Sarina Air Raid Shelter (former)

General

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Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

3 May 2019

Type

Defence: Air raid shelter

Theme

7.6 Maintaining order: Defending the country

Designer

Department of Public Works

Construction period

1942, Public Air Raid Shelter

Historical period

1939–1945 World War II

Style

Brutalism

Location

Address

Broad Street, Sarina

LGA

Mackay Regional Council

Coordinates

-21.42220858, 149.21715375

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

The Sarina Air Raid Shelter, a public air raid shelter built by the Sarina Shire Council in 1942, is important in demonstrating the impact of Japan’s entry into World War II (WWII) on Queensland’s civilian population, and the urgent Air Raid Precaution measures undertaken in 1941-42. It is a product of the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted in December 1941, which ordered Queensland’s local authorities to construct public air raid shelters.

Criterion BThe place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage.

Although hundreds of public air raid shelters were constructed during 1942 in Queensland, few survive intact. The Sarina Air Raid Shelter is one of the most intact public air raid shelters of its type (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets) in Queensland.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The Sarina Air Raid Shelter is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a WWII concrete surface shelter built for public protection in Queensland. The extant features demonstrate the design, solid construction and dimensions of a half-size version of the standard DPW public air raid shelter (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets). Surviving characteristics include: the reinforced concrete floor, walls and roof; angled corners to the floor and roof; air vents; two entrances; two toilet closets; two internal blast walls with lamp recesses; and evidence of its internal rows of bench seating. Its siting in an easily accessible location, within an area with a concentration of civilians – in this case in the main street of Sarina – is also a defining characteristic of public air raid shelters.

History

The Sarina Air Raid Shelter stands in the median strip of Broad Street (Bruce Highway) in Sarina, about 25km south of Mackay. It is the surviving one of two public reinforced concrete air raid shelters constructed in the street in early 1942. At this time Australia was at risk of air attack due to Japan’s entry into World War II (WWII). Built by the Sarina Shire Council as a half-size version of a standard Department of Public Works (DPW) concrete air raid shelter, the Sarina shelter was adapted for other uses after WWII. It is one of the most intact of its type (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets).

Sarina, located on the banks of Plane Creek, is part of the traditional land of the Yuwibara people.[1] The Plane Creek pastoral property, established in the 1860s, was opened for selection in 1880, which facilitated the local sugar cane-growing industry. The town, initially known as Plane Creek, grew after the opening of the Plane Creek Central Sugar Mill in 1896, and was renamed Sarina by 1907. At this time Sarina possessed three hotels, a police station and Plane Creek Provisional School. The Sarina Shire was formed in 1912, breaking away from the Pioneer Shire. The railway reached Sarina from Mackay in 1913, and opened to St Lawrence in 1921, where it joined the North Coast line from Rockhampton. In 1924, 60 shade trees were planted along the median strip of Broad Street, a wide thoroughfare and former stock route, which is the main business street of Sarina. In 1927 a ‘power alcohol’ distillery opened next to the sugar mill, to produce ethanol from waste molasses. By 1933 Sarina had a population of 1747, up from 218 in 1901.[2]

With the declaration of WWII in September 1939, the Queensland Premier's Department, as the agency responsible for co-ordinating civil defence works in the state, began implementing home security policies. Air Raid Protection Committees, usually consisting of the local mayor, inspector of police and government medical officer, formed in centres along the Queensland coast. As the threat of war with Japan increased, construction of public air raid shelters was planned in main centres considered vulnerable to air attack.[3]

On 8 December 1941, the United States of America entered the war, following the previous day’s bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. Simultaneously Japanese forces launched assaults on Thailand, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. Three days after Pearl Harbor, two capital ships of the Royal Navy (HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse) were sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya. The sudden fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 and the rapid Japanese advance through the islands of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) raised fears of air attacks on Australia. The first Japanese air raid on Darwin occurred on 19 February, carried out by aircraft launched from four of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbour, plus land-based aircraft flying from the NEI. During early 1942 Japanese air raids on other targets in Australia seemed likely, and an invasion of Australia was also feared.[4]

As a result, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in late January 1942. Although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. A policy of voluntary evacuation of women and children from Queensland coastal areas was also implemented by the Queensland Government on 27 January 1942.[5]

