Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre is a heritage-listed former military building at 9 Lambert Road, Indooroopilly, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1942 to 1943 by Queensland Main Roads Commission. It is also known as Allied Translator and Interpreter Section headquarters, Northern Command Provost Company headquarters, and Witton Barracks. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 October 2016.
History Three brick and timber cell blocks (), and their related former exercise yard, located at 9 Lambert Street, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, are the last surviving purpose-built elements of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, which was the headquarters of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) from late 1942 to mid-1945. The facility was the only purpose-built World War II (WWII) interrogation centre for POWs in Australia. The later Q-Store and Office building (), and a Motorized Transport Cover () were purpose-built infrastructure for the Australian Army's Northern Command Provost (military police) unit that occupied the site from 1951 to .
Brisbane became an important supply base for the war in the Pacific after Japan entered World War II in December 1941. US General Douglas MacArthur, formally appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) theatre on 18 April 1942, moved his General Headquarters (GHQ) SWPA from Melbourne to Brisbane on 20 July 1942, to prepare for a counter-offensive against the Japanese. The Imperial Japanese Navy had lost a number of aircraft carriers, and therefore much of its offensive strength, in the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (June 1942); and during September 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army would be defeated, for the first time in the Pacific War, at the Battle of Milne Bay and on the Kokoda Track in Papua.Howard Pearce, "WWIINQ: A cultural heritage overview of significant places in the defence of north Queensland during World War II", EPA, Brisbane, January 2009, pp.16-19. As a result of these land battles, Japanese prisoners were sent back to Australia from September 1942. The first Japanese documents had been captured in an Australian commando raid on Salamaua, New Guinea, on 29 June 1942.Brisbane City Council Heritage Citation, "Witton Barracks".
The Australian Military Forces (AMF, or Army) had begun Japanese language training in Melbourne in 1940, and Australian Japanese linguists were later sent to the Australian Advanced Land Headquarters, Brisbane, established by General Thomas Blamey (Allied Land Forces Commander) at the University of Queensland at St Lucia in August 1942.James C McNaughton, 2007. Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II, Department of the Army, Washington DC, p.78 The large two storey timber residence Tighnabruaich, on of land on the bank of the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, was requisitioned by the AMF on 17 August 1942,National Security (General) Regulations submission and determination, 11 January 1950, in National Archives of Australia file J56, QL470: "Indooroopilly - ex-interrogation centre - Tignabruiach. Wilton House - Residence Northern Command" (1943-1958). Requests for repairs and additions to the two residences on the site (Tighnabruaich and Witton House) also occurred in August 1942Department of Interior correspondence in NAA file MP742/1, 259/2/1245, 'St Lucia - Long Pocket, Indooroopilly - Accommodation Services for AWAS [Australian Women's Army Service] TIS & Adv LHQ', (1943-1946)) and the Australians established the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre there in early September 1942.McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, p.78.
The site of the Interrogation Centre was once the estate of Henry Charles Stanley, Chief Engineer for Railways in Queensland, who built Tighnabruaich . Mr and Mrs HC Stanley were apparently living at Indooroopilly by early 1890.'Social doings', Telegraph (Brisbane) 13 January 1890, p.2Post Office Directory (Brisbane Alphabetical), 1890) but Stanley did not purchase the site of Tighnabruiach until June 1891,DNRM Certificate of Title 10299240 and is first recorded as living in "Tighnabruaich" in January 1893.'Quarterly electoral List' (Oxley), Brisbane Courier, 24 January 1893, p.7 Tighnabruaich was designed by Henry's brother, the former Colonial Architect, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley. Development at Indooroopilly was limited until the Brisbane to Ipswich railway line opened to the locality in 1875. Indooroopilly developed as an elite suburb in the late 19th century, and a number of large villas, including Tighnabruaich, were later erected on the banks of the Brisbane River. Stanley lived at Tighnabruaich until . In 1871 there was a population of 497 at Moggill, but only 286 at Indooroopilly.Allom Lovell and Associates Pty Ltd, "Tighnabruaich: a historical survey and management plan", for the Department of Housing and Construction Brisbane April 1985, p.8 A railway bridge was constructed over the Brisbane River from Indooroopilly to Chelmer in 1876. An 1860s timber residence, Witton House, was moved onto the southwest corner of the Tighnabruaich estate by a later owner, Herbert Brealey Hemming, around 1915–16. After Hemming died on 8 March 1942 the estate was administered by Queensland Trustees Limited.DNRM Certificate of title 11025137. The original site of Witton House (previously called Witton Manor) was upstream at what is Ambrose Treacy College in 2016. The McConnel family, of Cressbrook Station, bought Witton Manor in the early 1870s.
