Short Stories: The Volunteer Air Observer Corps Shed, Harcourt

 

An observation post of the Volunteer Air Observers. State Library ca. 1943

      This blog, Field Rambling in Central Victoria, emerged from me responding to the social media posts of a local community group, especially those that featured local historic photos. It wasn't long before I was drawn into creating my own posts, often requiring original historical research. One thing led to another and before I knew it I'd written a book, 'The Coliban Main Channel, A Walkers Guide'. 

     In this series of blogs I'm going to revisit some of the stories I researched originally for the social media group of which I'm a member. Many of them aren't grand stories; in many cases they're only partial explorations of the material in question due to the difficulty in ferreting out important information.     

    So let's start with this one, how there once was a tiny hut, parked in a paddock in the township of Harcourt, that was exclusively for the use of volunteer air observers, or enemy plane spotters, during WW2. I've been unable to find a photo of it in its original position and condition, the one at the top is just one of the many huts used in Australia by plane spotters, its location unknown. However we do know what the Harcourt hut was like because the historian, George Milford, bought it and sold off parts of it when it had deteriorated to an unsalvageable extent.

    My interest had been piqued by reading the late Howard Carr's 'Bridging the Generations, the story of Harcourt' (2002), which I'd obtained from the Harcourt Heritage Centre, 7 High Street Harcourt. The Centre has a large selection of small print run books on local history for sale. It's open Wednesday mornings and is well worth a visit not least for the attached museum full of fascinating relics of Harcourt's past.

    In Howards' book, another Harcourt local, Ken Jones, tells of how during WW2, an enemy plane observation post, a small weatherboard building, was erected on what was then vacant land on the east side of Barker Street, near the old State School in Market Street. 

    'A friend and I had a shift of four hours on a Sunday morning and we enjoyed the experience immensely... In all the time we patriotically manned our post we only ever spotted one plane. When we rang headquarters in Bendigo, they had no idea if it was an enemy or not.'

    The following information has been gleaned from Wikipedia (Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia)) and the Old Treasury Building website (The Volunteer Air Observers Corps). 

    Enemy plane spotters in Australia, otherwise known as the Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC), were a civilian branch formed during WWII. The VAOC was formed in December 1941 to support the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with its main roles of sighting and observing aircraft over Australia. The VAOC swiftly established thousands of Observation Posts (OP) across the country and provided information to the RAAF's regional air control posts.

    At its peak, over 24,000 Australians—including young children and farmers—manned observation posts nationwide to track and report unidentified or enemy aircraft. Each VAOC spotter had their own unique Code Name. Volunteers in Observation Posts reported aircraft movements to a Zone Control situated in a regional city or town. There were 39 Zone Controls centres across the Australia with differing numbers in each state depending on its size. For the southern State of Victoria they were at eight Control Zones based at Melbourne, Bairnsdale, Geelong, Warrnambool, Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat with another at Launceston in northern Tasmania.

    The spotters used all manner of temporary and more permanent structures. Here are photos of some of the buildings used.

Burnie, Tasmania. ca. 1943. A small hilltop post not much bigger than a telephone booth

Anglesea. Victoria 1943-02-07 Aerial view of a VAOC Post. (photo by RAAF)

    So, the first step was to find the original site of the hut in Harcourt. George Milford said it was near the huge old Red Box that still stands in Barker Street. So it was somewhere in the field of view below.

    It's hard to make out much in this low resolution aerial photo from 1945 but the hut could well be the spot in the centre of the field inside the circle.

    It seems to me to be reasonable to conclude that the hut might have been built out in the middle of the paddock, on the highest point of the hill, to be clear of any obstructions. It's possible some very elderly person in Harcourt might remember where it was but in the meantime this is my best guess.

    One reason for concluding this might be the location on the hut is that that shape can't be seen in the later 1949 aerial photo of the same area.

    Immediately after the war the shed was moved to a property on Mills Road, Harcourt about 800 metres southeast. In this aerial photo, also from 1949, we can see that an area has been cleared for its arrival. Whether it was by then in situ is hard to tell.

    The hut was then occupied by a single man. In it was a bed and not much else. He must have led a spartan existence, but of course many Australians did it hard in those years. The hut survived right up to recent times. It's a shame, given its interesting history, that it was allowed to fall into ruin. Here it can be seen in a Google Earth view from 2017, when, although quite a bit worse for the wear, it was still standing.

    Two years later, in the 2019 Google Earth view, the hut appears to have collapsed, the walls finally giving way. The roof survived for a further few years before finally disappearing, Here's a Google Earth Street view of the property from September 2023. 

    However all has not been lost.  George Milford states that he salvaged the metal chimney and some granite pavers. He directed me to where the old chimney of the hut now adorns a building full of historic machinery (as well as other bits and pieces) in Coolstore Rd, Barkers Creek.

    The chimney appears to be only for decorative purposes but at least we should be thankful we have a momento of an interesting chapter in Harcourt's history. 

A chart made available for VOAC volunteers. Note that the plane most spotters likely most feared seeing, the Japanese Zero, isn't included!