Castle Hill, Townsville

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Castle Hill is a huge pink granite monolith standing in the heart of the north Queensland city of Townsville. It rises to a height of some 286 metres above sea level and dominates the skyline of this (currently) relatively low level city. There are a number of marvelous vantage points from which to view the city below and also across Cleveland Bay to nearby Magnetic Island.

WW2 history

During WW2 the slopes of Castle Hill that faced Rowes Bay and the Strand, were probably used to locate some defensive machine gun emplacements and possibly some mortar pits.

In the North Ward area of the city at the start of the road up to the summit a rock retaining wall is located in front of an ammunition magazine.

The road up Castle Hill was closed to traffic on about 12 March 1942 to ensure that the construction of military facilities such as the Green Street Bunker were not obvious.

1952 photograph of the quarry where the Sturt Street cutting now exists

2001 filled in area in the Sturt St. quarry (the cutting)

The erection of the above-ground Green Street Bunker (Project 81) at West End (near Sidney St.) was approved on 12 March 1942.

There are stories about a tunnel at the Green Street bunker site. There have been stories of a bunker inside Castle Hill near Bundock Street and Sturt Street and of 2 tunnels at the base of Castle Hill which started from the basement of the Officer's Mess for North East Area Command HQ in Sturt Street.

The Officers Mess building later became the RAAF Recruiting Centre in Sturt Street.

Information received states 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.

This building was used as the North Eastern Area Command HQ and is located between the Officer's Mess building and Buchanan's Hotel.

Proposal of 29 July 1942 by Major General Ralph Royce, North East Area Commander in Townsville, to relocate Area Combined HQ Townsville underground inside Castle Hill

Unconfirmed reports indicate approval was given for the construction of an underground Area Combined Headquarters in Castle Hill in 1943. One of the problems is that many of the wartime infrastructure in northern Australia were built by civilian contractors (such as ex Mayor of Thuringowa Dan Gleeson) and their records are not available. That is if they ever had any records at all.

There would have been many machine gun positions around the lower ridges of Castle Hill during World War 2 including the Yarrawonga area and above Smyth Street at Belgian Gardens and of one directly above the Tobruk Baths on the cliffs below the houses.

Ammunition magazine, situated below road up Castle Hill

There is still an Ammunition Magazine located at North Ward which was probably used to re-supply these emplacements in that general area.

Another unconfirmed report indicates the 9th Australian Advanced Workshops AEME was told that the Americans were contemplating or had actually begun excavating a tunnel under Castle Hill. The reason given by the Americans was to save travelling time from one part of the city to another. However, it was not completed[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

On 26 June 2000, George Redding from 36 Squadron RAAF states that he remembers going to an area on Castle Hill for an interview at the North East Area Headquarters for the RAAF. George said that all the top brass were right up there on Castle Hill. The North-Eastern Area Command headquarters was located in the Commonwealth building at 24 Sturt Street, Townsville but it is not known if there extra facilities associated with this command organisation on or inside of Castle Hill[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

On 23 July 2001, Bill Fraser from 36 Squadron RAAF states that he remembers going to North East Area Headquarters for an interview. He indicated though that it was located on the foothills of Castle Hill in the West End area. It was a very secret location and was well camouflaged[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

On 25 July 2001 Wal Moore from 36 Squadron RAAF states that he remembers going for an interview with North East Area Headquarters at a site in Sidney Street, West End. He said it was a very well camouflaged and secret location. Wal's wife, Fay, was a WAAAF who was living at the WAAF barracks in Anne Street and was taken daily with a cook to the Officer's Mess near the Sidney Street bunker. Fay advised that the bunker at Sidney Street was a Signal Station for North East Area HQ. She also advised that the Headquarters for the Signal Station was located nearby, camouflaged into the side of Castle Hill. Fay's recollection from almost 60 years ago was that this HQ was about 1/4 of a mile up the slopes of Castle Hill and slightly more towards the Belgian Gardens side of the hill that could have been the WW2 Command Center for the Combined Operational Intelligence Centre that was located near the Green Street bunker[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

Another report was from the driver for Colonel F.R. North in Townsville. Colonel North was the Commander of TOWNFORCE, one of the 3 main Forces allocated the task of defending Townsville who stated that Colonel North had his office inside Castle Hill[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

Another report states that that there was a tunnel from the Victoria Street Bridge in the centre of Townsville that took you up inside Castle Hill. This tunnel was referred to as the "Red Brick Tunnel". There are in fact at least two red brick tunnels that probably date back to pre 1900 times. The other one runs the full length of Stanley Street[Emails sent to Peter DUNN website].

The Queensland Main Roads Commission played a major part in Queensland during World War 2 building roads, aerodromes, fortifications, railway works, buildings, camps, etc. The following is a paragraph from a booklet titled The History of the Queensland Main Roads Commission during World War II 1939 - 1945

• "Fortifications, command post, engine room, and searchlight emplacements were also constructed on Signal Hill. The site selected for the command post was on a pinnacle of rock on the crest of Castle Hill. This necessitated a long and heavy haul of material and men to the parking area at the top of Castle Hill. Thence the material had to be man-handled along a goat track to the site of the job. All concrete had to be mixed by hand and formwork and concrete placed in a very restricted area with a vertical drop on three sides."

References