had discovered way back in the early 1980's.
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Mel Dundas-Taylor standing beside
one of the 24 smaller Armco shelters at Brookhill on 18 January 2012.
Presumably the floor would have filled up with silt over the years and would
have been deeper originally.
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Large concrete slab for the Naval Store remaining on site
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
One of the many smaller Armco shelters
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
The only remaining large Armco shelter which has collapsed in on one side
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Mel Dundas-Taylor inside the collapsed large Armco shelter
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Showing the thickness of the heavy gauge Armco sheeting on this large Armco shelter
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Mel Dundas-Taylor standing beside on of the many small Armco shelters
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
A side view of one of the smaller Armco shelters
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Another one of the smaller Armco shelters
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
A broken student desk inside the entrance to this small Armco shelter
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
Inside one of the small Armco shelters
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
A small concrete slab on the site of the Naval Magazine at Brookhill
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
The sunken hole where a small
Armco used to be located. There is no sign of the Armco steel
sheeting which used to cover this shelter. There are a number similar to this on
site.
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
The broken remains of a concrete bridge built over a small creek on the access track into the site.
Photo:- Peter Dunn 18 January 2012
The broken remains of a concrete bridge built over a small creek on the access track into the site.
One of the concrete slabs at the site has "G. Maxwell QX25763" etched on it. A quick search on the WWII Nominal Roll reveals that this was Gordon Maxwell from Rockhampton, a member of the 62nd Battalion, which was camped in the Stanley (Roseneath/Brookhill) area from 14 April 1944 to 28 May 1944, possibly near the Naval Magazine.
The large Armco Ordnance Magazine
huts were similar to the
above huts located at the Darra RAN
Ammunition Dump in Brisbane
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Mel Dundas-Taylor and John Cotter for their assistance with this web page.
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
© Peter Dunn 2015 |
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This page first produced 28 September 2004
This page last updated 25 January 2020