Japanese and German prisoners-of-war were questioned and enemy documents decoded at the once top secret defence department site in Brisbane.
The battle has now started to save this unique piece of Australian history.
Still locked away after all these years.
Once-top secret Australian Army buildings that were not even drawn on official plans.
Tucked away in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly is Australia's only purpose-built, Second World War interrogation centre.
Hundreds of high-value prisoners-of-war were questioned at Witton Barracks.
Dr Jack Ford is a historian who has researched the site for the Brisbane City Council before it was heritage-listed.
"The jail cells are a unique part of Austrlaian history and should not be lost. Once lost you can't regain what's there and you can write all the books you like about what happened at Indooroopilly, interrogation of Japanese prisoners of war, but they are a physical reminder to people of what happened at that site."
From Brisbane, US General Douglas MacArthur directed the war against Japan in the Pacific.
In late 1942, the joint US-Australian intelligence agency was set up in Brisbane.
"ATIS stands for Allied Translator and Interpreter Service. It was a joint American and Australian unit established for two purposes. One was to interrogate enemy PoWs - mostly Japanese, though some Germans were interrogated - and as well to examine captured documents to glean from those whatever valuable information they could get."
ATIS started with a few dozen Australians and Americans who could speak Japanese.
As Allied forces began defeating the Japanese in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, prisoners and documents started flooding in.
Three cell blocks were built that could hold 15 prisoners.
"The kind of intelligence they were getting was invaluable, it was coming largely straight from Japanese captured at the front. The latest intel on Japanese units operating in New Guinea, and also the condition of the units, their supply situation, their morale, and that helped the Allies formulate their battle plans for their campaigns in New Guinea and later the Philippines."
Prisoners would spend up to a week being interrogated before being transferred to the south, to P-o-W camps in Victoria and New South Wales.
Captured German naval officers were also interrogated at Witton.
A major success was the translation of captured Japanese Army code books.
But much of what happened at Witton has remained largely untold because the Americans removed almost all documentation from Australia before the end of the conflict.
"If you want really detailed information it's almost impossible to find out. It was considered top secret. Infact when you look at site plans for the design of the site, the interrogation cells blocks that they kept the Japanese in were not drawn in. There's just a word saying TOP SECRET where they are. Very hush-hush, and they didn't want anyone to know. It was so secret even the local people didn't know what was going on in the site."
What is known is 31 Japanese prisoners died in Brisbane during the war.
One Japanese private, Kingo Yamashita, committed suicide in the cells after interrogation.
Now disused, this heritage-listed Defence Department site is up for sale.
Local federal MP Jane Prentice hopes to secure the site for the Brisbane City Council for a bridge duplication project.
"In recent years with no-one there of course the bureaucrats want to sell it off and make money. Now it would be inappropriate to have a commercial development, and sell it for commercial rates, when the council and people of Brisbane, who are also federal taxpayers, desperately need some way of crossing the river."
Developers are also eyeing the prime river-front real estate for apartment blocks.
Up to ten storeys are allowed.
"Everyone understands there will need to be in the future a new bridge at that location. Brisbane City Council has given a very clear undertaking to the federal government that they will preserve those heritage buildings and enhance and improve them, because they are in need of repair."
A defence department decision is expected by year end that will decide the fate of this irreplaceable part of Australian war history.
Historian Jack Ford says there has to be one clear outcome, no matter who buys it.
"There's less and less WW2 structures in Brisbane as each year goes by, as more and more are being demolished to make way for developers. I think it's important that what we have, that's significant, is protected because Brisbane was a major headquarters in WW2, far more important than Sydney Melbourne or Canberra. It's a story people don't know about because it was deliberately meant for them not to know about it. Seventy years on after the end of world War Two, I would have thought it was time the story was told behind Witton Barracks."
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