Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
Moments in a longer story.
Selected milestones in the history of Darwin’s wartime oil storage tunnels.
On this page
From air raids to a heritage museum
These dates describe the place you can learn about here. They are not a company timeline for Apollonaut.
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19 February 1942
The first raids
Two Japanese air raids strike Darwin, and oil tanks on Stokes Hill burn above the main wharf.
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16 March and 16 June 1942
More tanks lost
Further raids leave seven of the eleven tanks on Stokes Hill destroyed.
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1943
Work begins
About 400 men of the Civil Constructional Corps start digging the secret tunnels.
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12 November 1943
The last raid
Northern Australia is bombed for the last time, after about 100 raids.
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1944
A mechanical shovel
A mechanical shovel helps finish the excavation.
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1945
The war ends
The war ends before the tunnels have held any oil.
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1950s
Jet fuel
Tunnels 5 and 6 store jet fuel for about three years.
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19 February 1992
Open to visitors
Tunnels 5 and 6 open to the public on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.
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20 May 2015
New signs
The site reopens with new interpretive signs, marking the Centenary of Anzac.
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June 2023
Augmented reality
The tunnels add an augmented-reality experience for visitors’ smartphones.
Follow the stories behind the dates
A timeline is a beginning. The longer history introduces the people and places; the sources below provide further context.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
- Wikipedia: Bombing of Darwin
- Wikipedia: Darwin oil storage tunnels
- Australia @ War: Safe Naval Oil Storage, Darwin
- WWII Oil Storage Tunnels Darwin: Immersive experience
Links lead to the original publishers.