Coffs Harbour’s strategic location made it a key part of Australia’s coastal defence strategy during WWII, with remnants of that period scattered throughout the city.
A number of these sites can still be visited, if you know where to look.
City Hill Bunker
Image credit: National Cartoon Gallery.
Of the six WWII bunkers and observation posts throughout Coffs Harbour, the Cartoon Gallery is the only one that has been restored and repurposed.
Thirty-two metres in length, the City Hill bunker was used as a communications and training centre during the war, then as a communications facility for the Civil Aviation Authority until 1980.
Saved from the wrecking ball: Facing demolition after being left derelict, council acquired the site from the Commonwealth in late 1987.
It took another nine years, but the Bunker Cartoon Gallery finally opened in 1996.
Image credit: National Cartoon Gallery.
In 2021, the Bunker underwent a $3 million makeover, with a second level added.
During these works, a large section of the original outer concrete shell was uncovered and can now be seen on the ground floor of the gallery.
Dowsett Drive
Little is documented about this structure, on the eastern fringe of the airport, but it was most likely used as an ammunitions bunker.
Image credit: Alison Paul.
It is also cemented in local surfing history.
The bunker featured in a circa 1971 advertisement for the Coopers surf shop in Coffs Harbour, with local Indigenous surfers. It later appeared in The Australian Surfer's Journal.
Image credit: National Library of Australia.
Macauleys Headland
By far the smallest of all the WWII remnants, this one is a few metres off the path on the Solitary Islands Coastal Walk.
It’s easy to miss, because it appears to be sinking into the headland.
Image credit: Alison Paul.
In his two-volume book on Coffs Harbour’s history, Neil Yeates suggested the concrete structure may have been part of a bunker “used to defend the coastline and Coffs Jetty”.
Howard Street
On the side of the road, just past the racecourse, this site could be confused for a drain, but is thought to have been a part‐underground concrete bomb store.
Image credit: Alison Paul.
Pacific Highway
Used as a communications centre by the RAAF during WWII, this 29-metre-long bunker lay buried, and largely forgotten, on the edge of the Pacific Highway opposite the Sanctuary Resort for over 45 years.
It was discovered in 1989 during earthworks for the Hurley Drive Industrial Centre.
Image credit: The Advocate.
The best laid plans: Seeing the tourism potential, plans were made to shift the bunker using sliding logs and heavy machinery. However, engineers discovered it was not structurally sound enough to be moved and the bunker was demolished, to much local outrage at the time.
Bunker Headland
On the headland between Gallows and Boambee beaches, this cement structure is today covered in graffiti and slowly falling to pieces.
Image credit: Alison Paul.
Headland history: For years, it was believed to have been a gun emplacement - somewhere where weapons would have been fired from.
However, a 2015 heritage consultant’s report stated its true purpose was to “observe the coastline and nearby beaches for enemy ships” and provide storage for equipment and weaponry.
Left to crumble
John Lloyd, Coffs Harbour RSL sub-Branch president, is keen to see the remaining structures around the area “restored to their former glory”.
He suggests “signage describing their structure, dates built, usage at the time, [and] what sort of equipment or weapons would have been fired from there”.
“It’s something that’s of significance to the area, not only historically, but as a tourist asset as well.”