Col Geoff Browne (retired) Special Speaker on 10 Terminal history at Middle Head

Introduction by Julie Goodsir: Geoff Browne has been associated with Middle Head from when he was a young boy, he served 31 years and has a long association with 10 Terminal. Following his time in the Army Geoff then became Head of Education at ASOPA right next door to 10 Terminal. He has great qualifications to speak to us tonight.

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Col Geoff Browne: Good evening ladies and gentleman, can you hear me? You can't hear me, all right.

10 Terminal Building Middle Head

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Above: Col Geoff Brown as a bugle boy (far left) and his father.

When I was six years of age, here's where I stood. Right outside Ten Terminal regiment, and it was a corrugated iron hut, and I was there at six, so that's about 82 years ago, and my father was the battery Sergeant Major, of 1st 88th battery at Georgia's Heights. But we trained down there. And for 40 cents, four shillings, we lived there for four days, all on rations, it's on with the Army Cadets, and I was there, I was eight years of age.

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1798, from 2004 then, my maths is not good but I think that's 226 years of military heritage at Middle Head, and Georgia Heights. And let me add, it is still continuing, because [inaudible 00:02:18] is currently operating. So there's no lack of military inheritance in that area.

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The Middle Head area was of much interest to Captain Phillip. Now, you might know there was a very able Corsican who got Captain Phillip interested. Now you all know who the Corsican was, don't you? His name was Napoleon. He was born in Corsica, and he was in the middle of the Napoleonic wars, and many countries over Europe were worried. Britain was worried that he might have an invasion force to go into Britain, but they knew the Royal Navy would murder any attempt to cross, just like we know in about 1944.

So Captain Phillip sent a group of Marines, Royal Marines, to Cobblers beach, three days after he landed at Sydney Cove. So that's 1788, that's when it started. Now the entire area of Middle Head, Chowder Bay, and Georgia's Heights was historically significant as an important location of major defence-works for the defence of Sydney Harbour and Port Jackson. During the 19th and 20th century. When I was that little boy, I had the safeguard, Sydney Airways. My father put me on an outpost on the parade ground, I was eight, and because I knew the aircraft, I had great knowledge of aircraft, I was on the observation post on the parade ground with field glasses and a notebook tracking every plane that came across. Now I wasn't there on the big night, you know the invasion night, but my father was there firing guns.

Now, some of the military units that served in that area, you won't remember them, I can't, but were, the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the submarine miners, coastal artillery, the 1802 battery at Georgia's Heights and Middle Head, muzzle loaders of course, stuck it in the front end and got off of the road, the 1870 batteries at Middle Head and Georgia's Heights, because as you know, the British Army, British Navy as son on, left Australia to look after itself in that period.

The Army Maritime school at Chowder Bay, and when I was a little boy my father said, you can't go near that army signal depot, because everything is secret. So I walked around the road, never went near it, I was a good boy. The AWAS, Australian Women's Army Service, the school of military engineering, which ripped into the Ten Terminal building, which wasn't built until 1941, and the first people to occupy it were the school of military engineering. Generally, movement and transport and so on.

The army intelligence centre was in the back area of the side, and then Ten Terminal regiment went to the red big building that is of interest. Now there's some argument on the building notice. I went down yesterday, I go down every week by the way, but I went down yesterday and saw that it was built in 1958 on the notes. It was built in 1941. Ten terminal regiment, which is RAASC which I was a Colonel in that Corps or became, the Royal Australians Corps of Transport later on, and the Royal Australian Electrical Mechanical Engineers who ran the workshops.

So you can see that it has a long inheritance of military history and I'd like to think that it'll stay nice and open as it is now.

Shot mariners, miners, submarine miners, down at Chowder Bay, the hospital at Georgia's Heights in World War I was a hospital, part of a hospital. The guys in the hospital, no women in the services then, of course, but now, OK, the cadets my father taught, and that's 1936 when I was in utero. That is my father right there, the battery Sergeant Major, left for dead at the battle of [inaudible]. In a shell hole, for the war in Bavaria. He was there, left for dead with a sign around his neck, pinned on, which I have at home, dying, still honoured, they left him there, with the war in Bavaria.

And three days later, British stretcher bearers picked him up, and it was a long time in hospital, and the person first to see him naked was King George V. Naked in the bath because he was the first soldier to have the saline solution put through. And I have a photograph of King George looking at him, and there's my dad, cold.