Another result of the fear of air attack was the construction of air raid shelters. In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area (235 were eventually constructed). Order No.1 also required the owners of any building in the coastal areas, where over 30 people would normally be present at any one time, to build shelters within, or adjacent to, the building. Businesses such as hotels constructed shelters for their patrons. Queensland Railways (QR) also instituted a shelter-building program at its railway stations.[6]

Order No.1 was applied state-wide, and another 24 local authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 19 of these local authorities were expected to construct a total of 133 surface shelters able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. A surface shelter was a self-contained external structure with the floor surface at or above ground level. Five local authorities, including Sarina Shire Council (SSC), were ordered to dig trenches. Standard designs for brick and concrete surface shelters, and for trench shelters, were sent to local authorities by the Architectural Branch of the DPW.[7]

However, as a result of a visit to Sarina on 24 December 1941 by State Government staff, instead of digging trenches, Sarina constructed two ‘half-size’ surface air raid shelters. The manager of the power alcohol distillery at Sarina was also ordered to construct a half-size concrete shelter. A report on the visit, by engineer Percy Ainscow of the Public Estate Improvement Branch, noted that ‘trenches were of no use in the town of Sarina [due to the wet ground, which was also an issue at Proserpine]. Approval was obtained for two small reinforced concrete shelters for Sarina, and authority to arrange for the erection of a shelter at the Power Alcohol Factory’.[8] Pairs of half-size concrete shelters were also built at Home Hill and Proserpine.[9]

Sarina’s half-size air raid shelters were based on the standard DPW design (January 1942) for a reinforced concrete air raid shelter. Although the half-size version had the same wall and roof thickness, and the same size entry corridors and toilet closets, the main shelter space was half the length of a full-size shelter. The full-size standard shelter had 12 inch (30.5cm) thick walls, and a flat, 6 inch (15.2cm) roof (flush with the outside walls) – unless there was a risk of nearby buildings collapsing onto the shelter, in which case the roof had to be 12 inches. The outside length of the front wall of the full-size standard shelter, not including toilets, was 39ft 5 inches (12m); while the total length of the rear wall (including toilets) was 47ft 7 inches (14.5m). The shelter was 12ft (3.7m wide). In Sarina’s case, although the width was the same, the shelter’s front wall was 7.7m long, while the total rear length was 9.9m. The front walls of the toilet closets at each end of both the standard and half-size shelters were set back 5ft (1.5m) from the main front wall of the shelter, giving the shelters a symmetrical, fat ‘T’ shape. [10]

The two entrances to both the full-size and half-size shelters were at right angles to, and just inside, the front wall of the shelter. Each entrance made a 90 degree turn into a corridor towards the rear side of the shelter. Each corridor was formed by a 12 inch thick internal blast wall (separating the corridor from the main space of the shelter) to one side, and a 12 inch thick wall to a ‘closet’ (containing a toilet) on the other side. From the end of each corridor, there were 90 degree turns either into the main shelter space, or the toilet closet, which was 5ft x 3ft 1 inch (1.5m x 0.94m) in size. Each internal blast wall had a recess through the top of its end for a lamp. The walls had angled corners (called a ‘haunch’ in plans) to the floor and ceiling, while the height of the interior space was 7ft 10 inches (2.4m).[11]

The main interior shelter space in the full-size version was 30ft x 10ft (9.1m x 3m), with seating for 50 persons. This consisted of a central, double timber slat bench (set on five footings) for 30 people (15 facing each way); while a timber slat bench, for 20 people, was set (on seven footings) against the front wall of the main space, between the internal blast walls. In comparison, the half-size shelter’s main space was only 4.6m x 3m. In the full-size shelter, seven offset air vents (doglegged, to avoid splinter penetration) were formed through both the front and back walls of the main shelter space; and each toilet closet also had three offset vents, for a total of 20. The half-size shelter only had four vents in each wall of the main shelter space, for a total of 14 vents, including the toilet closet vents. [12]

