Heritage Information Please contact us for more information about this place: [email protected] -OR- phone 07 3403 8888 Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (former) (Witton Barracks) - 650030 Key details Also known as Indooroopilly Barracks Addresses At 9 Lambert Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland 4068 Type of place Defence site Period World War II 1939-1945 Lot plan L13_SP108539 Date of Citation — July 2010 Page 1 Key dates Local Heritage Place Since — 30 November 2012 Date of Citation — July 2010 Construction Walls: Masonry People/associations Department of the Army (Architect) Criterion for listing (A) Historical; (B) Rarity; (D) Representative; (G) Social; (G) Social Requisitioned in 1942, the site became the Australian headquarters of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS). Japanese and German POWs were brought here for interrogation prior to imprisonment in the southern states. The military purchased the site in 1945. In 1951 it became the Northern Command Provost Company’s barracks. It changed its name from Indooroopilly Barracks to Witton Barracks during the 1980s. History The Commonwealth requisitioned the site from the Queensland Government’s Public Trustees Limited on October 1942. The Public Trustee was administering this property as part of the estate of H.B. Hemming who died on 8 March 1942. The property had, previously been put up for auction on 15 July but was withdrawn from sale, with a new land evaluation conducted by Blocksidge & Ferguson in August. The site included two residences ‘Tighnabruaich’ and ‘Witton House’ that overlooked the Brisbane River. ‘Tighnabruaich’ was built in 1892. The earlier (1860s) ‘Witton House’ was moved onto the property from elsewhere in Indooroopilly in 1915. A joint Australian and American intelligence organisation, the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), established its headquarters on the site. In June 1942, there was a re-organisation of the various national intelligence services (Australian, American, Dutch) based in Australia. The Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was formed to oversee all intelligence activities and the ATIS was probably created around the same time. Its role was to interrogate enemy prisoners of war (POWs) and interpret any captured documents. The first such documents were captured in the Australian raid on Salamua in Papua on 29 June 1942. The Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) theatre, US General Douglas MacArthur, transferred his headquarters from Melbourne to Brisbane on 23 July 1942. The first group of Japanese (8) were captured at Normanby Island (near Milne Bay) on 23 September 1942. By October, Japanese POWs began to trickle in from the Kokoda Campaign. It was at this time that ATIS established its headquarters at Indooroopilly. ATIS was a joint Australian and US unit. Japanese-Americans known as Nisei and Australians who spoke Japanese staffed ATIS. As Japan had been Australia’s ally in the First World War, some Australians had maintained close contacts with Japan during the Interwar period. Interrogation of captured Indonesians or the translation of documents written in the Malay languages of the Indies was undertaken separately by the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS). The initial 1942 plans for the layout of the ATIS Camp incorporated the existing ‘Witton House’ as the Sergeant’s Mess while the larger ‘Tighnabruaich’ was allotted to the officers for their mess and sleeping quarters. The other Date of Citation — July 2010 Page 2 ranks slept in tents until barracks and an ablutions block were constructed. The Orderly Room/Office was built close to the Camp’s only entrance off Clarence Road. A documents translation building was placed near ‘Tighnabruaich’. The most important addition was the Prisoners of War (POW) Compound (or Cage) located near ‘Witton House’ and the Interrogation Building adjacent to ‘Tighnabruaich’. Construction was undertaken under the direction of the Allied Works Council (AWC). Within the POW Prisoners’ Compound that was surrounded by barbed wire, three small brick cell blocks were built that could accommodate about 15 prisoners. This was the only military interrogation centre built in Australia during World War II. Other POW sites in Australia were POW Camps containing large barracks and mess buildings and ablutions blocks that could accommodate large numbers of POWs for long period of time. The cell blocks at Indooroopilly were built as temporary holding cells for small numbers of POWs awaiting interrogation. Research has revealed that the cells were purpose built for holding small numbers of enemy POWs undergoing special interrogation by trained members of the ATIS. ‘Witton Barracks’ was the World War II HQ of the ATIS, with the Indooroopilly site requisition soon after General MacArthur authorised the formation of ATIS. All important interrogations of German and Japanese POWs were conducted on this site and the 3 cells remain an obvious physical reminder of the site’s