That’s the cadets, there, and they won the Australian Gold Championship in 1935, 1936. My father, that's the Ten Terminal.

Oh, by the way, that's the Ten Terminal, that's the building where the Ten Terminal regiment is today, and that's where for four shillings, 40 cents, we lived in that building. I sat with the guys, my father, who was a battery Sergeant Major, sat somewhere else, but there is my father there. He re-enlisted and served in World War II after he consulted with the commanding officer, and they put his age down 15 years.

And he served until 1946. There he is, a boy. [inaudible] That’s the Sergeants mess, that's me there, but it shouldn't be about me, there's Ten Terminal regiment, the red building, built in 1941. Special tiles, special rig, Marseille tiles and so on. So it's a special building, even with the wartime restrictions. That's the front of the side of the building, and that's the side that's special I think, there, and part of the officer's mess is down that way. That is still there, I looked in the windows yesterday, Ten Terminal regiment, World War II, and that moved later to Townsend.

In the officer's mess, I looked in yesterday, all there. We used to sit by the nice fireplace heat. The officer's mess, Ten Terminal regiment, co-lines of communication, AWAS, in a different area. Supplies, the army intelligence, the army intelligence operated for the Vietnam war, and I think the Korean war. Army Intelligence, [inaudible] That's down at Chowder Bay, ah, down at Middle Head. And then I was the guy in charge of education in the '60's.

There's the buildings for ASOPA, and the intelligence centre, and barracks generally, and then the Italians, prisoners of war. In light of the...[laughter] Now Hallstrom, maybe you've, from Hallstrom, the refrigerator, the silent nightmare.

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Now, current conduct. For the Korean war, officers went through particularly, [inaudible 00:12:58] went through the code of conduct down at Chowder Bay and down at Middle Head in the dungeons. Very hard training, terrible training. Taken away, [inaudible 00:13:12], kept naked, and so on. Because in the Korean War, a lot of information was coming from captured prisoners to the Koreans. The only country that did not have a prisoner leak to the Koreans, does anyone know? Turkey. Mainly because of the very hard upbringing the Turks had.

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But one of our classes, we operated lots of classes for officers in logistics at Chowder Bay and at Middle Head. They went on for years and years until the terminal regiment went and forgoed it. I was an instructor then [inaudible 00:14:03]. Again, ten total engineers, ducks, you know the ducks? They're up at Surfers Paradise these days, the ducks – great, great vehicles. And workshops, writing, [inaudible] electrical, mechanical engineers, did the repairs right there. Engineer doing something.

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in 1997, the Ten Terminal regiment marched down military road, down by the Buena Vista Hotel, and got the freedom of [inaudible]. I was there, but I was on the sideline. I was there yesterday, I stopped in here, looked in the windows, that was the officer's mess, where I spent a lot of time. Lovely spot, and looks out on a lovely room, and it's look over Sydney Harbour.

I think that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Key Points For Letter Writers

Download "HPG – Save Middle Head : letter writing – points for letters" PDF herePlease read our explanatory notes to the PDF below.

“popular protest and much letter writing to ‘save the parks’ have clinched most of the battles over Centennial Park.”

Pick and choose which issue or issues you want to write about. You may write about more than one issue in the one letter, or to write several letters about different issues.To the best of our knowledge the paragraphs are factual. Treat them as source material to be put into your own words.References are attached so you can research matters if you wish BUT there is no need to cite these references in your letter(s).Italicized headings are for your easy reference and not intended to be included in letters.So that everyone receives the same message, it would be desirable to send each letter to each of the following (see blog post for addresses here...):

• PM Tony Abbott (at both his electorate office and Parliament House office)
• Environment Minister Greg Hunt
• Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham
• your Federal MP (if not Tony Abbott)
• Chair of the Trust Anthea Tinney
• Executive Director of the Trust Geoff Bailey

Although it will take a little extra effort, please address each letter individually to each addressee (rather than just addressing it to one, with copies to the others). Except for letters to Tony Abbott, where the same letter can be sent to both his addresses.

