February 2 - WWI and WWII a coast at risk!

Underground bunkers, sea planes anchored in Betka river, German mines! 

I’m not a war buff by any stretch of the imagination, but - the mind boggles! Yesterday we visited a WWII Bunker. But rewind a century or so to 1917, the Germain Raider Wolf laid mines in southern waters ultimately destroying 14 allied ships. Thirty of those mines were secretly laid near Gabo Island on the night of 3 July.

And the underground bunker? It was the headquarters of the RAAF Coastal Intelligence for the region for radio surveillance during WWII. It was strategically located to monitor and protect the rather isolated south-east coast. With a radar station on Gabo Island and a dedicated phone line (costing £40,000 to build) to Preston Town Hall - yes indeed! where an anti-aircraft operations room was set up, we southern Victorians were sort of protected - except for those poor 38 seamen whose lives were lost on the freighter ‘Iron Crown’ after it was torpedoed. 

So much ones learns on the road! It’s a bit like Salome’s dance of the seven veils. Layers of ignorance gradually being stripped away - in my case there’s a baffling, and most likely unknown, number of ‘veils’ needing removal. 

This was it built as an air raid shelter or fortification.