Top Secret military "bases" in Canberra

Yeah, but I have trouble with the Japan, after all they did in WWII! 🙂

There’s a sqn of them based in Japan too.

Tom Cruise seems like a nice American.

I’d like to go to the States one day; just to see an F-22 Raptor in action.

everyone who has posted here is now under NSA scrutiny and will never be allowed access to the USA evermore – from my perspective, who cares. The only good thing about America was it was the place they kept Americans until recently. The ones that have gotten out should be encouraged to return.

With cattleprods if necessary.

My understanding is that it is now used as a communications/navigation facility for Airservices Australia.

There are any number of these facilities spread around the countryside. All air traffic control, except for actual airport traffic, is managed from a couple of ATC centres in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Instead of having great big transceivers at each of these sites, and requiring planes to have equally big ones, the transmission is beamed by satellite to a number of small transceivers located along the flight paths. This way the radio traffic is kept local and the planes don’t need big radios. There is another one located in Orroral Valley behind the old tracking station

Off topic slightly but does anyone know what the “lights” are in the distance (very bright, viewable in the daylight no worries) as you come into Canberra on the Federal Highway

Bruce Stadium perhaps.

“On Google Earth or Google Maps (satellite) there is a comms facility 3km due north of the Cotter Dam wall. Has lots of antennas and dishes. Anyone know what it is and who runs it?

Or perhaps in keeping wiht the tone of this thread… Is it an as yet undiscovered secret alien facilities designed to send data about our planned city to Sirius or somewhere???”

A high frequency diplomatic radio communications
facility in Uriarra used to belong to the US Government but was transfered back to the Australian Gov back in 1988.

My understanding is that it is now used as a communications/navigation facility for Airservices Australia.

Oh I should say since I posted the extistence of this Area 51 on a US military blogg site, I guess everyone who has posted here is now under NSA scrutiny and will never be allowed access to the USA evermore.

“Block 51”? As I said earlier AREA 51!!!!!!

It really is linked to all Area 51’s around the world by secret man-tube vacuum shuttles.

Makes me wonder if it is a US embassy facility is the land part of US territory?

OK, I can’t be the only one wondering this.

How exactly are dogs balls something that notably stands out?

“Off topic slightly but does anyone know what the “lights” are in the distance (very bright, viewable in the daylight no worries) as you come into Canberra on the Federal Highway? Best place to view them is the ‘high point’ of the highway just after the Gungahlin exit. They aren’t on everyday, just sometimes. It’s like a bank of extremely bright spotlights. Not really sure of geographically where they are. Might be Russell or might be Glenoch Interchange maybe?”

Felix, I think you are referring to the spotlights that were located at Glenloch where they were parking all their heavy equipment at night, as these seemed to be left on quite a number of days. They were very bright, and stood out like dogs balls!

Take a camera and get a few happy snaps for us.

Someone out there has a sense of humour, the little plot of land the facility is on is Block 51.

Yep, I checked the serenity!

Stumpy looks like he has given an explanation of sorts. Making Americans feel important seems a plausible theory to me! I’m out that way a few times each year, next time I’m out there I’ll walk up and see if there’s any signs. If I get “terminated” we’ll know it’s very important! 😛

(I meant east, not west.. oops).

Just in regards to this facility out near the Cotter.

There are 2 roads to it from Brindabella Road. The greyish (gravel) road on the west side of the fence, and the brown (dirt) road on the east side of the fence (in the old pine plantation).

A guy who organisers rallies in ACT said the grey road was only made during the 90’s. Before it existed, the people accessing the site use to drive in via the plantation road.

When they needed to close the forest to conduct a rally, they had to notify the US Embassy the forest would be closed so they could get staff in for the duration of the event (and not have a shift change during the middle of the event).

Not sure what the facility does precisely, but it is a communication post for the US Embassy. Since they built their own road (the grey one) they don’t have to contact them anymore.

I guess you didn’t notice the collection of *very* tall towers in the paddock to the west then?

Oh yeah, I saw that earlier, but didn’t zoom in figuring that it was just some farm house. The dishes there are quite small so I wouldn’t have thought it was anything too serious???

