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Hemmant United States Army Transmitting Station
US Army Signals Corps Radio Station
The Hemmant transmitting station and the Capalaba receiving station were built by and for the US Army in 1943. They were connected to General MacArthur’s headquarters in Brisbane City and they were powerful enough to provide him with direct communication with Washington DC. While US Army signallers manned the transmitters and receiver machines, Australian women, employed by the Americans, staffed the adjacent teleprinters that typed out the messages. The two stations closed in 1945 and reopened in 1946 as Commonwealth government telecommunication centres.
Place information
Location
Place type
Radar/signal station
History
After US General Douglas MacArthur relocated his headquarters from Melbourne to Brisbane in July 1942, he required a powerful radio transmitting station that could broadcast Allied messages to the civilians and guerrillas in the Japanese-held parts of the South West Pacific Area plus communicate directly with his superiors in Washington DC. He established his offices in the Australian Mutual Providential (AMP) insurance building at 229 Queen Street in Brisbane City with the basement converted into an army communications centre.
For support, US Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA) built a radio transmitting station at Hemmant and a radio receiving station at Cotton’s...
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