Stone buidings at West End, Townsville - near a site possibly used by the Military during WWII

STONE BUILDINGS AT WEST END, TOWNSVILLE
NEAR A SITE POSSIBLY
USED BY THE MILITARY DURING WWII

In late October 2001, while on a 9 day holiday in Townsville I decided to explore the slopes of Castle Hill in the West End area. I trudged all over the place and on my way back to the car, I caught a glimpse of a strange stone wall out of the corner of my eye. On closer examination it was quite a high stone wall with slotted window openings. The stones in the wall were all held together with cement. I then noticed some more stone structures and then even more. They were everywhere. Some large, some quite small. They were very difficult to see amongst the overgrown grass and small trees.

Whilst they appeared to be of military origin, it turns out they were the remains of a former old house at 75 Francis Street, West End and the round stone structures were old garden beds. The highest of the structures in the gully, had some names written in the concrete on the top of the wall. I was in a hurry and was not able to decipher what they said.

The owner of the house adjacent to these stone structures told me that he had found a number of wine bottles and some communications cable, most likely used by the military, and what looked like a stone "bomb shelter" (see above sketch) near the rear of their house when they were putting in their swimming pool. The wine bottles may suggest the presence of Officers. The communications cable was paper insulated and had about 56 copper cores in it. It was heading around the slope of hill rather than heading downhill.

Was this stone "bomb shelter" used during WWII? Or was it used during WW1 or maybe even before the turn of the century? The various stone structures are evident on 1938 aerial photography of the area. Or was it just another structure associated with the former old house which sat on a stone foundation and had a number of round stone garden beds.

Possible "bomb shelter" site behind the house and remains of stone
foundations from a former old house to the left of the possible "bomb shelter".

The 31st Battalion "moved from Denham St. to the house mentioned by Loftus Dun, in Church St, up against Castle Hill. The signallers had built a bunker into the Hill, with quite big logs - at least 18" in diameter. I doubt that a direct hit would have done much damage, because the logs on the roof were huge and covered with dirt. While we were in the HQ at Church St, at West End, the signallers operated there all the time". Could this be the connection with the stone buildings and the communications cable?

Bruce Williams told me on 27 June 2024 that these stone structures were all associated with a house that was at 75 Francis Street which was knocked down in the mid 1950s. The large wall with the "gun ports" near the top was a swimming pool that was designed to be filled with water from the adjacent creek during the rainy season. This still happens during the wet but it only fills part way up due to the amount of damage that has occurred to it over the years. It was intended to fill up to the "gun ports" which would then provide an outlet without the water level reaching the top of the wall. The inflow point was the "shallow end" while the "deep end" was where the curved staircase enters it.

Bruce Williams said that the low stone walls were mostly the remains of garden flower beds with one slightly taller structure that Bruce has not been able to work out the purpose of.

The following photos are of the stone structures associated
with a former old house at 75 Francis Street, West End.

Rod Burgess from Townsville told me that a person named McVeigh has his name written in some concrete at this location at West End. Rod advised that the name McVeigh also appears on some cement at the Pallarenda Battery.

I'd like to thank Bruce Williams, Peter Beesley, Russell Wylie, Barbra De Bono, Mark Allen, Rod Burgess and Kevin Parkes for their assistance with this home page.

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