Nah Holden, I was eventually able to find it, it’s here.

On Google Earth or Google Maps (satellite) there is a comms facility 3km due north of the Cotter Dam wall. Has lots of antennas and dishes. Anyone know what it is and who runs it?

Or perhaps in keeping wiht the tone of this thread… Is it an as yet undiscovered secret alien facilities designed to send data about our planned city to Sirius or somewhere???

Seeing that nobody else seems to be able to locate this “site” am I alone in thinking that “they” have read this thread and subsequently “they” have since wiped the site from the face of the earth!
Damn, they work quick.

People introducing themselves to this post are all beginning with words to the effect ‘this fantastic thread’.

I laugh at you.

Part of Stromlo observatory

Awesome post – thanks for a fantastic read!

Has anyone come across the strange, somewhat fortified cottage with a stack of antennas and sat dishes in the western valley of Stromlo? Three hundred metres or so further west, there’s a steel door that leads into the side of the hill…see http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=duffy+act&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.318758,148.998095&spn=0.003248,0.005917&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr&om=0
I suspect it’s not much more than some sort of weather or communications point, but in the days when the forest was still standing, and we wuz kids, it was a fantastic destination for bike adventures and tall tales!

Pandy, I would say the latter. I read once that a staggering 30% of US students (in a certain grade I don’t remember which) can’t find Canada on a map. CANADA!!!

And on their globe in the Edgar Hoover building in Washington, they can not even spell Canberra correctly.

I think it may have something to do with keeping the base secret.

Either that or Americans are dumb fcuks.

FBI office. Apparently the largest in the southern hemisphere (so I’m told).

I spoke to someone today who is in the know about Canberra and… well… certain other things. She said (after a long pause), she wouldn’t be surprised if there were something under the US Embassy. Apparently, theres much more to a lot of these embassies than one may think. That’s not to say its always sinister.

I thought they are the air nav aids on Mt Majura?

Off topic slightly but does anyone know what the “lights” are in the distance (very bright, viewable in the daylight no worries) as you come into Canberra on the Federal Highway? Best place to view them is the ‘high point’ of the highway just after the Gungahlin exit. They aren’t on everyday, just sometimes. It’s like a bank of extremely bright spotlights. Not really sure of geographically where they are. Might be Russell or might be Glenoch Interchange maybe?

SHITE!

My href try stuffed-up:

First line:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.282482,148.935986&spn=0.043125,0.031543&t=h&z=15&om=0

Second line:
Area 51

Third line:
“crop ring” territory

Oh facility:

Sorry but I can not tell you, except to state it is is in the District of Stromlo

See maps on the website. It is classed rural: ie territory.

“Speaking of bomb shelters my grandparents old home in Pialligo now Rodneys had one. Dug by my Grandfather.
Comment by wishuwell 18 January, 2008”

Quite a few of the houses there have them. One about half way up the road had a rough air raid shelter, a florist used to live there and she kept a lot of the flowers down there.

That’s a very old part of Canberra, and it’s funny how many people don’t realise it’s a residential area with lots of families living there.

nothing strange out at HoneySuckle Creek i’m afraid, just where the old fuel tanks were located for the diesel generators.

35°14’57.07″S

148°54’28.37″E

Using Google Earth the distance is 4.3km from the Cotter Dam wall. I was using the scale on Google maps originally, that’s where the error must have come from.

Anyone know?

s-s-a,
Oh that thing. back in the 80s we hid it very well, you won’t find it unless the sun shines on it in a particular way. I can’t say much, but I know what it is, was involved with it and I would keep questions about it to a minimum.

NickD,
watched a doco a few weeks ago on the Cold War on ABC. Indeed, many places under major US cities were built as “civil defence shelters” but they were at best a placebo. Very few were nuclear bomb proof and few would have time to enter them anyway. They were simply there to calm people. The obvious exceptions are the White House bunker (which contrary to popular belief does not contain the situation room) and the one for NORAD. The one for NORAD is perhaps the best bunker in the worlds, a whole mountain dug out with interconnected buildings inside on special springs and surrounded by concrete sealed with special blast doors. It was essentially a city on springs. It has now being closed down with operations moved to the nearby Air Force base. The mountain is on “warm stand by”.

