Anzac Park West

Yep, remember it well, as I grew up in MacGregor. Riding out to the old sewerage plant with some of the old crumbling buildings and stuff that used to be out there. I remember throwing rocks through the roof of one of the old underground tanks – I’m suprised now that no one was ever seriously hurt out there.

p1 – some interesting places on your google maps. Looks like you have had some good adventures!

Well, you’re not allowed to shoot each other with slug guns anymore…

slingshots are ok, though.

Bows and Arrows are about the only fun toys that are still legal aren’t they?

Kids still play that game, it is just more challenging for them now.

Might be that the suburbs are a little too close these days for them to play that kinda game.

back in the old days, when dunlop was paddocks, and macgregor was that suburb over the paddocks, you used to ride to the end of gininderra drive and continue down a dirt track, with jumps and puddles which was great for the mad bike riders.

You could skirt around the back of macgregor on dusty tracks and we would go to the treatment works to play fun games like (I still don’t believe we were so stupid) “if you fire an arrow straight up, where does it come down?” and “first one to run for cover is a chicken”. we always collected a few casings to show our parents, who could never follow us, (cars don’t fit on a dirt track) and would sufficiently freak them out.

of course, I remember when the motorbike track was in florey (another paddock) but it is now under houses.

the old treatment works in belco had a few sus casings around it…

These old treatment tanks?

Haven’t seen any out there, but then wasn’t looking for them.

p1 said :

Every so often while exploring abandoned buildings you find cartridge casings which are only available to government organisations, so they are used for training of some sort.

the old treatment works in belco had a few sus casings around it, I remember we used to collect them.

Every so often while exploring abandoned buildings you find cartridge casings which are only available to government organisations, so they are used for training of some sort.

Pandy said :

Some people work. Yes I did google, no use. Yes I heard stories from ex-mil guys over the years. Then a recent incident got me thinking was there more going on.

Not saying anything more, unless you are a MIB

if we were, you would have already known that, and probably wouldn’t be posting again….

seriously though, did anyone else see the glaring fault of putting all the afp resources into one building? Not good from a threat perspective, better to have multiple sites across the ACT – reduces the potential for knocking out the entire infrastructure of our law enforcement department.

PBO, infact the exercises are that common I now get Defence to pay for a weekend away.

Ummm, was the recent incident a counter terrorist training exercise (held there quite regularly)? These things are advertised and they do explain strange activities that regularly occur there.

Some people work. Yes I did google, no use. Yes I heard stories from ex-mil guys over the years. Then a recent incident got me thinking was there more going on.

Not saying anything more, unless you are a MIB

PBO said :

Pandy, what has been said here is all open source information that can be obtained by simply looking in a directory or even, god forbid, google. So why should we be expecting visits from fictional security agencies? And you still havent answered the question…..

pandy?

are you there?

maybe the MIB got him for asking questions in the first place….

Pandy, what has been said here is all open source information that can be obtained by simply looking in a directory or even, god forbid, google. So why should we be expecting visits from fictional security agencies? And you still havent answered the question…..

It had the Defence photography and video branch for quite a while in the basement

Defence EMU (Electronic Media Unit)was there, because I did work experience there in the mid nineties. Incidentally, apart from video, most of the media they worked with wasn’t electronic at that stage; but I imagine that the name had been created as a way of showing how up to date they were.

Some of the stuff they didn’t release because it was pretty nasty (remember Rwanda?) but nothing was particularly secret, cause they let me wander around…

I worked in APW in 1978 in the wing parallelling parkes way. That was with the Department of Productivity which in those days had disparate entities like the patents office, defence munitions etc.

The wing parallel to Anzac Parade had a secure floor rumoured to be ASIo (or Attorney General’s department if you read the floor indicators. – taking the lift up if you landed on their floor by mistake you entered into a small foyer with a glass viewing window/mirror, keypad and speaker – real secret squirrel stuff. the basement of that wing I believe either then or a bit later also held a weapons testing area for the police – weapons forensics stuff.

the basement of the parkes way wing was a dismal, dusty file area back then too!

Pandy said :

All,
Thanks for stating that secret stuff happended there.