On 19 September 1942, the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), a joint US-Australian unit, was formed by MacArthur's Chief Intelligence Officer, Brigadier-General Charles A. Willoughby, and established its headquarters at the Interrogation Centre.McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, p.79. McNaughton states that the ATIS "replaced" the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, but the Tighnabruaich property was later purchased by the Commonwealth for the Interrogation Centre.Department of Interior communication 12 July 1944, and Memo to the Deputy Director-General of Allied Works, 2 May 1945, in NAA file J56, QL470: "Indooroopilly - ex-interrogation centre - Tignabruiach [sic]. Wilton [sic] House - Residence Northern Command" (1943-1958)). The ATIS was one of a number of intelligence organisations developed by General MacArthur's GHQ from April 1942 onwards, including the Central Bureau (code breaking), the Allied Geographical Section (terrain intelligence), Order of Battle Section (for information on enemy units), and the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB: propaganda, intelligence gathering, and commando raids or guerrilla warfare in Japanese-occupied territory). An AIB facility was established at the former site of Witton Manor, now the site of Ambrose Treacy CollegeNAA BP378/1, FOLDER I to L FOLIO 25, 'Indooroopilly - A.I.B. [plan number 1/I/65]').
The ATIS initially consisted of 14 Australian officers and three enlisted men, and nine US personnel. The latter included one Caucasian officer and eight Japanese American (Nisei) enlisted men who had completed a Japanese language course at the US Fourth Army Intelligence School in San Francisco on 1 May 1942; and who had arrived in Australia in June 1942.McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, pp.61, 79. The American-born Nisei, whose families were removed from the US West Coast in early 1942 due to fears about the loyalty of Japanese Americans, were to prove invaluable to the Allied War effort. "The Nisei learned to use their knowledge of Japanese culture and psychology to elicit information through indirect questioning. They discovered that compassionate treatment worked wonders. Their captives, expecting torture and death, were at first astonished, then grateful. Any recalcitrant prisoner needed only to hear that authorities would notify his family ... that he had been captured alive. The implied disgrace could usually convince him to co-operate".McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, p.76. The first Nisei combat units were formed in the US in early 1943, thanks to the earlier work of the Nisei translators in demonstrating their loyalty and effectiveness.McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, p.88
The ATIS was formed into four units, with the Nisei attached to GHQ; the other sections were Allied Naval Forces, Allied Land Forces, and Allied Air Forces, and all were accommodated at the Tighnabruaich property. The Tighnabruaich residence was used for senior officers' accommodation and offices, while Witton House became the Sergeants' mess. The Nisei enlisted men soon moved into tents at a property directly across the river (Neilson House on Rosebery Terrace, since demolished).McNaughton, Nisei Linguists, p.79NAA BP1/1, VOLUME 3, Minutes of Allied Works Council meeting No.148, 5 January 1943, 'Camp facilities -Rosebery Street, Chelmer'
The ATIS headquarters at Tighnabruaich became the primary interrogation centre for enemy POWs in Australia. Other POW sites in Australia were POW Camps for large numbers of prisoners, whereas the cell blocks at the Interrogation Centre were built as temporary holding cells for small numbers of POWs awaiting interrogation.
With a capacity to accommodate 15 prisoners, the three cell blocks, in a compound surrounded by barbed wire, were constructed in late 1942 to early 1943. Each of the blocks included five cells linked by an adjacent passageway running the length of the block, and two ancillary rooms in a section on the opposite side of the passageway. Based on a 1958 inventory of room contents, the larger ancillary room (with a hot water cylinder) was probably a guard room, and the smaller a bathroom.Inventory lists March 1955 (revised 20 November 1958), in NAA file BP241/1, INDOOROOPILLY, "Indooroopilly, Australian Military Forces Property Assets Register number 1/I/5" (1940-1969).
The construction of the cell blocks was kept a closely guarded secret. An Allied Works Council (AWC) meeting in early December 1942 merely noted a requisition for £2000 of alterations and additions to "three premises" at "ATIS Indooroopilly".NAA: BP1/1, VOLUME 3. AWC meeting No.131, 8 December 1942 "Alterations and additions ATIS Indooroopilly". The work was allocated to Mr Holt, Supervising Engineer of the Bridge Board, with the order lodged on the Main Roads Commission and a time of completion of six weeks. The project "Indooroopilly, GHQ, 3 special buildings" was also included in a list of requisitions to January 1943, with the handwritten annotation "Detailed Interrogation Centre".'Statement of requisitions raised and charged to GOCs imprest account F.A. 1/1014 as at 15 January 1943', in NAA file MP742/1, 259/2/1245, 'St Lucia - Long Pocket, Indooroopilly - Accommodation Services for AWAS [Australian Women's Army Service] TIS & Adv LHQ', (1943-1946) A Department of the Army minute paper from late January 1943 reported that "brick buildings of substantial design are being erected at Indooroopilly...for the Department of the Army on a site adjoining the railway station" with a hand written annotation noting that "this is the ATIS GHQ project for interrogation". A later minute paper stated that "the project referred to is an urgent vital operational one, comprising brick buildings erected to special designs produced by an overseas officer for the purpose of housing a GHQ Centre, and is of such a highly secret nature that only a very few senior intelligence officers were permitted to view the plans".Minute papers 19 and 30 January 1943, in NAA file MP742/1, 259/2/1245, 'St Lucia - Long Pocket, Indooroopilly - Accommodation Services for AWAS [Australian Women's Army Service] TIS & Adv LHQ', (1943-1946), cited by Brisbane City Council Heritage Citation, "Witton Barracks".