NickD, Harman was a transmission station, I do not believe they were equipped for electronic eavesdropping, both in hardware, personnel or security. But have you seen the array of dished and aerials on top of DSD… that’s were they tap embassies.

Just coming in to say that I can’t find anything that looks like a comms facility 3km north of the Cotter Dam wall. Looks like a Forestry stockpile to me?

Incidently, aparantly HMAS Harman used(?) to host a signals intelligence station which monitored radio signals from the embassies.

Aparantly there was originally going to be a proper nuclear bunker under New Parliament House, but this was cancelled before it was built as the Cold War was winding down and it’s obviously not a good idea to put a secret nuclear bunker underneath a key target in any attack on Australia.

However, whatever secret stuff is under Canberra is pretty small beer compared to what’s under places like Washington DC (where even the subway stations were specially built as nuclear bomb shelters) and London. Checking out RAAF Base Tindal near Kathrine on Google Earth is also pretty interesting – the place is a huge facility and has lots of bunkers. The SAS Barracks in Swanbourne in Perth is also well worth a look.

p1’s comments remind me of the Bubbler and associated underground water treatment caverns up at Mt Stromlo (disused since around the time of Gulf War I).

I can’t see the site you’re referring to. 3km due north of the dam wall appears to be here, but that just looks like a lot of burnt out trees surrounded by vehicle tracks – probably worth a visit though, looks kind of spooky. If you mean this, it’s the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre.

Paste a link, or at least the lat/long.

and once more, hopefully with the tags right..

Some pics of stuff under Canberra,

” Secret Squirrels Drain”

” The Temple of doom in Secret Squirrels Drain “

” Under the NASA ex-tracking station at HoneySuckle Creek “

” Under the NASA ex-tracking station at HoneySuckle Creek “

The “Aquarium”, a blue chamber in a drain, with some “fish.”

Some pics of stuff under Canberra,

The , a blue chamber in a drain, with some

On Google Earth or Google Maps (satellite) there is a comms facility 3km due north of the Cotter Dam wall. Has lots of antennas and dishes. Anyone know what it is and who runs it?

Or perhaps in keeping wiht the tone of this thread… Is it an as yet undiscovered secret alien facilities designed to send data about our planned city to Sirius or somewhere???

Scumdorg, that makes perfect sense – bit of the old devil worshippin’, cut up a goat or two, some gloryhole action, all in the one trip.

And all nicely convenient to Parly House…….

“and its part of the uberplannen that involves us drinking water made from our own poo, even though it’s much more economically plausable to take it from one of our many lakes around town”

I’d rather drink water made from my own poo than drink water from LBG containing Queanbeyan’s poo . . .

To Dr Evil – Yeah, I remember those occult meetings as well. They regularly held them in the grassy areas at the old Yarramundi and Museum beats at around 11:30 at night in the late 1980s or early ’90s. I hated it because that was the time the best guys usually turned up. One night I turned up and they were sitting around a fire which had an upside down cross next to it. Each one had their heads bowed and had rocks in front of them. At the conclusion of the “ceremony” they all ran around screaming and waving planks of wood. I thought they were gay bashers. One of them came up to my car and told me to leave because the ceremony was private and if I stayed any longer I would have to go through initiation. Thankfully this satan cult didn’t last long and things got back to normal again eventually.

Yes, and from the look of some of the lard abundant donut eaters at Defence, they don’t do the walk regularly enough.

Maybe the capsule machine needs to break down for a while to improve their fitness.

Tunnel under lake (from Russell Offices (DSD) to New Parliament House, then on to the USA Embassy in Yarralumla).

Wouldn’t it be quite a hike to walk through a tunnel from Russell to the US Embassy via Parliament House? Maybe they have bicycles or even those futuristic capsules that you lie down in and get whisked through a large pipe.

The facility is not abandoned Thumper – and its part of the uberplannen that involves us drinking water made from our own poo, even though it’s much more economically plausable to take it from one of our many lakes around town that are unused in the drinking water cycle.