Now, expect a visit from the MIB

you still haven’t answered the question, why did you want to know?

TERRORIST!

Anzac Park West just had various bits of Defence that didn’t fit at Russell I thought.
It had the Defence photography and video branch for quite a while in the basement. – For published media type photos that is, not anything more special.

All,
Thanks for stating that secret stuff happended there.

Now, expect a visit from the MIB

BMR was there in the 1970s peterh – are you talking back that far?

I’m fairly sure it’s been established that there’s no tunnel between the two buildings. My mates and I used to skate in there at night and we would have seen something. The more interesting question is: what will APW be now that the AFP are not moving in?

It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a short tunnel between APW and APE at some stage, if they were both occupied by Defence at the same time. Tunnels allow documents to be carried from one building to another without the hassle involved with taking them outside the security perimiter.

Wide Boy Jake said :

I worked in Anzac Park West in 1990 which was part of Defence at the time. The basement was part of Registry and housed old files. The lighting was piss poor and refiling was a major bugger. There was no underground tunnel between APW and Anzac Park East simply because APE housed the Bureau of Mineral Resources which was a different instrumentality altogether and had nothing to do with Defence.

BMR moved in to replace the prior tenant, who, i understand, was another unknown / unnamed department. as i mentioned in earlier comments, it was thought to be a tunnel between the two offices, allowing the prior tenant access to the APW building.

who knows? not in anything I have read about it since.

I worked in Anzac Park West in 1990 which was part of Defence at the time. The basement was part of Registry and housed old files. The lighting was piss poor and refiling was a major bugger. There was no underground tunnel between APW and Anzac Park East simply because APE housed the Bureau of Mineral Resources which was a different instrumentality altogether and had nothing to do with Defence.

Deano said :

Anzac Park West was a Defence building for many years prior to its refurbishment. Held such interesting groups as the Chief Information Officer and ACT region office of Defence Security Authority (the people who manage security clearances and issue passes.) Quite a few DMO projects had their project offices located there as well.

Discon was the best group for secret squirrel stuff though. undersea warfare were there for a while as well. (how far from the ocean can you get??)

Anzac Park West was a Defence building for many years prior to its refurbishment. Held such interesting groups as the Chief Information Officer and ACT region office of Defence Security Authority (the people who manage security clearances and issue passes.) Quite a few DMO projects had their project offices located there as well.

Good question Peterh, why would anyone with no good reason want to know about that place.
Anyway, most of it would be different because of gutting and refurbishing.

Can you answer our questions Pandy?

pandy,

why the interest? I know a bit about anzac park west, but it seems that you are a bit cagey re telling us why you want to know….

Pesty, the “tunnels” would of stuck out like dogs balls especially as they would have to of been laid prior to the filling of the lake!

Pesty: there is a tunnel under the lake! I don’t really think you can call it major though, it goes from the pumping bunker at Regatta Point out to the fountain. Apparently it’s full of rubbish/rubble so you can’t walk through it.

I always suspected the tunnel theories came from the pneumatic document tube system they installed between the printers in Kingston and parliament house.

Snazzy bit of design completely superseded by email.

Tunnels are a major engineering project, there is no way one of considerable length could be constructed without it becoming common knowledge IMO, particularly under the lake!.

ASIO was one of the users of the building among others but that was a d-notice time ago.

PBO said :

Dont tell em about the bunny tower aerial! Oh shit, now i have to kill myself.

so, i won’t mention the secret bunker in mt ainslie, the tunnels under the lake, etc, etc. Conspiracy theories, you gotta love em…

anzac park east was the Bureau of mineral resources, I had heard there was a connecting tunnel between the 2 buildings, and one to DOFA.

I meant to say ‘his stash’ but ‘hit stash’ works just as well.

Alexander Downer stored hit stash there.

Dont tell em about the bunny tower aerial! Oh shit, now i have to kill myself.

or I would have to shoot you. suffice to say that it has featured in the bugs bunny is an aerial conspiracy theory.

DISCON

CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT IT MEANS THOUGH….

“used” i should say. Nothing cryptic about that, it really was a file storage area.

It was use as a storage area for old files in the 90’s.