Hooked on Fyshwick's history

Flight controller: George Barlin in the 2CA studios in Kingston in the early 1930s. Photo: Courtesy George Barlin

As I traipse up the little hill opposite DFO in Fyshwick, dodging discarded sheets of metal and halftripping over fallen pine trees, I almost step on an object which looks suspiciously like it came from the shelves of one of our industrial suburb's "late night" stores. Moving on, and startling a couple of rabbits into a thicket of blackberries, I glance down at the photo that I'm carrying of the same hill in 1918.

I can't believe how much the landscape has changed - almost a 100 years ago it was completely devoid of vegetation. Today, it's heavily forested and unexpectedly harbours one of our territory's more unusual historic sites, a place where the more you dig, the more you discover its secret past.

In fact, until September this year, when reader Hilary Wardhaugh submitted a photo of the shallow concrete "reservoir" she stumbled on while exploring this rare pocket of undeveloped land on the fringes of Fyshwick, I was completely unaware of the hill, let alone it's remarkable history. Now, in the space of just a few months, I've become obsessed with uncovering its intriguing past.

Air pioneer: One of the planes that former broadcaster George Barlin (with help of listeners to 2CA) guided down to land at Canberra Airport in the 1930s. Photo: George Barlin

Surprisingly, I'm not the first to be preoccupied with "Radio Hill" as it's unofficially known. Ardent Canberra historian Alan Foskett who first "discovered" the reservoir in 2005 has published not one, but two books which delve into the area's unusual past.

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"The Radio Hill Reservoir water was the first major use of the original Cotter Dam and pumping station," explains Foskett, who adds, "the water was pumped from the Cotter to a reservoir atop Red Hill and then reticulated to Radio Hill and on to the Molonglo Internment Camp and later workers' settlement."

Internment camp? Yes, you read correctly. Towards the end of World War I, Australia responded to a request by Britain to house 3500 German and Austrian nationals held in China by building an internment camp in the area now known as Fyshwick. The camp was hastily built in just three months, however, the original 3500 internees never arrived, and instead, 160 German and Austrian nationals were brought from other camps in NSW.

Bare land: The Radio Hill Reservoir in 1918. Photo: National Library of Australia

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Hooked on Fyshwick's history