Waaay off topic I know, but I just remembered a story 60 Minutes or ACA did many years ago about the occult in Australia.
There was one scene where the reporter was standing in a big paddock where regular occult meetings were supposed to be held, complete with stone sacrificial alter. Over his shoulder in the distance you could see the mast of new parliament house.

Anyone else remember the story, or have any idea where it was?

The sewers are the network of pipes that waste flows through.
These pipes are sewerage.
Sewage is the waste that flows through the sewerage.

“Not alot of spelunking but plenty of good old buildings.”

Hey Thumper, any ideas what good old buildings are still around? I’m always keeping an eye out for places to use as filming locations, but it seems that a lot of the cool-looking old buildings have gone to redevelopment hell in the last few years.

Bad defence policy to have 1 gun but multiple access points. Any messerschmidt fighter pilot worth his salt would know that.

Since he was German I wouldn’t rule out beer either.

“There is a concrete-walled and roofed room under our house which he apparently called “das bunker”. It has several doors that connect it to outside and the under-floor space but none of them are overly substantial. I have no idea what he intended the room for – a serious fallout shelter or just a cellar for wine?”

Somewhere to retreat to and man the MG-42 to keep the Ruskie hordes at bay – just like the last days of the Reich in ’45?

or Peter Costello’s ‘what does this mean’? post it notes ripped off ministerials…

Considering this thread got started by linking us to a forum where people would talk about the insterstellar conflict of “Federation and Draconian/Orion”, its possibly being used to house the Lizard Epeople and their Queen, or the Interstellar Hive-Mind that can’t control free-thinkers, or something. 😐

The basement of the Treasury building housed the computer room in the 1970s and 1980s. One of my jobs was to collect printouts (long continuous sheets with sprocket holes on the sides) and split it up and send it throughout the building and to our regional offices around Australia. The Finance computer room was fairly open and you were buzzed in when you got to the counter and someone saw you through the glass. Each computer was in a separate partitioned area and another of my jobs was to change the tapes which were large 10″ reels. The Tax computer room around the corner was a top secret facility. There was a door along the corridor wit a camera hanging over it. You punched a code into a keypad next to the door and looked up at the camera. If they recognised you the door opened. I never saw inside this area at all. One of the more amusing aspects of the basement was the room which had a sign saying “Microcomputers” on the door. Nowadays our own “microcomputers” at home probably have more power than all these computers combined. Another strange area of the basement was the backup power room which was a huge area which contained hundreds of car batteries connected in parallel. If there was a blackout the backup power would supposedly kick in. Does anybody know what the basement of the Treasury building is used for now?

Those skinny windows usually date back to the days when computers were massive, and one computer sat in the big space between each skinny window.

I heard a theory regarding those skinny windows at deaking offices. The story goes that they were designed so that if there a was a nuclear blast blast would go through the windows and out the other side. Killing everyone inside, but the building would still remain relatively in tact to still be used by someone else.

The guy who built our house (early 70s) was to all accounts an interesting character. A former Messerchmidt pilot he was apparently quite fond of telling the neighbours in a strong German accent “Peter your lawn needs mowink”. There is a concrete-walled and roofed room under our house which he apparently called “das bunker”. It has several doors that connect it to outside and the under-floor space but none of them are overly substantial. I have no idea what he intended the room for – a serious fallout shelter or just a cellar for wine?

Ozhair, yeah you’re right, the room called the studio is at ground level, but the basement is the nerve centre of the broadcasting operations. It’s just easier to say “studio” than trying to describe what actually goes on down there!

A bit OT, but what about other cool hidden stuff that might not be secret bases or bomb shelters? Any good urban spelunking in Canberra?

There are any number of defence related research and development facilities scattered around Canberra – both private and government run. Compucat (electronic warefare), CEA Technologies (radar), EOS (laser weapons), Kaz (intelligence systems), DSTO are a few that spring to mind.

Speaking of bomb shelters my grandparents old home in Pialligo now Rodneys had one. Dug by my Grandfather.

The response to perceived risk of terrorism put an end to it, not actual terrorism.

