NAVAL MAGAZINE TOWNSVILLE
BROOKHILL, TOWNSVILLE, QLD
DURING WWII

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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?

 

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©  Peter Dunn 2015

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This page first produced 28 September 2004

This page last updated 25 January 2020