• Also send letters to the newspapers (listed here...), particularly the Mosman Daily and the Sydney Morning Herald.
• Letters to politicians and the Trust would preferably be printed and posted, but if that is not feasible, email or fax is next best. Letters to newspapers need only be email (or fax)
• Your letters to the newspapers will likely require some rewording.
• Don’t forget to keep a copy of what you send! Please send us a copy of your letter, email them to savemiddlehead@gmail.com
• If you have any questions relating to writing letters email savemiddlehead@gmail.com
• More information will be added as the campaign progresses. Please check periodically for updated versions with new items highlighted for easy reference.

___________________________________________________________________________Note: Some of the suggested paragraphs refer to the Middle Head precinct.The 10 Terminal buildings are situated in what the Trust refers to as the Middle Head precinct.  This precinct is limited in size and only covers the area from Burnt Orange down to the gate to the National Park on the end of Middle Head.This Middle Head precinct has its separate Management Plan prepared by the Trust (“Management Plan – Mosman No. 7 – Middle Head 7 June 2007”).  It sets out how the Trust is to manage the Middle Head precinct.This Management Plan is on the Trust website under “Strategic Plans:”  There is a map of the Middle Head precinct after page 5: http://www.harbourtrust.gov.au/planning-projects/strategic-plans#Management_Plans (go to this page and scroll down until you come to the heading “Middle Head”)In the public mind, “Middle Head” might often be thought of as extending up to Georges Heights, in which case an aged care home “up the hill” in the vicinity of say Georges Heights might not seem so outrageous.But the Trust is talking about a residential aged care home in Headland Park right down next to the National Park on the headland of Middle Head.

Save Middle Head Urgent Public Meeting 10 April 2014 – Please attend!

When: 6:30 – 7:30 pm Thursday April 10 2014Where: Mosman Council Senior Citizen’s Centre (next to Mosman Town Hall, Mosman Square, Spit Junction)The Headland Preservation Group will have its 4th public meeting next week, continuing our campaign against an aged-care home on Middle Head. We will also discuss other threats to public parkland.Special Guest Speaker: Colonel Geoff Brown PhD RAASC/RACT (retired) on the military heritage of the Middle Head precinctAgenda:

• Latest news - aged care home campaign
• Speaker to be confirmed – “Public Land Under Threat”
• Guest speaker Colonel Geoff Brown
• 7:30 pm light refreshments

Dear Sydney Resident,There has been much publicity lately about the alienation of public parkland on Sydney Harbour, particularly on Middle Head, which is owned by the Commonwealth Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.Back in 1996, there was a fierce battle to prevent Defence lands around the Harbour from being sold off for private development. The Headland Preservation Group was formed at that time.That battle was successful and the outcome was the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, a new Commonwealth agency to rehabilitate former Defence lands and turn them into public parkland, and to conserve and re-use/lease the heritage buildings.No doubt you have visited some of the Trust lands around the Harbour and seen the amazing parkland the Trust has created over its 16 year existence.Unfortunately the Trust is now considering a proposal for the development of an aged-care home on the ridgeline of Middle Head. I believe that this is an inappropriate use of public parkland that would exclude the public from enjoyment and understanding of the site’s significant aboriginal and military heritage.Following on from this, several weeks ago we discovered a 2013 NSW government sales brochure which earmarked (but has been withdrawn) several other Trust sites for development, including a 'greenfields' site for a boutique hotel on the ridgeline on Middle Head. Then last week, NSW announced it will release a white paper to audit and value all its land (42% of the state) and to consider "when to change use or realise value".The creation of the Harbour Trust was a bold and visionary step by the former Howard government. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a speech in 2012:

"My next campaign was against the Keating government's proposed sale of former military land around Sydney Harbour. Largely at my instigation, the Howard government committed more than $115 million to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to preserve the natural and built heritage of places like North Head and Middle Head."

I hope you can join me at our meeting next week!Yours in support of public land.Linda Bergin OAMPresident Headland Preservation Group Inc.savemiddlehead@gmail.com(02) 8091-7743 (please leave a message)

Take Action Now!

It is important that you write to our elected representatives and the Trust to let them know your views. For their contact details, read the Take Action Now page. 

In the media: "Public spaces, private interests"

News Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 29 March 2014

The body managing prime harbour sites faces a funding crunch, writes Deborah Snow.