AndyM, post photos, post photos! 🙂

Parliament house was designed to be a symbol of fairness and democracy – eg – all those underground levels, putting the politicians
‘under’ the populace.
Unfortunately the pollies are up top, and the cleaners, mailroom etc are down below.

They also put the grass over the top so the populace could walk over the top of their elected representatives.
Unfortunately terrorism put an end to walking over the building.

Damn, niftydog beat me to it with all the cool stuff down here in the PH basement. I’ve also been to most of the nooks and crannies he mentioned, and the “Cathedral” is indeed a spectacular space. Essentially it was created to make it easier to expand the facilities down here in the future, without having to do further excavation in an operational building.

For those who think there might be more further underground, well, all you really need to do is look through the thousands of pics taken of the construction site when the place was being built. It would have been pretty tricky to sneak a whole other level into the place.

And BTW, our TV studio is on the ground floor. The control rooms for the remote cameras in the chambers and committee rooms are in the basement, as well as tapes facilities, master control (where the “worm” was cut off 🙂 ) and live event control rooms.

And as for the “secret base” in Belconnen, I live right across the road from the place. It would have to be the most openly observable and least secure “secret base” in the world 😉

Oh – I have some photos somewhere if people are interested.
AndyM

G’day – I used to work in the old DFAT bunker under the carpark until we moved to the new building.
It used to house the computer room and comms facilities. Yes it was a Faraday cage – totally surrounded by galvinised steel sheeting. There was a graffiti wall where staff and visitors were encouraged to draw – wonder if it has survived. I never saw an CCTV hanging around the walls, but the walls did have different coloured fluros which changed according to time of day. There was a lot of different “artworks” which were supposed to distract you from the fact you were working underground. This from 70’s style psychology. The most interesting piece was the aboriginal artwork in the computer room, which was done by a guy from Arnhem land.

I believe we used the old pnuematic tube system to lay the optic fibre in to allow comms between the old and new building during the transition.

The old Admin building certainly was a rabbit warren underneath and the floors were oldly numbered with sub basements, basements, lower ground and ground floors. You were able to drive underneath andout again, but it was never a parking lot for C * cars, it was a delivery area. Something that would never be allowed today. Rumour has it that, indeed the lower floors and basement were designed to handle the collapse of the upper floors.
Most of the sub basements were a series of locked vaults for archival purposes.
I think the rumours of tunnels is the old pneumatic system that used to run around the triangle.

Maelinar – DFAT used to have offices in the EBB which would explain the signs.
AndyM

Interesting stuff niftydog. Thanks for that

There’s a guy with a bunch of barely mobile old Lada Nivas near where we live, I heard he used to house Russian spies.

Then there’s another old fella that lives nearby who has a great conspiracy theory; “I don’t like hospitals, you go in there but you never come out.”

Hmm.

Seriously, some really cool stuff in here. Thank you!

The Deakin Exchange rears its head again…

My dad, who worked for the PMG at the time, sat in with a mate in the Deaking basement to listen to the moon landing. Don’t recall him mentioning any spy facilities tho…

No secrets from what I saw, but Parliament House does have some interesting places underneath it! For one thing, there’s hundreds of people who work down there – it’s not just “service tunnels and janitorial quarters”! There’s offices, workshops, kitchens, printing rooms, HVAC plants galour, store rooms, server rooms, several security offices, a detention cell, and even a television studio!

At the far south-easterern end of the building, underneath the Senate side ministerial wing, there’s an ENORMOUS void – probably 3 to four stories high in parts. Nothing but a partially excavated dirt floor and very long columns supporting the “ground” floor above. It’s affectionately called “The Cathedral”. It’s not drawn on any of the architectural drawings that I saw, but the door into it was on the drawings, needless to say our curiosity got the better of us! The only sign of it from above is the very hollow sounding wooden floor outside the elevators on the “ground” floor.

The HVAC plants and ventilation tunnels are particularly impressive. There’s enormous intakes and exhausts at the front and back of the building – the ones at the front form the circular structure that the road into the car park follows. The tunnels they connect to are about 30 meters below the “ground” floor and are big enough to drive through in parts – if you could get your car down there! They run north to south and our theory was that you could in fact walk from end to end and pop out at the ministerial car park!

