RAAF Operations Building Site (former)

The Townsville State Emergency Services building at Green Street, West End, was built in 1942, as the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Operations building. Drawings for this building were prepared by engineers in the Department of the Interior in April 1942. The secrecy inherent in the drawings; simply labelled RAAF Project No 8, reflected the serious threat to Townsville during WWII. All site preparation drawings were stamped ‘SECRET’. This building was completed by June 1942; Townsville being on invasion alert from 1 May. During the Pacific Campaign, Townsville was one of the few air bases from which fighter aircraft engaged enemy aircraft. Townsville was attacked three times during late July 1942. The building was draped with camouflage nets painted in a manner that, from the air, would have looked like any other local farm house. After the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, the RAAF base at Townsville diminished in importance as war time operations moved north. The building remained air force property until the late 1960s, when the Civil Defence Organisation later renamed the State Emergency Services, occupied the building.