Sarina Air Raid Shelter is a heritage-listed former air raid shelter at Broad Street, Sarina, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1942. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 May 2019.
The Sarina Air Raid Shelter stands in the median strip of Broad Street (Bruce Highway) in Sarina, about south of Mackay. It is the surviving one of two public reinforced concrete air raid shelters constructed in the street in early 1942. At this time Australia was at risk of air attack due to Japan's entry into World War II (WWII). Built by the Sarina Shire Council as a half-size version of a standard Department of Public Works (DPW) concrete air raid shelter, the Sarina shelter was adapted for other uses after WWII. It is one of the most intact of its type (T-shaped with toilet closets).
History Sarina, located on the banks of Plane Creek, is part of the traditional land of the Yuwibara people.DATSIP website, https://culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home (accessed 19 February 2019) The Plane Creek pastoral property, established in the 1860s, was opened for selection in 1880, which facilitated the local sugar cane-growing industry. The town, initially known as Plane Creek, grew after the opening of the Plane Creek Central Sugar Mill in 1896, and was renamed Sarina by 1907. At this time Sarina possessed three hotels, a police station and Plane Creek Provisional School. The Sarina Shire was formed in 1912, breaking away from the Pioneer Shire. The railway line reached Sarina from Mackay in 1913, and opened to St Lawrence in 1921, where it became an extension of the North Coast railway line from Rockhampton. In 1924, 60 shade trees were planted along the median strip of Broad Street, a wide thoroughfare and former stock route, which is the main business street of Sarina. In 1927 a "power alcohol" distillery opened next to the sugar mill, to produce ethanol from waste molasses. By 1933 Sarina had a population of 1747, up from 218 in 1901."Mackay", Week, 24 January 1880, p.15 (Plane Creek Station)"Sarina", Daily Mercury, 7 April 1924, p.9 (shade trees)"Power alcohol, plant at Plane Creek", Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 24 December 1925, p.10PC Phillips, Sarina Shire in Retrospect, Sarina, Sarina Bi-Centennial Committee, 1988 The Plane Creek Power Alcohol Company was formed in 1926, and in 1927 was renamed the Australian National Power Alcohol Company. The distillery in Sarina was the first in Queensland, after the Commonwealth's Acetate of Lime Factory at Colmslie in Brisbane produced power alcohol from molasses from 1924 1926. Section 6 of Queensland's Motor Spirit Vendor's Act 1933 compelled petrol companies in Queensland to add ethanol to their petrol. The Sarina ethanol plant is still operating.
With the declaration of WWII in September 1939, the Queensland Premier's Department, as the agency responsible for co-ordinating civil defence works in the state, began implementing home security policies. Air Raid Protection Committees, usually consisting of the local mayor, inspector of police and government medical officer, formed in centres along the Queensland coast. As the threat of war with Japan increased, construction of public air raid shelters was planned in main centres considered vulnerable to air attack. These home security policies were outlined in the Commonwealth War Book, which was prepared before the outbreak of war and outlined measures to be taken by authorities in wartime."Why we have a War Book", Sunday Mail, 23 July 1939, p.6
On 8 December 1941, the United States of America entered the war, following the previous day's bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. Simultaneously Japanese forces launched assaults on Thailand, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, two capital ships of the Royal Navy (HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse) were sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya. The sudden fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 and the rapid Japanese advance through the islands of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) raised fears of air attacks on Australia. The first Japanese air raid on Darwin occurred on 19 February, carried out by aircraft launched from four of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor, plus land-based aircraft flying from the NEI. During early 1942 Japanese air raids on other targets in Australia seemed likely, and a Japanese invasion of Australia was also feared."Babinda Air Raid Shelter", QHR 602743 Japan briefly considered invading Australia (an idea promoted by the Imperial Japanese Navy, but rejected by the Japanese Army due to a lack of resources) before shelving that option in March 1942, in favour of isolating Australia from the United States by capturing Port Moresby, and later Fiji, New Caledonia and the Samoan Islands.G Brown and D Anderson, "Invasion 1942? Australia and the Japanese threat", Background Paper Number 6 1992, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 29 April 1992