Another story goes that a wall was built a meter or two out of place, so they just rebuilt another wall next to it and left a void in between. In a small service kitchen at the front of the building there’s a half-height door in the wall, open it up and you are confronted with endless blackness!

Loads of stuff really… some we couldn’t investigate, like the mysterious stair-case-like structure that went downwards from the basement at a point where we all thought it was nothing but bedrock below!

The LF transmission station in Belconnen was exactly that – a LF transmission station.

(that’s Low Frequency for the uninitiated – we commonly use HF and VHF for television etc)

Anybody ever see the doors in EBB that say DFAT Staff only – now that’s a conspiracy theory.

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the ‘communications campus’ of CIT?? Sitting at the back of the Chinese embassy – around near the PNG embassy etc.

Also another dodgy ‘communications building’ in Mitchell, which can be accessed from either Lysaght or Brookes street (next to ACT Brakes).

Cyclone fencing and barbed wire, barred windows, aerials galore, and never a car to be seen in there.

I would lie about such things!
They stole our sunlight! Why would someone deprived of natural light lie about such things!?

As someone who worked in said Deakin office, There is nothing secret about it.
Defence rent it form Telstra, the windows (or there lack of) are bomb proof apparently.

Telstra have the little building in front… the building with the Telstra logo on it.

The underground comms centre at DFAT Admin was occupied in 1978. It was high tech at the time, and had a large graffitti wall, decorated (from memory) by ANU students.

There were also CCTV’s hanging down so staff could see the weather outside.

“On the subject of tunnels, I believe there were tubes, such as shops use to spirit cash away from checkouts, that carried Hansard transcripts from Old Parliament House to East Block, and then maybe the Government Printing Office on Wentworth Avenue.”

Interesting thread!

Yes, this one is correct. I worked at parliament house in the early 90’s and heard this from an old hand who’d worked there since the 1960s. I was told underground pneumatic tubes linked parliament house with the AG printing office. This allowed them to rapdily send Hansard transcripts to make a late night printing run in time for morning delivery. Sometimes the tubes would block up and the capsules would not arrive and they’d need to hunt for them. Sometimes the capsules would arrive covered in dirt and mud. I’m not sure when they operated until but I think it was the 70s. They’re long since obsolete now due to modern networking technology.

New parliament house has an amazing basement underneath. It’s like an underground city buzzing with activity. One thing that amazed me was a telelift system used to transport mail internally around the building. Documents could be placed into a box, the destination programmed in then sent off. The box would drive itself to another station along a network of tracks. In the basement the tracks could be seen going throughout the building with boxes going all over the place. Very cool.

“On the subject of tunnels, I believe there were tubes, such as shops use to spirit cash away from checkouts, that carried Hansard transcripts from Old Parliament House to East Block, and then maybe the Government Printing Office on Wentworth Avenue.”

Yes, the vacume tube systems were very common in government buildings. Examples can be found at the Librarian Desks in the NLA Main Reading Room and the lower level exhibition gallery on Old Parliament House. And Yes, I think some buildings were linked using the vacuum system, though the one I know of is Defence and Old Parliament.

Somehow I don’t think they sent Hansard through 3inch pipes to the Government Print Works where my great grandad works decades ago, bit too big and really didn’t need to be printed in a hurry in the days of offset printing.

You know why Mal Colsten was kicked out of Parliament, because in the even of Nuclear War, he would have taken up a valuable elevator trip.

But in reality, I don’t know if there are any bunkers under Parliament. Just a whole lot of rubbish bins, heating and cooling machinery and a little job the Rudd has created to keep Garret busy… that’s right… Garret is going to dig his way to China with a spade. Yeah I know, lame joke.

QUOTE:
“A massive multi-level underground facility under Parliament House.”
True, and was on television. There is extensive infrastructure under Parliament House, mainly service tunnels and janitorial quarters.”

So in event of nuke war – we will be survived by politicians and janitors – the future of Australia is indeed secure 😉

Alfred Deakin High was stifled in connecting to “Andrew Barr’s ACT Education Uber-Net” because Defence wasn’t happy to play the “share” game with it’s hub (if that is the correct term – I’m no geek/techie). They gotta build anothery instead.

