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4th Base Supply Depot (BSD) Storehouse No.7
Underground concrete oil tanks
Prior to World War Two, Australia’s main naval base was at Sydney. Brisbane was designated a naval station but with no permanent warship allotment. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) had a small depot on the Brisbane River, at the Parliament House end of Alice Street, the City. This had a small wharf with all other berths along the Brisbane River given to commercial shipping. By April 1942, the Pacific War had changed Brisbane into a US submarine base and a busy port along the New Guinea convoy route. New berthing facilities were needed to accommodate the Allied warships arriving as convoy escorts or on other duties.
Place information
Location
Place type
Supply facility
History
This was a major construction project undertaken by the Allied Works Council (AWC). Contractors drawn from the Sydney Water Board undertook the construction. They implanted 10 Naval Berths along the Brisbane River supported by a two-way refuelling facility comprising six separate oil storage depots. The six depots were planned to have a total capacity of 85,000 tons of fuel oil.
The oil depots were built in three widely spaced groups for protection of Brisbane’s naval fuel stocks in case of air attack. Each group comprised two separate oil depots. Each oil depot was to consist of three steel-plated, reinforced concrete and...
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