By 9 January 1942, the steel for Sarina’s shelters, which would be built by the SSC, was being cut and bent, and construction commenced around mid-January.[13] It was announced that the shelters would be 32ft x 12ft (9.8m x 3.7m) in size, with four rows of seats to accommodate 40-50 people. The first half-size concrete shelter was built in Broad Street ‘just opposite Kelly’s’ (in 2019 the National Australia Bank, corner of Broad Street and the Marlborough-Sarina Road).[14] The second shelter (the surviving air raid shelter) was originally planned for Central Street, near the railway crossing, but as QR was building its own (trench) shelters nearby, it was relocated to Broad Street, to the north of the first shelter: in front (west) of Sarina State School and within 50m of the Post Office.[15] The first shelter was finished by 14 February 1942, and the second by 28 February.[16]

The number of shelters to be built, and the number of local authorities required to build them, was increased in January 1942. By 26 January, 26 local authorities outside Brisbane were expected to build 143 surface air raid shelters, with Tully and Redcliffe constructing trenches and Ipswich building a combination of surface shelters and trenches.[17] Ultimately, those local authorities outside Brisbane which had work funded by the DPW, built 133 shelters – 126 surface shelters, and seven underground (the latter at Bundaberg and Mount Morgan). In five cases (Atherton, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, and Toowoomba) the DPW built the shelters without local authority assistance. Some local authorities, like Brisbane, undertook and funded their own shelter building program.[18]

The DPW’s construction program outside Brisbane cost £56,596; £30,929 worth of the work was undertaken by the DPW, and the rest by local authorities with funds provided by the DPW.[19] However, problems arose when the DPW asked the local authorities to pay half the total cost. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied liability for costs, and a Bill was passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid, as they concentrated people in one place, and would be a target for low-flying aircraft.[20]

The SSC was also not happy having to pay half the total cost (£1124.17.1) of its two air raid shelters, claiming it was led to believe that the State Government would pay the full cost; it could have built cheaper shelters than the DPW’s design; and QR had been allowed to build timber trench shelters at the Sarina railway station. However, the SSC applied for, and received, a loan to cover its liability.[21]

As well as building air raid shelters, the SSC undertook other Air Raid Precaution (ARP) measures in early 1942. By early January, shades had been put over street lights, and the fire brigade was testing water hydrants; householders had to have sand available to extinguish incendiary bombs, and government building windows were covered in cheesecloth.[22] In February, to raise funds for equipment for the local emergency hospitals, the Sarina ARP Organisation held a euchre party and dance in the School of Arts hall. In March 1942 the SSC requested 12 steel helmets for its Rescue and Demolition Squad. It later borrowed £1400 from the State Government for an emergency water supply.[23] Air raid drills occurred in March and June 1942, with one being a surprise test of the sirens which resulted in the public air raid shelters being rapidly filled.[24]

As the threat of Japanese air attack diminished, Queensland’s public air raid shelters became unnecessary.[25] By December 1944 the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO) was permitting the removal of air raid shelters, with half the cost, once again, to be paid by local authorities.[26]

Although calls were made to remove the ‘unsightly’ trench shelters at the Sarina railway station, the SSC did not demolish the concrete surface shelters on Broad Street. By early December 1945, when the Sarina branch of the Australian Communist Party suggested converting the surface shelters to rest rooms for country visitors, the SSC had already let a contract to convert ‘the top shelter’ (the surviving shelter) into a women’s toilet and wash room, with water and electricity connected. The existing four windows, cut into the shelter’s walls, were probably formed at this time.[27] In 1947, the other public air raid shelter was converted into a public library with the addition of electric lights, doors and windows, and officially opened in March 1948.[28] In 1960 the SSC considered converting this shelter into men’s toilets, should it be vacated by the library, but this did not eventuate. After the library moved to the memorial hall, the former air raid shelter/library was demolished in 1979.[29]

Other known surviving public air raid shelters (‘T’ shaped, with toilet closets) are located at: Babinda [QHR 602743] (with a new concrete dividing wall added, for use as a public toilet); Gordonvale (northern end and toilet closet only); and the old court house, Gympie [QHR 602778] (one internal blast wall removed; converted to a sound recording studio). Queensland Rail air raid shelters (‘T’ shaped, with toilet closets) also still exist: one at Maryborough Railway Station [QHR 600702] (internal blast walls removed); and one at Toowoomba Railway Station [QHR 600872] (brick, internal blast walls removed). Elsewhere in Queensland, ‘T’ shaped public air raid shelters without toilets (entrances are set back and face the rear of the shelter, and the corridors make a single 90 degree turn into the main shelter space) survive at Landsborough Railway Station [QHR 602709], and Shorncliffe Railway Station.

