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Air Raid Shelters
The Courier-Mail, Saturday 3 Jan 1942, Page 3*:
Plans for the construction of 168 air raid shelters to provide protection for more than 11,670 persons in the city, South Brisbane, and Valley areas, were approved by the coordination committee of the City Council yesterday.
Many of the shelters will be so constructed that with slight remodelling they will be suitable, after the war, for use as colonnades, garages, public lavatories, garages, or public waiting sheds.
Apart from pill-box shelters, such as those now being erected in Elizabeth, Eagle, and Ann streets, the approved plans call for digging 15 zig-zag trenches in the Botanic Gardens, as protection for students attending the University and Central Technical College, and for covering the City Hall lane so that it can be used as a shelter.
The trenches in the Botanic Gardens will extend the full length of Alice Street, and will cater also for the floating population from Charlotte Street to Alice Street.
Sides and floors of the trenches will be concreted. Altogether the trenches will provide accommodation for 1000 persons.
The City Hall lane shelters, to accommodate the floating population of the City Hall and the city markets, will be of special design. They will be constructed of reinforced concrete, on columns with intermediate heavy baffle doors. Accommodation will be provided for 400 people.
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Brisbane was never bombed by the Japanese and the air-raid shelters remained mostly unused throughout the war. Of those converted, at least 20 survive today and are still owned by the Brisbane City Council, serving as bus shelters or shade structures in parks.
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