Denham, Tim, Matt Schlitz, Philip Mill, Darren Renshaw, Heather Burke and Alice Gorman

Searching for Shelter: Community-led investigations of World War II air-raid shelters at the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park, Adelaide

In 2004, an archaeological training excavation with geophysical prospection sought to identify the entrances and subsurface structures of air-raid shelters built during World War II at the Repatriation General Hospital (affectionately known as the ‘Repat’), Daw Park, Adelaide. The investigations were ‘community-led’; they were requested by the Veteran and Community Advisor at the hospital in response to increasing interest in, and intrigue regarding, the air-raid shelters among hospital staff and the veterans’ community. The investigations identifi ed an in-fi lled passageway leading from a former entrance to a shelter, and generated much local publicity and community interest. Building on this initial phase, the search for the air raid shelters has continued in 2005 and 2006 as an oral history project among former patients and staff at the hospital, as well as further geophysical survey in newly identified areas of the hospital’s grounds, with a view to excavation in 2007.

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