Public shelters without toilets (entrances are not set back, and the shelter is rectangular) survive at: Queens Wharf Road, Brisbane [QHR 600135]; Ferguson Street, Manly (timber building added above); and the Maryborough Court House [QHR 600714]. Although most of Brisbane’s public air raid shelters were demolished, 20 rectangular shelters, designed to have three or four of their walls removed at the end of the war for use as bus or park shelters, also survive.[30]

In 2019, Sarina’s Air Raid Shelter (former) is used as office and storage space for council gardeners. It is one of the most intact surviving examples of the DPW’s standard ‘T’ shaped air raid shelter with toilet closets, retaining its two internal blast walls, complete with lamp recesses; and its two original toilet closets. Most of Queensland’s public surface air raid shelters were demolished after WWII, and surviving examples which retain their toilet closets and both their internal blast walls are now rare.

Description

The Sarina Air Raid Shelter (the shelter) is positioned near the northern end of the median strip of Broad Street, the main street and highway through the town of Sarina, approximately 25km south of Mackay. The grassed median strip is located between car park spaces and double lanes for north and south-bound traffic. The shelter is in the western half of the median strip, which in this location is about 20m wide. The Sarina State School is about 30m east of the shelter, and the town’s pre-WWII Post Office is about 40m to the northwest. In 2019 the shelter is used as office and storage space for the local council’s gardeners.

It is surrounded by public infrastructure and mature trees (not of state cultural heritage significance).

Air Raid Shelter (1942)

The above-ground shelter is a box-shaped, off-form reinforced concrete structure, approximately 10m long by 3.7m wide. It is orientated roughly north-south lengthwise, with its front wall facing west, about 7m from the street. The shelter accommodates a large main chamber, and one toilet closet at each end. These closets are set back 1.5m east of the main west wall, giving the shelter a symmetrical, fat ‘T’ shape. All exterior and internal concrete walls are 305mm thick, and the flat concrete roof is 152mm thick.

The shelter has two entrances (one at the north, one at the south) with a small 90 degree corridor towards the rear of the shelter, formed by an internal blast wall (separating the corridor from the main space of the shelter). From the end of each corridor, there are 90 degree turns either into the main shelter space, or into the toilet closet. The main interior shelter space measures 4.6m between the internal blast walls, and 3m between the front and rear walls of the shelter. Evidence of bench seating survives within the main shelter space.

Post-war modifications include four openings cut through the east and west walls of the shelter to form windows (likely for the 1945 conversion to a women’s toilet).

Features also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Original location, form and layout
• Off form construction and finish, including all original 1942 walls, flooring and roof concrete, including the two internal blast walls, and the toilet closets
• Lamp recesses at the top of the end of each internal blast wall
• Angled corners (haunch) to the floor and ceiling
• Evidence of seating within the shelter, including: three rectangular marks on the floor of the shelter, indicating the previous location of bench footings; and two wedge-shaped concrete seat bases protruding from the haunch at the base of the western wall. To each of these is bolted a thick piece of timber, for mounting timber slats along the length of the bench. One timber slat is in situ.
• 14 original air vents, cut through the walls near the roof: four in each of the west and east walls of the main shelter, and three vents in the walls of each toilet closet.
• The c1945 brass light fitting in the southern toilet closet, above the window in the east wall.

Features not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:

• The c1945 window openings (one large window in each of the east and west walls of the main interior shelter space; with smaller openings in the east wall of each toilet closet); and their empty timber or metal fittings for glass louvres on their inside edge, and steel frames and steel mesh on the outside of the windows.
• Post-1942 internal or external water, drainage, power and lighting fixtures, wiring and piping (excluding c1945 brass light fitting)
• Post-1942 openings cut in the walls for services
• Metal awning fixed to edge of concrete roof.
• Modern steel-bar doors
• External painted mural
• Contemporary council furniture and tools, shelving and hanging hooks and nails
• Other modern landscaping or infrastructure outside the shelter, within the cultural heritage boundary