‘It’s not our task to make a lot of money.’  Geoff BaileyWhen a man fell to his death after toppling over a Cockatoo Island cliff face last March, it capped what had been a horror stretch for the island’s owner, the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.For months there had been internal angst over another, less public disaster for the trust: the staging of what was meant to be the inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival in October 2012. On paper the idea looked brilliant. Proponents said the festival would draw tens of thousands of visitors to the former penal establishment and shipbuilding yard, now tourist attraction and culture hub, which sits in the Parramatta River west of the Harbour Bridge.Trust chief Geoff Bailey wrote excitedly in his 2012 report that it would be a “cinematic extravaganza”, allowing patrons to gorge on all manner of filmic delights over five days. But several months later, the dream had turned to dust. Despite a heavily promoted opening night, paying visitors turned out to be less than a third of the number predicted. The trust lost heavily on trying to run its own ferry service for the festival. And the company which partnered with it to run the event collapsed, leaving the trust bearing total losses on the venture of nearly $600,000.Some dissenters on the trust’s staff had tried to warn of the financial and reputational risks involved, former insiders say, but were seemingly ignored.The couple behind the operating company, Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis, had previously run the smaller Dungog Film Festival, but had no experience of the island, and underestimated the logistical difficulties of getting people and supplies there. A creditor’s report blamed both sides for the fiasco, finding there was “very little documentation that shows any agreement behind the company and the trust in regard to the terms of the festival and sharing of costs and responsibilities”.“It was a clash of cultures,” says one film industry source. “It was a fabulous idea, but how were you going to get those people on and off the island?”Eighteen months later, a lingering  question remains for those trying to make sense of the trust’s latest moves: is there a link between the film festival failure, and a recent pitch to Chinese investors to avail themselves of prime leasehold spots in some of Sydney’s most well-known headland parks?As Fairfax Media revealed a week ago, the trust was recently advertising – via the NSW Trade and Investment office in Shanghai – several sites on Middle and North Head for long lease and development. The online brochure talked glowingly of “unique development opportunities” for “the creative investor” and highlighted the spectacular Sydney Harbour outlooks and lush parkland surroundings as having potential for things like a boutique hotel.The revelation caused uproar among those who insist the trust’s primary responsibilities are not commercial, but enhancing the amenity of the former Defence land it has custodianship of, with an emphasis on conserving environmental and heritage values.The trust’s vision statement says its prime role is to “provide a lasting legacy for the people of Australia by helping to create the finest foreshore park in the world and provide places that will greatly enrich the cultural life of the city and the nation”. This sits in jarring contrast to the minutes of a trust meeting of June last year, which said “the trust will   be focusing on its core business – leasing – in the coming months”.Set up by the Howard government in 2001 to take over the former defence sites around the harbour, the trust now has stewardship of Cockatoo Island, the Headland Park at Middle Head, the North Head sanctuary, Woolwich dock and parklands, Snapper Island, and sites at Watsons Bay and Neutral Bay.Many of these require extensive remediation. But capital grants from the federal government ceased several years ago, putting increasing onus on the organisation to be self-funding. So far, it has done this from interest earned on the original government grants, supplemented by putting small-scale tenants in many of the ex-army buildings scattered around the former defence sites, and temporary event revenue.Yet it is still feeling the squeeze. As the June minutes last year warned, “all efforts are being made to reduce the trust’s dependence on interest revenue as the trust’s cash reserves reduce”. Its bottom line was also hit by losing a healthy income from TV show The Biggest Loser which recently vacated a site it had been leasing at North Head.This week a spokesman insisted the film festival losses and the exodus of the show had had “minimal effect” on the trust’s capacity to self-fund. The accounts suggest otherwise. Annual   surpluses went from $3.8 million in 2011, to $1.2 million in 2012 and just $49,000 last year. It seems no coincidence that the trust recently hired former investment banker Tim McKay to put more grunt into its leasing division.Bailey says the trust has – for now – pulled the sites being marketed in China because “we had enough on our plate already”. He insists the trust is in a healthier financial position. “It’s not our task to make a lot of money – ideally we would be line-ball each year because the purpose of generating the revenue is to put it back into the sites,” he says.But defenders of the original vision for the trust fear it is being forced to pursue ever more aggressive commercial leasing opportunities to keep itself running. Fierce local opposition to a proposal for an aged care home on Middle Head on trust land has been another sign of the mounting tension between the the body’s original goals, and its increasing financial constraints.Bailey insists “we are not doing anything differently to what we have always done”. But Linda Bergin, president of the Headland Preservation Group, says the trust’s recent floating of a “greenfield” development opportunity for a boutique hotel at Middle Head is evidence to the contrary. “That plus aged care would be a completely inappropriate use for public parkland,” she says.

