Signals, 5th Australian Division

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WW2 map showing locations of bunkers

The Signals, 5th Australian Division, Australian Army began as a Signals Office at a house at 12 Wills St. Townsville (now Skerman Chambers). The Signals office was established by Arch Day.

In December 1942, two classrooms of the Stuart State School in Stuart, Queensland on the outskirts of Townsville were used by the Army as the main Army Signals Communication Centre in North Queensland. Major Noel Vary was the signalmaster at the Signals Centre for the 6 months that it was located at the school.

A group of cryptographers were used to transcribe messages into code. Approximately 80,000 messages per week were handled by the Signals Centre at Stuart State School.

The Signals Centre's communications network linked up with:-

the Army's main command centres in Brisbane and Melbourne,
the Australian AIF units who were camped on the Atherton Tablelands,
New Guinea via radio links
Air Force Units in Townsville
Navy Units in Townsville

While the Signals Centre occupied the 2 classrooms at the school, classes continued in the single remaining classroom.

Shadow Exchange

Besides the Signals Centre itself there was another building which housed the "Shadow" Exchange.

Roseneath concrete bunker

This building was built in the school grounds in 1942 and was disguised to look like a normal house to improve its security.

It was fully surrounded by bomb blast protection consisting of a high wall constructed of two piles of logs stacked approximately two metres apart and filled with sand.

Location of bunker

The Signals Centre was then relocated to the concrete bunker built into the side of the hill on Charters Towers Road at Roseneath (intersection of the Mount Stuart entrance- Dicks Creek). The 5th Australian Division may have either used the current Townsville Pistol Club or this bunker as a HQ [1]

The Signal Centre contained telex, teleprinters, remote control radio, duplex teletype, hand-speed morse code channels and high-speed morse code via an overseas radio link.