References

[1] DATSIP website, https://culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home (accessed 19 February 2019).
[2] ‘Mackay’, Week, 24 January 1880, p.15 (Plane Creek Station); ‘Sarina’, Daily Mercury, 7 April 1924, p.9 (shade trees); ‘Power alcohol, plant at Plane Creek’, Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 24 December 1925, p.10; PC Phillips, Sarina Shire in Retrospect, Sarina, Sarina Bi-Centennial Committee, 1988; ‘Sarina War Memorial’, QHR 601291; Queensland State Archives Agency ID5683, ‘Sarina State School’; ‘Sarina’, https://www.queenslandplaces.com.au/sarina (accessed 5 February 2019). The Plane Creek Power Alcohol Company was formed in 1926, and in 1927 was renamed the Australian National Power Alcohol Company. The distillery in Sarina was the first in Queensland, after the Commonwealth’s Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie [QHR602465] produced power alcohol from molasses from 1924-6. Section 6 of Queensland’s Motor Spirit Vendor’s Act 1933 compelled petrol companies in Queensland to add ethanol to their petrol. The Sarina ethanol plant is still operating.
[3] ‘Babinda Air Raid Shelter’, QHR 602743. These home security policies were outlined in the Commonwealth War Book, which was prepared before the outbreak of war and outlined measures to be taken by authorities in wartime (‘Why we have a “War Book”’ Sunday Mail, 23 July 1939, p.6).
[4] ‘Babinda Air Raid Shelter’, QHR 602743. Japan briefly considered invading Australia (an idea promoted by the Imperial Japanese Navy, but rejected by the Japanese Army due to a lack of resources) before shelving that option in March 1942, in favour of isolating Australia from the United States by capturing Port Moresby, and later Fiji, New Caledonia and the Samoan Islands. (G Brown and D Anderson, ‘Invasion 1942? Australia and the Japanese threat’, Background Paper Number 6 1992, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 29 April 1992).
[5] ‘Coastal evacuation’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 28 January 1942, p.4; ‘Evacuation plans in Rockhampton’, Morning Bulletin, 28 January 1942, p.4; ‘All coastal schools shut until change seen in war’, Courier Mail, 28 January 1942, p.3; ‘Voluntary evacuation extended to south Queensland’, Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 30 January 1942, p.5 (the voluntary evacuation zone was extended on 29 January); ‘Schools reopen; some await shelter survey’, Courier Mail, 2 March 1942, p.3. The Commonwealth Government opposed the mass evacuation of civilians. About 10,000 civilians moved during the voluntary evacuation, including 5000 from Townsville (D McIntyre, Townsville at war 1942, life in a garrison city. Townsville, Townsville City Council, 1992).
[6] Queensland Government Gazette, 23 December 1941, in Queensland State Archives item 269093, (series 6874, Public Works Department correspondence), ‘Correspondence - local authorities - air raid shelters, civil defence, steel helmets’, 1942-6. The Queensland Premier acted with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, an amendment to the National Security (General) Regulations of the National Security Act 1939-1940. Regulation 35a, notified in the Commonwealth Government Gazette on 11 December 1941 (as Statutory Rules 1941 No.287), authorised each State Premier to direct 'blackouts' and to 'make such provision as he deems necessary to protect the persons and property of the civil population'. In early February 1942 Queensland Railways claimed that local authorities should build public shelters near railway stations, rather than Queensland Railways having to build them on railway premises. At a conference in late February, the Secretary for Health and Home Affairs, E.M. Hanlon, stressed that if Queensland Railways did not act on building public air raid shelters it would make it harder for the State to insist that other businesses and local authorities do so (‘Public Air Raid Shelter, Landsborough Railway Station’, QHR 602709).
[7] Queensland Government Gazette, 23 December 1941, and a report to the Under Secretary of Public Works, 23 January 1942 (standard plans had been sent out), in QSA item 269093. These surface shelters were only meant to protect people, caught by surprise out in the open, from blast and debris – not a direct hit (D Sullivan, ‘Brisbane’s air raid shelters: the palimpsest as war memorial’, Thesis submitted as part of a Bachelor of Architecture, University of Queensland, 1992, p.27).