Breaking News: Harbour Trust marketing sites for lease and redevelopment to Chinese investors

WATCH TV COVERAGE TONIGHT ON CHANNEL 10 (5pm) and CHANNEL 9 (6pm)Today, on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, it was revealed that the Harbour Trust had been marketing, since the middle of last year, the availability of 3 sites for lease and redevelopment. Two of the sites are in the Headland Park and 1 is on North Head..The document can only be found on a Chinese government website and was still live on the internet as at 4pm today. The contact email address in the document is shanghai@sydneyaustralia.com.cn. The document is entitled “Investment Opportunities: Tourism and Property”Apparently, the Trust ceased to market these sites around December 2013, which is around 1 month after the HPG aged care campaign began. However, Geoff Bailey, Executive Director of the Trust stated to the Herald reporter that the sites were “still in prospect”.Further, the marketing document was apparently produced and was/is still being marketed by the NSW government, not the Trust, out of 2 NSW government offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai. The text is in both English and Chinese. You can see it HERE. It also contains NSW heritage properties for sale and lease, some of which have now been sold. You can find the Trust sites starting on page 8.Both Headland Park sites are on the ridgeline with stunning views.One site is a 3,500 square metre site located on Middle Head Road which presently contains 5 original and occupied former Defence houses. One resident says they were stunned to learn about this and was interviewed by Channel 9. This site is earmarked in the document “to build a boutique accommodation offering.” The site has stunning harbour views.The other site is the fuel tanks site on Georges Heights. Available on 6,000 square metres of land “for purchase” and with “generous scope to reimagine these structures.” Apparently the words indicating "for purchase" were a “mistake”.HPG members and President Linda Bergin OAM and Vice President Julie Goodsir were interviewed today in Headland Park by TV reporters.Linda Bergin was quoted in the Herald and said that “the Trust had a duty to preserve heritage and open space and it is wrong to consider proposals which would alienate the public by long-term leases for private purposes.”NEWS FROM SENATOR BIRMINGHAM’S OFFICEWhile HPG members were being interviewed today by tv news, Senator Birmingham’s office rang Linda Bergin and revealed that no “amended” proposal for aged care had yet been received. The applicant, Middle Head Healthcare, has flagged an amended application for one side of Middle Head Road and that it would be sent to the Minster for his consent prior to obtaining consent from the Trust.URGENT - WRITE TO POLITICIANS NOW!In light of these developments, it is urgent that you write AGAIN to our elected representatives and the Trust asking them to reject any aged care proposal as unsuitable on public parkland and to withdraw any consideration of development on the additional Trust sites revealed today and to find suitable adaptive reuses for the former fuel tanks site in Headland Park.

The principle of not allowing private development on public land stands

Jim Slavin sent us a copy of his letter that was published in the Mosman Daily today:I do not speak for the Headland Preservation Group, but David Fosters’ comments on the proposed development at Middle Head for an aged care facility (Mosman Daily 6/3/14 ‘Sense is Needed’) demonstrates a growing trend in our society. Attack the opposition, misconstrue the facts and generalise to make your point.His reference to zealotry, propaganda , narrow- mindedness , greenies and fairies at the bottom of the garden, in relation to the Headland Preservation Group, is the attack. His assertions that access will be improved and the footprint of the existing facilities not greatly expanded is either a misunderstanding or a deliberate misconstruction of what are the demonstrable facts. And finally, his points that opponents of the development are against free enterprise, which they are not, unless the word FREE is literally interpreted, and against SUITABLY located aged care facilities in Mosman, are the generalisations.The proposal is such a radical departure from what was envisaged when the facilities were handed over to the community by then Prime Minister Howard (a closet greenie?) and what has already been developed, unopposed, at the headland, that it requires amendments to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Trust’s Management Plan, and most likely Ministerial approval.The opposition is mostly about protecting prime public parkland for everyone’s enjoyment, not just members of the Mosman community. Nothing more than was envisaged when the Trust was first established.Opponents of the proposal come from a wide cross section of the community and the political spectrum. A reported application for a smaller development , yet unseen, may change some people’s views. But for me and others the principle of not allowing private development on public land stands.Jim SlavinMosmanReproduced with permission