page_title: Training Depot Drill Hall Complex, Rockhampton
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Training Depot Drill Hall Complex, Rockhampton / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Rockhampton drill shed and defence force offices. Timber hall for defence force officers and men.
context_page_description: Training Depot Drill Hall Complex is a heritage-listed former drill hall at Archer Street, Rockhampton City, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. The complex was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 June 2007.
context_section_description: The training depot drill hall was constructed in to specifications prepared by the Office of the Queensland Government Architect in May 1906 with additions to the southern side in 1937. Later additions to the site include the relocation of a drill hall and wagon shed from Mount Morgan in 1928 as well as the construction of a rifle range and brick Q Store by 1939. Further construction works were undertaken during and following the Second World War.
  In the early 1850s the Archer brothers, William and Charles, were the first to exploit the pastoral prospects of the Rockhampton region following favourable reports from the explorers Ludwig Leichhardt and Thomas Mitchell a decade earlier. The New South Wales Government proclaimed the new pastoral districts of Port Curtis and Leichhardt in 1854 and Charles Archer reached Gracemere in 1855. Rockhampton was proclaimed a town in 1858 and an official town survey was carried out by Arthur Wood.
  At the time of Queensland's separation, defence of the colonies was linked to Britain and British foreign policy. There was no guarantee that the Royal Navy would be able, or willing, to protect the Australian colonies in all eventualities. Each colony therefore developed their own defence forces.
  The Queensland Government did not have the financial resources or population to establish a standing army; consequently, volunteer military forces have played a central role in the organisation of the defence of Queensland. Volunteer units were formed from 1860 onwards and regular training camps were organised as citizen soldiers became the foundation of the State's defence. These camps were held so that the various individual groups could train in larger numbers, a necessary requirement if they were to be an effective fighting force in the event of war.
  A series of war scares in the late 1870s and an official survey of the colony's defences prepared by two military officers from England forced changes to Queensland's colonial defences. In 1884 the Defence Act was passed, completely reorganising the defence of the colony. The volunteer system was continued but augmented with the establishment of the first permanent local force in Queensland. The permanent force included paid militia and volunteer units, as well as members of the Police Force Rifle Clubs. After the passing of the 1884 defence act the government authorised the construction of a large number of drill halls around the colony. Many were built in the suburbs of Brisbane, and in the major towns such as Ipswich, Warwick, Gympie, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. Approximately thirty halls were constructed after 1884 and towards the turn of the century.
  The training depot was situated on the northern portion of what was Section 25, the whole of which was originally designated a "square" (recreation reserve). The block bounded by Alma, Archer, Cambridge and Denison Streets was known as Leichhardt Square. In 1881, Leichhardt Square was proclaimed a Reserve for Public Purposes temporarily under the control of the municipality. In 1884, municipal control was declared permanent. Archer Park railway station was constructed on the southern half of the "square" in the late 1890s and opened in 1899.
  The northern portion of Leichhardt Square (the training depot) was gazetted as a Defence Force Reserve (R139) in 1901. The reserve was one of many sites nationally that was transferred from the state to the commonwealth at Federation for defence purposes. This included buildings, fortifications, guns, ammunition and stores. In Rockhampton, a total of £4,526 of land, buildings and furniture was transferred. The "Drill Shed Reserve, Archer Park" was valued at £2,250 with no structures listed as being on the site at the time.
  Before Federation the Queensland Defence Forces in Rockhampton are known to have utilised a site in Fitzroy Street. Prior to, or in addition to this, a shed near the court house was used. There is no official evidence of the use of the Leichhardt Square for defence purposes until 1901. The Fitzroy Street site was proclaimed a 
caption: Rockhampton drill shed and defence force offices, circa 1913
exif: {}