[8] Report of J Binnington, District Supervisor of Works, Inspectorial and Construction Branch, Department of Public Works, Mackay, 29 December 1941; and report of PH Ainscow, Engineer in Charge of the Public Estate Improvement Branch, Department of Public Lands, 8 January 1942, in QSA item 269093. Even before Pearl Harbour, the Commonwealth Government sought to increase the production of power alcohol at Sarina, Pyrmont (Sydney) and Yarraville (Melbourne), to help the war effort. Extensions at Sarina were completed by March 1942 (‘Power alcohol’, Northern Miner, 26 April 1941, p.5; ‘Plane Creek Mill: cane transport the main problem’, Daily Mercury, 23 June 1942, p.6).
[9] ‘Statement No.1, showing expenditure by the Public Works Department in connection with the provision of public shelters’, (undated) in QSA item 269093.
[10] QSA Item 328638 (Series 17690, Public Works Department Architectural Drawings of Public Buildings) ‘Air raid precautions. Concrete pill box shelter. Detail Sheet no.7’, 7 Jan 1942; measurements made of Sarina’s shelter, by Applicant, and Mackay Regional Council, 2019.
[11] QSA Item 328638.
[12] QSA Item 328638; measurements made of Sarina’s shelter, by Applicant, and Mackay Regional Council, 2019.
[13] Reports by J Binnington, 9 and 16 January 1942, in QSA item 269093. Appendix, ‘Air raid shelters in country towns’, attached to 5 January 1942 memo to Minister of Public Works, in QSA item 269093 (work done by local authority). The memo noted that local authorities were informed that the cost of shelters would, in the first instance, be borne by the Government, but ultimate financial responsibility had not been determined, and they would be informed later of the allocation of financial responsibility.
[14] Air Raid Shelters’, Daily Mercury, 10 January 1942, p.8. The number able to be seated in these half-size shelters seems high, given that there was only seating for 50 in a full size shelter. By comparison, Proserpine’s half-sized shelters only had seating for 25 (‘Air raid shelters’, Proserpine Guardian, 7 March 1942, p.2). However, there was supposedly an extra row of seats in Sarina’s half-size shelter.
[15] Air Raid Shelters’, Daily Mercury, 10 January 1942, p.8; ‘Sarina Shire, January Council Meeting’, Daily Mercury, 3 February 1942, p.2.  At a council meeting on 15th January 1942, Cr J Langdon moved that DPW be asked to place any second shelter near the flag pole in Broad Street (Information supplied by Applicant).
[16]  ‘Air raid shelters’, Daily Mercury, 14 February 1942, p.6; ‘Air Raid shelters completed’, Daily Mail, 28 February 1942, p.6.
[17] ‘List of local authorities in the area of which public air raid shelters are being provided, & particulars of progress of work’, 26 January 1942, in QSA item 269093.
[18] ‘Statement No.1, showing expenditure by the Public Works Department in connection with the provision of public shelters’ (undated), and ‘Expenditure on Public air raid shelters in local authority areas (undated), in QSA item 269093; ‘Council liability on shelters’, Courier Mail, 13 February 1943, p.3. Brisbane City Council spent £88,933 of its own funds; Coolangatta Town Council £150, and Warwick City Council £565.
[19] ‘Statement No.1, showing expenditure by the Public Works Department in connection with the provision of public shelters’, (undated) in QSA item 269093.
[20] ‘Hefferan Park Air Raid Shelter’, QHR602472; Ayr Shire Council to DPW, 30 May 1942, in QSA item 269093; Local Government (Public Air Raid Shelters) Loans Act, 1942.