As a result, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in late January 1942. Although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. A policy of voluntary evacuation of women and children from Queensland coastal areas was also implemented by the Queensland Government on 27 January 1942 with the voluntary evacuation zone was extended on 29 January 1942. The Australian Government opposed the mass evacuation of civilians. About 10,000 civilians moved during the voluntary evacuation, including 5,000 from Townsville."Coastal evacuation", Townsville Daily Bulletin, 28 January 1942, p.4"Evacuation plans in Rockhampton", Morning Bulletin, 28 January 1942, p.4"All coastal schools shut until change seen in war", Courier Mail, 28 January 1942, p.3"Voluntary evacuation extended to south Queensland", Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 30 January 1942, p.5"Schools reopen some await shelter survey", Courier Mail, 2 March 1942, p.3D McIntyre, Townsville at war 1942, life in a garrison city. Townsville, Townsville City Council, 1992
Another result of the fear of air attack was the construction of air raid shelters. In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area (235 were eventually constructed). Order No.1 also required the owners of any building in the coastal areas, where over 30 people would normally be present at any one time, to build shelters within, or adjacent to, the building. Businesses such as hotels constructed shelters for their patrons. Queensland Railways (QR) also instituted a shelter-building program at its railway stations. The Queensland Premier acted with powers conferred by Regulation 35a, an amendment to the National Security (General) Regulations of the National Security Act 1939–1940. Regulation 35a, notified in the Commonwealth Government Gazette on 11 December 1941 (as Statutory Rules 1941 No.287), authorised each State Premier to direct "blackouts" and to "make such provision as he deems necessary to protect the persons and property of the civil population". In early February 1942 Queensland Railways claimed that local authorities should build public shelters near railway stations, rather than Queensland Railways having to build them on railway premises.Queensland Government Gazette, 23 December 1941 At a conference in late February, the Secretary for Health and Home Affairs, E.M. Hanlon, stressed that if Queensland Railways did not act on building public air raid shelters it would make it harder for the Queensland Government to insist that other businesses and local authorities do so.
Order No.1 was applied state-wide, and another 24 local authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 19 of these local authorities were expected to construct a total of 133 surface shelters able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. A surface shelter was a self-contained external structure with the floor surface at or above ground level. These surface shelters were only meant to protect people, caught by surprise out in the open, from blast and debris - not a direct hit.D Sullivan, "Brisbane's air raid shelters: the palimpsest as war memorial", Thesis submitted as part of a Bachelor of Architecture, University of Queensland, 1992, p.27 Five local authorities, including Sarina Shire Council (SSC), were ordered to dig trenches. Standard designs for brick and concrete surface shelters, and for trench shelters, were sent to local authorities by the Architectural Branch of the DPW.
However, as a result of a visit to Sarina on 24 December 1941 by Queensland Government staff, instead of digging trenches, Sarina constructed two "half-size" surface air raid shelters. The manager of the power alcohol distillery at Sarina was also ordered to construct a half-size concrete shelter. A report on the visit, by engineer Percy Ainscow of the Public Estate Improvement Branch, noted that "trenches were of no use in the town of Sarina [due to the wet ground, which was also an issue at Proserpine]. Approval was obtained for two small reinforced concrete shelters for Sarina, and authority to arrange for the erection of a shelter at the Power Alcohol Factory". Even before Pearl Harbor, the Australian Government sought to increase the production of power alcohol at Sarina, Pyrmont (Sydney) and Yarraville (Melbourne), to help the war effort. Extensions at Sarina were completed by March 1942."Power alcohol", Northern Miner, 26 April 1941, p.5Report of J Binnington, District Supervisor of Works, Inspectorial and Construction Branch, Department of Public Works, Mackay, 29 December 1941"Plane Creek Mill: cane transport the main problem", Daily Mercury, 23 June 1942, p.6 Pairs of half-size concrete shelters were also built at Home Hill and Proserpine.
Sarina"s half-size air raid shelters were based on the standard DPW design (January 1942) for a reinforced concrete air raid shelter. Although the half-size version had the same wall and roof thickness, and the same size entry corridors and toilet closets, the main shelter space was half the length of a full-size shelter. The full-size standard shelter had thick walls, and a flat roof (flush with the outside walls) - unless there was a risk of nearby buildings collapsing onto the shelter, in which case the roof had to be . The outside length of the front wall of the full-size standard shelter, not including toilets, was ; while the total length of the rear wall (including toilets) was . The shelter was . In Sarina"s case, although the width was the same, the shelter"s front wall was long, while the total rear length was . The front walls of the toilet closets at each end of both the standard and half-size shelters were set back from the main front wall of the shelter, giving the shelters a symmetrical, fat "T" shape.Measurements made of Sarina"s shelter, by Applicant and Mackay Regional Council, 2019