MACHINE GUN BUNKERS
ON THE TOWN COMMON
TOWNSVILLE, QLD

visits since 4 November 2001

One of the small Machine Gun Bunkers on the Towns Common in October 2001
Castle Hill can be seen to the left of this photograph

There were originally four small concrete bunkers on the Town Common behind the RAAF Garbutt airfield during WW2. They were apparently used as shelters and observation posts for ground crews servicing the nearby gunnery and bombing range. 

One of the targets in the area was a wooden replica of a Japanese landing barge. These targets were located on the salt pans to the west of the four bunkers. Both RAAF and USAAC used the area for Machine Gun and Bombing practice.

	The same Machine Gun Bunker with Many Peaks Range in the Background
	The Qld National Parks & Wildlife Service sign located on the road near the remaining 2 bunkers
	The other Machine Gun Bunker
	A different view of the second bunker
	A close-up of the reinforcing in the walls of one of the bunkers
	Can anyone tell me what this was used for. There are a number of them located on both bunkers.
	One of the Japanese bombs landed near one of these bunkers during one of the 3 bombing raids on Townsville during WW2.

Another theory is that these were actually 4 pump house for draining a military tunnel that ran between Kissing Point and Cape Pallarenda. The theory is that there were 4 spur "drain tunnels" leading off at approximately right angles to the main tunnel and heading for the four bunkers.

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 4 November 2001

This page last updated 10 August 2004