[21] ‘Statement No.1, showing expenditure by the Public Works Department in connection with the provision of public shelters’, (undated) in QSA item 269093; ‘Air raid shelters, high cost of work in Sarina’, Daily Mercury, 20 March 1942, p.4; ‘Civil Defence: who is to foot cost of raid shelters?’ Daily Mercury, 17 April 1942, p.4; ‘Sarina Council: road maintenance severely pruned’, Daily Mercury, 17 July 1942, p.7. £318.6.4 of the cost of Sarina’s two shelters was direct expenditure by the DPW, while £806.10.9 was ‘recouped’ (paid) to the SSC for its work at the time. Sarina was later billed for half the total cost. Sarina’s two half-size shelters cost more than the pairs of half-size shelters constructed at Home Hill and Proserpine: which cost £767 and £869 respectively. A Department of Lands investigation later found that the cost of Sarina’s shelters was abnormally high (‘Sarina Shire Council’, Daily Mercury, 25 May 1943, p.6). The relative expense of Sarina’s shelters may have contributed to the SSC’s decision to retain its shelters for post-war reuse.
[22] ‘Sarina and the war’, 3 January 1942, Daily Mercury, p.6.
[23] ‘ARP Dance and Euchre party’, Daily Mercury, 14 February 1942, p.6 (fundraising); Letter from SSC to DPW, 26 March 1942, in QSA item 269093 (steel helmets); Minute, from Public Service Commissioner to the Treasury, 15 May 1942, in QSA Item 2295385 (Series 3160, Coordinator-General's Office) ‘Co-ordinator General of Public Works – Co-ordinator General Works Section - Co-operation with Local authorities -Sarina Shire Council – Civil Defence’, 1942-3 (emergency water supply).
[24] ‘Sarina Fire Brigade Board Meeting’, Daily Mail, 28 March 1942, p.6; ‘ARP test at Sarina’, Daily Mercury, 8 June 1942, p.4; ‘Surprise alarm, ARP workers active at Sarina’, Daily Mercury, 22 June 1942, p.2.
[25] In March 1944 a report to the Commonwealth’s Defence Committee recommended reducing the anti-aircraft defences of Cairns and Townsville, given they were now out of normal range of Japanese land-based bombers, due to the neutralisation of Japanese air bases such as Rabaul (National Archives of Australia, item barcode 676482, ‘Coast and anti-aircraft defences. File No. 2’, 1944 – 1948).
[26] ‘Sarina Shire monthly meeting’, Daily Mercury, 12 December 1944, p.5.
[27] ‘Sarina Chamber of Commerce’, Daily Mercury, 11 December 1944, p.5 (railway station shelters); ‘Sarina and District News’, Daily Mercury, 8 December 1945, p.7; information supplied by Applicant. In 2019, the mural on the shelter is c30 years old (’Sarina shed’s war history’, Daily Mercury, 26 February 2019 (accessed 21 March 2019). The fate of the half-size air raid shelter at the power alcohol factory is unknown.
[28] ‘Sarina Library’, Daily Mercury, 20 August 1947, p.2; ‘Public Library’, Daily Mercury, 8 November 1947, p.6; ‘Public Library’, Daily Mercury, 20 March 1948, p.6. The Chairman of the SSC noted that the council ‘had deemed to it wise to retain the building, in case some use could be made of it’. He also stated it would ‘remind people in the years to come that the Jap [sic] was once knocking on Australia’s door’.
[29] Information from Applicant. Home Hill’s half-size shelters were demolished c1947 (‘Burdekin air raid shelters to go’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 8 September 1947, p.7). Proserpine’s half-size shelters were converted for storage c1950 (in the Council yard) and 1954 (in the Courthouse yard), but both were later demolished (‘Council meeting’, Proserpine Guardian, 12 May 1950, p.1; ‘Court House Work’, Proserpine Guardian, 27 August 1954, p.8; information from Whitsunday Regional Council, 2 April 2019).
[30] In 2019, 16 of Brisbane’s 20 surviving reusable public air raid shelters (with walls removed) are included in the Queensland Heritage Register. As well as public shelters, rectangular commercial premises’ (private) concrete or brick shelters are known to survive, including at Redcliffe’s Ambassador Hotel (used as a drive through bottle shop); the Coronation Hotel, South Brisbane [QHR 600298]; Storey Bridge Hotel, Kangaroo Point; Broadway Hotel, Woolloongabba [QHR 600354]; the former brewery on Mort Street, Toowoomba; at the Thomas Dixon Boot factory, West End (brick) [QHR 601024]; Newtown Hotel, ANZAC Ave Toowoomba (type unknown); and at the rear of the Westpac Bank on the corner of Margaret and Ruthven Streets, Toowoomba (brick). Howard Smith Wharves [QHR 601781] has three shelters of the ‘T’ shaped type, without toilets; and two ‘pipe’ style concrete shelters, all for wharf workers. Toowoomba railway station also has a ‘T’ shaped concrete shelter, with toilets, for railway employees. The above list of known surviving commercial/industrial private shelters is not exhaustive.

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