DEFENCE SERVICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1941, Page 6

DEFENCE SERVICES

AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMME £21,000,000 ON WORKS. PRACTICALLY NEW OFFICE. New Zealanders, whose military camps have sometimes been described as the finest in the Empire, and whose camp construction methods have often been envied abroad, may be interested to hear that Australia is now spending more than £21,000,000 a year on her military construction programme. This sum contrasts with about £2,500,000 in peace-time. “The results of this immense undertaking,” said the Australian Minister for the Interior (Senator H. S. Foil) in a recent statement, “are to be seen in the efficient R.A.A.F. stations, military camps, hospitals, administrative 'quarters, internment camps, naval depots and oil storage dumps, coastal garrisons and camouflage stations, radio location and meteorological bureaux.

“But perhaps the outstanding work has been in connection with the urgent building of several million pounds worth of munitions and ordnance factories and gun-cotton and explosives annexes. The earlier projects were rushed up in the established peacetime industrial centres to get our munitions plan under way as speedily as possible. But that done, the Government wisely implemented its scheme of decentralisation for its vital war industries, both from a strategic point of view, and also for the conservation of manpower in the various localities. . “The result is that in all the mainland States, from Perth to Brisbane, big self-contained units have been built, but all for the one purpose — that of making more death-blows for Nazism. , “Those who have not seen one of the modern Australian munition establishments may not realise just how vast they are. Some are literally townships of their own. The width of one site in South Australia is 21 miles and on it are more- than 1,000 separate buildings, as well as train and tramlines, sidings and essential services. Around them,. too, new residential areas are springing up to house the men and women who are keeping the lathes of the home front spinning. “The year 1940-41 stands out in the history of the works and services branch of the Department of the Interior as one in which the maximum constructional work throughout Australia has been achieved. The work has extended throughout all States and Territories of the Commonwealth and even to the territories of Papua, New Guinea, and some islands in the Pacific. Some of the individual projects—and I need mention only the £3,000,000 graving dock in Sydney Harbour, and the £4,000,000 munitions establishment at Salisbury—are of a magnitude ranking impressively with outstanding building and engineering projects ever carried out in this country. “Some perspective of the expanded programme will readily be gained from the fact that a normal year's expenditure prior to the 1939-40 period was approximately £2,500,000. During the first 12 months of hpstilities this jumped to £9,000,000. And now the colossal figure exceeding £21,000,000 has been reached.

“The broad headings under which this money has been spent are: Army £8,157,783, R.A.F. and civil aviation £5,076,290, munitions and supply £4,310,455, and Navy £1,251,244. “Altogether more than two dozen military camps have been built in the various States and on various islands, and the outlay so far has exceeded £3,970,000.

“Another phase of work of vast magnitude, and one required to be dealt with urgently, was the provision of military hospitals. Hospitals of the last war era are no longer adequate or modern enough. It is our job to send our boys away with the best in equipment and see that only the best is supplied to them while they are doing their man-sized job overseas. But even then our obligations are in no way completed. Those who coine back to Australia for medical or surgical treatment are going to get the best treatment and care that it is possible to give with the pick of medical men, the most modern equipment that medical science has devised, and in the most pleasant and hygienic hospitals' that can be built.

“Under way still, but already accommodating many of our wounded, are five big hospital projects—at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Provision has been made for 3,708 beds, but the hospitals are being so constructed that it will be possible to extend the bed accommodation by 1250. The general scheme of these military hospitals is a multistorey acute block surrounded by pavilion type wards. The biggest, to hold 600 beds in the main block and about 1,060 in the pavilion wards, is the one near Sydney.”