wartime role. A small, dirt exercise yard was located within the barbed wire enclosure. There was only one Entry Point into the Prisoners’ Compound. POWs were marched through one barbed wire gate into a small holding pen. They remained inside this pen until one gate was closed and locked. Then the other gate was opened to allow them to either exit or enter the Prisoners’ Compound. The POWs were guarded by troops drawn from the Australian 1st Garrison Battalion. The Japanese would be shipped from Port Moresby to Brisbane then sent under guard by train or truck to the temporary Gaythorne POW Camp located near the extensive Enoggera Army Barracks complex. Individual POWs were taken by vehicle and under armed guard to the ATIS Camp and placed in one of the holding cells contained within the three cell blocks prior to interrogation. Interrogation sessions lasted a few days. Once the interrogation was completed, POWs were returned to Gaythorne prior to being placed on a train and sent for permanent incarceration at the Japanese POW Camps at Cowra and Hay, located in central, western New South Wales and, after the Cowra Breakout to Murchison in central Victoria. While the ATIS Camp was close to suburban housing, it was surrounded on two sides by Brisbane River and the Ipswich railway line and so was considered escape-proof. Still, the presence of Japanese POWs so near to Brisbane homes was kept a secret from the civilian population. The ATIS headquarters at Indooroopilly remained the principal Allied interrogation centre for POWs within Australia during the war. The activities conducted on the site remained Top Secret. To thwart espionage, no building plans of the three interrogation cell blocks were made available. Specifically, the Prisoners’ Compound was drawn with no structures shown within but with this explanatory caption: PRISONERS’ COMPOUND Plans of buildings within compound are secret and unobtainable Buildings are partly of Brick1 1 By the time of the Cowra Breakout on 4 August 1944, there were 2,223 Japanese POWs in Australia.1 2 Many of these POWs would have been interrogated at the ATIS Camp. German POWs were also sent to Indooroopilly. HMAS Adelaide and HMNS Jacob van Heemskerk sank the blockade-runner Ramses in the Indian Ocean on 28 November 1942. HMNS Zwaardvisch sank the submarine U-168 in the Indian Ocean on 6 October 1944. The ships’ officers and telegraphists were despatched to the ATIS Camp for rigorous interrogation. During World War II, the personnel who worked in the document translation building undertook important work. Date of Citation — July 2010 Page 3 Two significant translations were of a captured Japanese Officer List and of the captured codebooks belonging to the Japanese 20th Division. The translation of the Japanese Officer List provided the Allies with a proper understanding of the Japanese Army’s command structure, such that: Australian Order of Battle analysts, working on translations of this and other documents became the acknowledged international experts on the order of battle of the Japanese Army.1 3 In 1943, the 20th Divisions codes were captured in New Guinea and sent to Indooroopilly for translation: This action was described as the 'seminal moment' in the history of the Allied signals intelligence organisation in the South West Pacific Area, known as Central Bureau.1 4 As the number of Japanese POWs and the volume of captured documents increased, the facilities at the ATIS Camp expanded. Such additions were usually small, temporary structures such as army huts, though by April 1944, the Other Ranks (ORs) had obtained their own Mess and adjacent Kitchen buildings. The temporary nature of most of the structures placed around ‘Tignabruaich’ reflect not only World War II construction designs and methods but also the uncertainty surrounding the Commonwealth’s intentions for the site after the war had ended. The Commonwealth had requisitioned thousands of sites to meet wartime contingency needs but most would no longer be require once peace was declared. The future of ‘Tignabruaich’, ‘Witton House’ and their surrounding grounds were finally revealed on 18 April 1945, when the Commonwealth gazetted the acquisition of the property. The Commonwealth formally purchased the property for ?8,909 on 13 June. In July, ATIS left and the site became the barracks for No.2 Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). This unit had been based close-by, as it had transferred from the requisitioned St Peter’s Lutheran College on Indooroopilly Road. After the war, the site remained an AWAS barracks (but for No.7 AWAS) until July 1946. It was used as a personnel depot until 1949 when ‘Tighnabruaich’ was converted into two flats for army officers. As a result of how close the Japanese threat to Australia had been, the Commonwealth Government decided to establish a permanent, standing army. The Australian Regular Army (ARA) was created in 1947. Initially, the Commonwealth concentrated on adding new training structures to the existing, larger Army barracks that were allotted to the ARA.