Jacaranda trees as we come up the river …
… into Brisbane. However, the view from an upper deck is as close as I’m getting to downtown.
Steps from where the ship’s docked is MacArthur Avenue. This may give those who know their history a clue to the background of my day’s activities.
While everyone else set off for botanic gardens, vineyards and koalas, I walk on my own to a quiet, very private, suburban street. It was here …
… that an extraordinary ‘Queenslander’ house was built in 1885. It was a home - an impressive one - until World War Two. When the Americans came into the war, General MacArthur, after escaping the Philippines, set up headquarters in Brisbane. Buildings all over the city were commandeered.
The house became one of the most secret locations in the Allied war effort. Even today, it's not widely known what occurred behind this hedge. I only stumbled on the story while researching ports on the trip.
Central Bureau, a signals intelligence operation, established its nerve centre here. The house, once again a family home and not a tourist attraction, is sometimes called Australia’s Bletchley Park, an indication of just how important it was.
In the garage out back - the original’s been torn down because of asbestos concerns - Central Bureau cracked Japanese communications.
Intercept operators - here are three from the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force - used the most modern equipment, IBM punch cards and British cipher machines.
In 1943, Central Bureau is thought to have decoded a signal with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s flight plan. Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Fleet, had devised the attack on Pearl Harbour. American fighters intercepted Yamamoto’s plane, shooting it down and killing him.
The codebreakers work led to wartime headlines.
The next year, in a recognition of Central Bureau’s vital role, the then commander of Australia’s military visited and posed at the main doorway.
Here’s the same place now and …
... just inside are Andree and Lawrence, who so kindly, long before I left Canada, invited me to visit their home. The warm Australian welcome, tea and conversation were memorable. Behind them two plaques commemorate what, seven decades after the war, few seem to know. And certainly not of Canada’s involvement.
It’s not a stretch to suggest the Allied intelligence effort here led, in part, to the super secret, post-war ‘five eyes’ agreement. The - it could be said controversial - intelligence gathering organization consists of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States. This leafy Brisbane neighbourhood has been the setting for history.
