I have just finished reading two books by Nick McCamley about bunkers and underground factories. Secret Underground Cities covers the history of the large underground military facilities that were built in England during WWII. I have visited the facility at Monkton Farleigh and once stayed in a house in Chislehurst that had an entrance to one of these facilities in its back garden. The book shows how largely these facilities were failures and cost huge amounts of money, often 20 times the original estimates. If nothing else it is a good study of poor project management. The book is not just dry history and contains the occasional anecdote. I particularly the story of the workers who clocked on when going underground, clocked off when they came to the surface, and were paid for the hours in between. Little did the timekeeper know, but some of these men had found another exit and were sneaking of to a second job for most of the day.
Secret Nuclear Bunkers is a follow up to Secret Underground Cities, but unfortunately is not as interesting. McCamley goes into far too much detail and the book lacks the side stories of the real people who worked in these facilities, that make his other book so readable. This is really just one for the enthusiasts.
It does however remind me of the many bunkers that exist around Sydney. I have been to the facilities at North Head, South Head, Middle Head, Wollongong and Newcastle. In the case of North Head, there is an observation post carved out of the seaward cliffs about 20 metres from the top. They can only be reached by abseiling to them, but I have been to them twice.
Just down the road from my primary school there was a large block of land that had a bunker under it.
It was a command centre associated with Bankstown Airport and kids from my school used to play in there. It was later damaged by a fire and the entrances were blocked up. Later it was landscaped and a housing development put on top on it. Every few years the bunker is “discovered”, most notably a few years back by Peter Treseder who wrote something about it for Australian Geographic. A few years back a friend of a friend put me in touch with someone living on the housing estate who had an entrance to the bunker in their backyard. It was a crawl to get in but it was amazing how big it was and how very few people living in the area now ever know it is there. It would be a great place for an SES rescue exercise.
Tags: Bankstown, bunkers, defence-establishment, military
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