WWII RAAF Operations Room, Berrimah

The former RAAF Operations Room resulted from a direction of the Air Board for co-ordinated control of aerial defences, including Radio Direction Finding and anti-aircraft defences in the North Western Area of Operations in the north of Australia during World War II. No. 5 Fighter Sector was formed on 25 February 1942 and the Operations Room was built on the site east of the former hospital in late 1942. It housed the personnel and equipment required to effectively plot and relay the positions of the enemy aircraft to put Allied fighter aircraft in an optimum position for interception, in cooperation with the RDF and anti-aircraft defences. Manned 24 hours a day until 12 November 1943, the date of the last recorded bombing raid, Operations Room personnel directed Allied aircraft to intercept Japanese aircraft and generally monitored aircraft movements. From November 1943 the Operations Room provided information on reconnaissance sorties by the Japanese and was instrumental in the downing of the last enemy aircraft intercepted over the Top End on 12 June 1944. The unit was disbanded in Darwin in April 1946.