Anon “friend” use to work in the Admin Building when it housed Foreign Affairs, and had been in the underground levels (was it 4 or 7?). Apparently the bullet-proof Comcars used to be housed there too (ie C*1). Definately had a tunnel (more like large corridor) system under carpark. They painted murals on the walls so people working there had a “view” of the outside 😉 even though they were well underground!

Ohhhh… of course, the Chinese Embassy has a tunnel to China too – they created it by building a small nuclear reactor and “encouraging” it to meltdown…

@ fhakk : apparently *they* say the former aerial farm at (now-called) Lawson was a nuke target also – having capabilities to communicate with subs worldwide…

Reveal their secrets. Protect ours.

There’s a lot more to that building than meets the eye.

More info on:

Old DFAT Communications Centre

East Block which mentions the underground pneumatic tubes.

West Block which features a WWII bomb shelter.

At one stage the entire Commonwealth public service fitted into East and West Blocks, along with Canberra’s GPO and telephone exchange. One of the buildings, East I think, housed ASIO originally.

Administration Building which at one time housed ASIS in a secret top floor.

The refurbished John Gorton Building(that opened in 98 from memory) did not initially include the comms centre. It has since been refurbished and last time I was there had the Australian Greenhouse Office (which caused a few jokes about underground Govt policies!!). Great area, has the original foyer which looks like it comes from a 60’s disco! There is another level of basement under that (only under the main building), but the main excitement there relates to A/C (and a Gym now I believe), I ddn’t see any evidence of a tunnel in several years there. But I’d never rule out what a couple of bricks and a can of paint can hide……

The mention of Fairbairn has jogged my memory (Deprogramming is never 100%). Out the back of the base is a building designed to look like an old farm shed with a rusty tin roof, fake timber cladding and a water tank. It was actually the RAAF’s highly sensitive imagery intelligence processing centre. The RAAF have since relocated and ‘The Barn’ is used as an overflow office for Defence staff.

Also in the paddocks around Fairbairn are numerous large underground aviation fuel storage facilities that were constructed in case of Japanese invasion during WWII.

There are also Wartime Bomb Dump Buildings located in Pialligo.

The Australian Heritage Register also has quite a bit of info on the Belconnen Naval Radio Station

The “Admin Building” was for many years where the Dept of Foreign Affairs was headquartered. The building has a bunker under the carpark that is a Faraday cage. It was used for secure comms. The building has an interesting construction history, and has been occupied by several tenants since opening in the mid 1950’s or thereabouts. A $60m refit some years back saw the name change to the John Gorton Building.

On the subject of tunnels, I believe there were tubes, such as shops use to spirit cash away from checkouts, that carried Hansard transcripts from Old Parliament House to East Block, and then maybe the Government Printing Office on Wentworth Avenue.

And the conference rooms at Telstra Tower have a great view.

Deakin Offices is not the NSA, it’s apparently where Defencenet’s firewall is run. Teacher at Alfred Deakin High School across the road said it was one of only two places in Australia where the Ruskies would nuke (the other being pine gap)
It’s also conveniently located next to a Telstra exchange.

The “old Administration Building” is now the John Gorton Building south of the High Court/Gallery precinct and houses Environment Australia (entrance on W side) and Dept of Finance (entrance on N side).

When Barry Jones became a minister he was determined to get to the bottom of the Deakin Telephone Exchange story, so he went there and walked around it, going wherever he wanted till he was satisfied there was nothing beyond the public account. It takes a lot to satisfy Barry and I’ll trust him on this one. He said that the building was commissioned and designed JUST before a huge advance in telephone technology (was it automatic exchanges? was it micro-chipping in telephone exchanges?) Anyway, by the time it was finished, Telstra (or whatever it was known as then) found they could fit in a few rooms what they thought they’d require the whole building for. To some extent it’s a white elephant and is a living example of “if you have your choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up – go for the stuff-up”.

Reveal their secrets. Protect ours.

