Qualla: 7 Naval Ammunition Depot https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: 7 Naval Ammunition Depot https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot 7 Naval Ammunition Depot: Introduction https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot/ Photo credit Erldenmile, CC BY-SA 4.0. The wheat fields around Springhill, a hundred kilometers inland from Fremantle, seem like an unlikely place to store torpedoes. But in 1942, with Japanese bombs falling on Darwin, Broome, and Wyndham, the Australian and American militaries were looking for exactly this kind of obscurity. They needed a place far from the coast, connected by rail, and invisible from the air. Springhill fit every requirement. Within months, 202 hectares of compulsorily acquired farmland became the US Navy's 7 Naval Ammunition Depot, designated Navy 137, feeding ordnance to the largest submarine operation in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Image: Erldenmile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/qd6g-7-naval-ammunition-depot-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full 7 Naval Ammunition Depot: When the War Came South https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot/ Photo credit Erldenmile, CC BY-SA 4.0. The story of Navy 137 begins with a cascade of retreats. After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, followed by sixty-four further raids on that city and strikes on Wyndham, Broome, and Onslow in Western Australia, the strategic calculus shifted south. American, British, an...

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Image: Erldenmile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/qd6g-7-naval-ammunition-depot-when-the-war-came-south.mp3 0:06 2 full 7 Naval Ammunition Depot: A Depot Disguised as Farmland https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot/ Photo credit Erldenmile, CC BY-SA 4.0. The site at Springhill, near Northam, was selected for its distance from the Indian Ocean coast and its connection to the railway line that ran through to Midland and Fremantle Harbour. The farmland was divided: part became the Australian Army's 6 Central Ammunition Depot, and an...

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Image: Erldenmile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/qd6g-7-naval-ammunition-depot-a-depot-disguised-as-farmland.mp3 0:06 3 full 7 Naval Ammunition Depot: Life at the End of the Line https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot/ Photo credit Erldenmile, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lieutenant George Wickens commanded a small staff of one additional officer and fifty enlisted men, housed in nine Quonset huts among 109 ammunition magazines and support structures. The depot had its own swimming pool, a concrete structure apparently also used for scuba diving t...

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Image: Erldenmile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/qd6g-7-naval-ammunition-depot-life-at-the-end-of-the-line.mp3 0:06 4 full 7 Naval Ammunition Depot: From Torpedoes to Wine Cellars https://qualla.com/7-naval-ammunition-depot/ Photo credit Erldenmile, CC BY-SA 4.0. The depot's 109 magazines were designed to exclude mechanical handling equipment and palletisation, a limitation that made them inconvenient for modern military logistics but unexpectedly perfect for other purposes. In the decades after the war, personnel from the Royal Australia...

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Image: Erldenmile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/d/6/g/7-naval-ammunition-depot-wp/qd6g-7-naval-ammunition-depot-from-torpedoes-to-wine-cellars.mp3 0:06 5 full