HEDLEY PARK WAREHOUSES
LATER HENDRA WOOL STORES
NUDGEE ROAD, HENDRA, QLD
DURING WWII

Hedley Park Warehouses

A part of the Hedley Park Warehouses can be seen at the top left in 1944

By 26 December 1941, after the arrival of the Pensacola Convoy, storage arrangements for Ordnance equipment had been completed in the Hedley Park area, where Class II supplies (weapons and other basic equipment) were stored in a wool warehouse and ammunition in the yard of a local school.

On 19 February 1942, Company A, 72nd Quartermaster Battalion (LM) disembarked from a ship at Bretts Wharf and took up the job of warehousing, storing, issuing and distributing supplies. Up until then this work had been carried out by untrained civilians and military personnel. Tremendous quantities of many unnecessary items were aboard the original Pensacola Convoy which included supplies for civilian merchants in Manila. This cargo was unloaded, inventoried and warehoused at Hedley Park, where a number of wool stores had been leased from the Commonwealth Government by the United States authorities.

It would appear that the US Navy also used some of the warehouse at Hedley Park.

I received the following info on the Hedley Park Warehouses in October 2021 from someone who worked in one of the buildings:-

I worked at Hendra from August 1999 to March 2012. Firstly for a property company, Australia Asia and then Stockland when they purchased the estate.

When I first started there at least one of the sheds held wool bales which were accounted for by the Wool Corporation. Some bales were removed usually each week until there weren’t a great amount left. After possibly a year or two all the bales were transported away. But the sheds had been the main storage facility of the wool for many years. I think even in the 60’s but not too sure of actual dates.

I was told that this facility was built in 1942 for the American Army and each building had a floor area of 2503m². This area held the cargo of a Liberty ship which unloaded at the wharves at the end of Nudgee Road. (I presume it was Brett’s Wharf). The cargo was transported up Nudgee Road and unloaded into the shed. The shed was then closed and the goods flown out to their Pacific bases when needed. As Eagle Farm airport was just to the east it was once again close. I have an aerial photo of the area but at present cannot locate it. It is quite old. Am sure it shows the end of the runway.

Each building had large wooden support posts and the warehouse doors were silky oak and hoop pine of superior quality. The large windows up near the roof were all framed in silky oak. The large windows measured approx 1800 x 1000 and had 12 panes of glass. In 1998 a bad storm destroyed some of the buildings on the north side of Hedley Avenue and they were demolished and new warehouses built. The original buildings were clad in asbestos sheeting when I was there. Our office as in Bldg 46 which is at the dead end of Hedley Avenue near the East West Arterial Road and there was and probably still is a large lawn area with some trees which we overlooked. This was always referred to as the ‘Repco’ lawn as Repco had been a tenant in that building during the 60’s and 70’s but not sure of the actual dates (may have been longer).

The area that is now the Stockland estate was larger even when I was there as it had been cut to the north by the East West Arterial Road and to the north of the road was a hardstand area and I am sure from the old photo there were some buildings which may have been demolished for the road. When the road was again widened in the 2000’s the hardstand area was sold off. There were some buildings to the south of this now which were part of the original estate too but were rebuilt by the time I was working there. Stockland purchased the estate in 2000 from Australia Asia and has held it ever since.

This page first produced 21 October 2021