Bankstown Bunker The Bankstown Bunker ( Air Defence Headquarters Sydney ) is a defunct Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) operations facility , located on the corner of Marion and Edgar Street , Bankstown , New South Wales . After the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur in Australia during the Second World War , Bankstown Airport was established as a key strategic air force base to support the war effort . During this period the specially constructed bunker became an important RAAF headquarters from 1945 until its closure in 1947 . The Bankstown bunker is currently buried under a public park which lies at the end of Taylor Street . History . During the Second World War from 1945 to 1947 the Bankstown bunker was used as a covert Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) base . Construction of the facility commenced in late 1942 at a cost of £ 30 , 579 with its official commissioning in January 1945 as the headquarters for No . 1 Fighter Sector RAAF . This unit had previously operated from the Capital Hall picture theatre in Bankstown and a tunnel under the St . James Railway station . The primary use of the Sydney Air Defence Headquarters was the location , tracking and interception of all planes in the eastern area of the South West Pacific . It was the centre of the Australian defence network , where , in co - operation with the highest officers of Navy and Army , Australian bombers and fighters were controlled in defence and attack against the enemy from this location . The bunker was manned at all times in shifts that the Air Force called " Flights " . Most of the personnel that worked in the bunker were local . Even so , the Air Force provided accommodation for them in Chapel Road , Bankstown whilst buses with blacked out windows transported military personnel to the bunker . All staff for the bunker had to undergo special training , including ' plane identification ' training that also took place at Chapel Road . The bunker was manned by members of the No . 2 Volunteer Air Observer Corps , the Women ' s Auxiliary Australian Air Force , members of the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces . A transmitting station for the bunker was located in Johnston Road , Bass Hill and was a building of above ground construction . The bunker appears to have been decommissioned when the ADHQ was disbanded in 1947 . A caretaker was then assigned to the take care of the bunker . It wasn ' t until 1971 that members of No . 2 Stores Depot RAAF in Regents Park invited the then editor of Bankstown ' s Torch Newspaper , Phil Engisch into the bunker . Many photos were taken and an article was placed in local newspapers detailing the find . In 1972 , arsonists set the bunker on fire . In 1976 the NSW Department of Housing acquired the land the bunker is built under and redeveloped the area into the townhouses that now cover most of the site . The area now comprises a number of separate complexes or " Closes " containing eight to eleven villas . Each Close is named appropriately after a type of aeroplane that flew from Bankstown during the Second World War . Inside the bunker . The Bankstown Bunker was of similar design to the underground Ops rooms of wartime England , which directed Britain ' s air defence fighter plane attacks on the invading German Luftwaffe . Entrance to the bunker was obtained via a concrete passageway concealed beneath a grassy slope with corridors and hallways leading to various sections . The walls of the bunker were 1 . 5 metres thick and it could almost withstand a direct hit from a bomb . It had all the attenuated fixtures necessary to run a top secret operational defence base . It consisted of three Fixer Stations and one Homing Station . There were switchboards directing up to fifty telephone lines that went to various locations including radar stations and VAOC lookout posts which reported aircraft locations to the bunker . The bunker was also equipped with its own code room , plotting rooms , two escape tunnels and a radio transmitter room . In the centre of the bunker was a large room of about two - stories in height . This was the main Ops room and control centre for all RAAF Missions in the Pacific area . The room also had a large map , ( 24 ' x 18 ' ) denoting troop positions in the South West Pacific theater of World War II . The facilities inside the bunker also had to cater for the full - time staff who lived and worked in the facility , working on a rotating roster that involved living in the bunker for two - week periods . The living quarters consisted of its own kitchen , dining area , bathrooms and bedrooms . The bunker also had its own generator and air conditioning . There are rumors of a tunnel running from the bunker to an unknown location . Location . There is a small reserve between the town houses at the end of Taylor Street . It is under this hill that the bunker has been buried . The entrance to the bunker has now been sealed and the area over the top of the bunker has been landscaped to conceal its position , to the point that it is completely undetectable from the street . Other bunkers in the City of Bankstown . There is one other confirmed bunker , a " Remote Receiving station " , in Bankstown . Little is known about its history though it was reportedly " heavily vandalised " in 1945 . It was located in Picnic Point National Park , near the South Sydney Power station . According to residents of the area , it still exists . Based on a comparison of contemporary and historic maps , the Receiving Station and the present day Sydney South electricity substation share the same footprint , with the latter apparently situated directly above the former . The substation is bounded on its southwestern and southeastern sides by Henry Lawson Drive , in the Georges River National Park . It is alleged that there are several other bunkers in the Bankstown area , such as under an electricity block house on the corner of Milperra road and Henry Lawson Drive , and a demolished bunker under Condell Park High School . During World War II , Bankstown was a hive for military activity . Bankstown Airport was home to several fighter units and several " dummy houses " existed in and around Bankstown Airport . These houses were built to make Bankstown Airport and its surrounds appear as a farm . Military personnel who worked in Bankstown lived in the area around Chapel Road ( where Paul Keating Park and the council chambers are located today ) . Training facilities for the various plotting rooms around Sydney were also located in the area . During World War II a major wartime manufacturing plant was located in Chullora . The site once occupied of land surrounded by Rookwood Cemetery , Brunker Road , the Hume Highway and Centenary Drive . The site was said to have been the largest secret manufacturing plant in Australia which was used for the production of military weapons , plane components , tanks , and ordnance . Over two - thousand men and woman were employed to work at the factory on a daily basis . During the war the factory produced components for 700 Beaufort , 380 Beaufighter and up to 50 Lincoln aircraft . Over 54 ACI tanks were built as well as 60 General Lee tanks that were adapted for use in the Australian Military , as were local jeeps in the 70s . The factory also produced 81 cupola turrets for the British Matilda tanks . An underground " bunker " and tunnel system is apparently located on this site . It is directly under a block of flats in Davidson Street and Marlene Crescent . The entrance to the " bunker " is by steel doors set in concrete into the hillside in a railway cutting which runs from alongside the railway line parallel to Marlene Crescent at a platform called the Railwelders and which leads under the block of flats . The doors to this " bunker " were welded up in the late 1980s . The ventilation shafts that were once visible from the Hume Highway have been removed . Apart from the bunker , there is also a network of storage facilities that extend under the railway workshop . Sometime between 1977 to 1978 the steel access doors were fitted with locks ( Railway SL type ) . The steel access doors were bolted into the side of a stormwater drain which runs along the old RTA building in Chullora , then under the Hume Hwy and eventually under the rail workshop . It has also been alleged that a tunnel approximately four miles long connects this complex with the Bankstown Bunker . Burke ' s Backyard . The Bankstown Bunker was on an episode of " Burke ' s Backyard " . Don Burke conducted part of the show from inside the bunker . To enter the bunker he had to crawl in through an air vent .