I’m surprised no ones has said anything about Fairbairn. It was a very secure RAAF installation for a long time. Yet no rumors have cropped up yet.
I would have thought someone would have at least let slip that Fairbairn is where RAAF kept the strategic nuclear stockpile the US gave us to keep the Reds back in the 70s.

PS – fascinating thread hingo/all who replied thus far.

Which is the ‘old Administration building’?

Yes, tunnels joining OPH and East & West Blocks.

Yes, old DFAT Comms under the car park at Admin.

No secret bunkers under current DFAT – but see if you can spot the opening wall in Brisbane Ave.

I sincerely hope Telstra Tower is being used to spy on the Chinese. Surely our intelligence agencies are spending at least some of all that money on monitoring our strategic rivals rather than using it all to kidnap Australian Muslims.

I’m Elvis.

The old Administration Building has a secret tunnel. In the event of a nuclear blast the building was designed so that it would collapse in on itself and provide extra protection to everyone who had hopefully sheltered in the sub basement. Once the all clear was given everyone would be able to leave by the tunnel that came out just past the high court. Unfortunately they have since built the lake and the entrance is under water.

The car park in front of the Administration Building sits on top of what was once the underground communications centre for DFAT.

There are numerous tunnels between building at Russell. The reason for them isn’t anything sinister. They are there so that staff can carry classified documents between buildings without leaving the security area.

One of the lower levels of Telstra tower was surplus to requirements and has been turned into a conference facility. Its meeting rooms have the best views in town!

As a person with ties to Defence in the 70s and 80s, I feel I can comment on these:

“Naval communications station in Belconnen is probably the most famous. Rumours of an underground base have been surfaced all over the place.”
False. It was a communications facility but security, location and budget would make it an unwise location.

“An 1973 interview with a former NSA agent living in Australia “confirms” that there was a large base operating under the US Embassy guarded by US Marines. Apparently employed up to 100 people.”
Can’t say much about this one, only that if they wanted to they could as the land is technically American. However, Why? This is Australia, not Berlin during the Cold War.

“Foreign Affairs (Underground Bunkers, Forrest)”
True for the old building and likely the new ones too. It is well known the old Foreign Affairs Building (now home to Dept. Admin…) had bunkers, which now house Environment Australia. The new building is much more advanced with eavesdropping proof windows and a full time communications room. The lack of underground parking would suggest other stuff may be beneath like in the old building.

“A massive multi-level underground facility under Parliament House.”
True, and was on television. There is extensive infrastructure under Parliament House, mainly service tunnels and janitorial quarters. Could be more extensive than reported in the media but they didn’t dig to far into the hill.

Tunnels under Canberra
There is one under Blamey Square of course. Very useful in the rain and an important security feature of the Defence campus. Rumour has it that there was.is a tunnel from Old Parliament House to the old ASIO HQ, what is now the National Archives though unlikely. Any other tunnels would be quite unlikely. If they do exist, they weren’t in service in the 70s and 80s.

Actually, the notion of an NSA presence in that Deakin Telstra building is not so far fetched, though unlikely in this security conscious age. Don’t forget that a whole floor of it was dedicated to NASA communications for the Apollo missions, with telecommunications links to Honeysuckle being routed threw there. Heaps of opportunities to add some extra features.

As Sammy pointed out above the building at Deakin is a Defence facility. But Telstra/KAZ also have a datacenter in there that houses various government agencies.

There is supposedly a secret tunnel leading from Old Parliament House to an underground spy facility (now disused). There was a lot of activity building it in the late 1970s when I walked from Treasury to the post office at OPH to send my Letters to the Editor in those pre-email days. I know for a fact that there is a tunnel running under Sir Thomas Blamey Square connecting buildings at Russell. When the first Gulf War was on (1991) we were told to use it more as it was “a security risk” to walk outside the buildings showing our security passes.

This stuff is great fun. For a cute fictional take on this topic, try reading ‘Underground’ by Andrew McGahan. I won’t say any more as it would give the plot away.

I’m not going to comment if I can’t do so anonymously 🙂

The building next-door to Deakin exchange is a Defence facility, so that is probably the reference.