No. 6 Central Reserve RAAF

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Brief History

In June 1942 a decision was taken to construct No. 6 Central Reserve RAAFat Nokanning. The stores were to be of semi-underground concrete type, proof against bomb blast, splinters, and front gun attack. 6 Central Reserve was formed in nucleus at No. 5 Embarkation Depot, at Subiaco on 7 Mar 1944. The advance party left Perth for Nokanning on 16 Mar 1944 and by 27 March the unit was considered to be operational. Initial stocks were transferred from No. 6 Replentishing Centre. 450 tons of explosives stocks arrived at the Nokanning rail siding on 4 May, and unloading was completed on 7 May, despite beign hampered by heavy rain that made roads almost 1mpassable. More stocks were received from No. 1 Central Reserve on 4 June, and unloading was completed on 9 June 1944.

A rather disturbmg incident occurred on the morning of 3 Sept 1944 when the cook, Corporal Gorring, d1scovered a live hand grenade placed in the furnace under a copper on the airmen's mess kitchen. Whether the pin had been removed or the grenade intended to be set off by the fire, is not known. On 21 September two senior police officers escorted a member or the unit from Perth to assist in the investigation into the attempted sabotage. On 13 Oct 1944 the person respons1blc was identified and was escorted back to the unit for further investigation. A recommendation was made in September 1944 that 6 Central Reserve could be downgraded to a detachmcnt of either 6 Replentishing Centre, or 10 Stores Depot. In fact, the Commanding Officer was advised at the November 1944 Commanding Officers Conference that the opposite was to happen. During January 1945, the unit was to re-locate to Muresk and take over No. 6 Rcplentishing Centre. A small detachment was left behind at Nokanning and it became part of No. 10 Stores Depot.

On 6 July 1945, two members of the unit strayed from the 'straight and narrow' whilst in Northam, taking possession of an Army truck without permission and crashing it into a civilian vehicle injuring four civilians. The months following the end of the war were routine. During May 1946, personnel were engaged in transferring explosives from Nokanning to Woodmans Point for dumping at sea. This was followed in June by movang explosives from Muresk to Woodmans Point. On 12 Aug 1946, instructions were received that No. 6 Central Reserve was to be disbanded by incorporatmg it into No. 10 Store Depot

Unit Personnels

• Joseph Charles Colton 6 Mar - 24 Jun 1946

Notes

Content has come from Units of the Royal Australian Air Force - A Concise History - Volume 6 Logistics Units - Australian Government Publishing Service - 1995 pages 46 & 47