The Bibra Lake

Australian Women's Army Service The Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) was a non-medical women's service established in Australia during the Second World War. Raised on 13 August 1941 to "release men from certain military duties for employment in fighting units" the servi ...

(AWAS) camp was a collection of pre-fab army huts built in the vicinity of

Bibra Lake Bibra may refer to: Organisations * British Industrial Biological Research Association, now known as BIBRA in the UK Places * Bibra, Schmalkalden-Meiningen, a village in the district Schmalkalden-Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany * Bibra, Saale-Hol ...

in Cockburn. The camp was probably constructed in 1943, and the women posted there were part of the 66

Anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

(AA)

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

(SL) battery. The camp was located near Hope Road, which runs between Bibra and North Lakes. Though dismantled immediately after the war, some remains can still be seen in the area.

History

As the war progressed and Japan began to threaten the Pacific region, the men of Australia's

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

were required for overseas duty. Until 1941 enlisted men had been responsible for Australia's home defence, from signals to anti-aircraft batteries, but as the war came to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

they were needed at the front. Australian women were encouraged to enlist in the AWAS to free up men for fighting service. Over 20,000 women were enlisted in the AWAS over the course of the war, trained to take over all the roles their male counterparts had been performing. In 1942, Australian troops returning home from the Middle East were formed into the 116 Light Anti-Aircraft regiment (LAA). The headquarters of this regiment were initially located at

Naval Base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that us ...

, then at Bibra Lake. The AWAS camp was attached to 66 Searchlight Battery, known as Searchlight Station 10, which also had stations at Swanbourne, Como, Mosman Park and Kings Park. Other stations in the area were located at North Jandakot and Naval Base. Many women were posted to positions far away from their home cities, often to remote areas. Others were local, completing their training and being assigned to posts in their home towns. The Bibra Lake battery housed a mixture of Tasmanian and Western Australian women.

Camp at Bibra Lake

Pre-fab Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. ...

huts were built at Bibra Lake for the AWAS quarters. The women's duties were varied, ranging from cutting firewood and cooking for the camp to cleaning guns and searchlights. Many of them were from other states and had only lived in towns, and were unused to living in a semi-rural location. They were troubled by dugites, and reported never seeing Bibra Lake itself which was probably because the whole area was bushland with only a dirt-track service road. The camp consisted of a combined kitchen, mess and recreation room with a lean-to at the back, concrete-floored latrines and ablutions blocks, an engine shed, and an underground command post, all surrounded by barbed wire. Women at the camp were given milk by local dairy farmers, and in return gave them kitchen scraps to feed their poultry. The searchlights were clearly visible at night, when they were often used to spot small planes flying over the area. Searchlight women were trained in spotting, sound locating, command duties and computing, and as more men were sent overseas, increasingly in firearms and defence.

Bushfires

The base was threatened by a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

in the summer, and the women were ordered to evacuate. They packed their bags and stacked them beside the road before returning to fight the fire alongside male soldiers, clearing fire breaks and putting out small fires with wet sacks and branches. They treated a local Chinese

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...

er for burns and exhaustion and gave him some new clothes, as his had been burnt to rags when his garden was destroyed.

Photographs

The daughter of Private Margaret May Robertson (Royal Aust Corps Signal) discovered photographs from her mother's time at Bibra Lake. File:AWAS woman on a tree at Bibra Lake, c1944.jpg, Exploring Bibra Lake File:AWAS tents at Bibra Lake, c1944.jpg, Tents at Bibra Lake File:AWAS picnic at Bibra Lake, c1944.jpg, AWAS picnic at Bibra Lake File:Bibra Lake AWAS camp huts.jpg, Quartermaster's hut, Bibra Lake

Dismantling

In October 1945, auctions were held in Perth for the dismantled searchlight stations, including Searchlight Station 10 at Bibra Lake. Detailed accounts of the materials used in their construction were included in the auction listings, as building materials were in short supply after the war.

Current issues

The remains of the camp are currently under threat from the proposed Roe 8 Highway Extension through the Cockburn district. The City of Cockburn has engaged a heritage specialist to undertake a survey of the site and will act on the recommendations when they are presented.