Day 11 - Tank traps

We knew about World War II tank traps on the eastern coast of Scotland, but until we came to Tenterfield we didn’t know that we had similar things in Australia.

It was confidently expected that Japan might invade from the north and the northern coast of Australia was judged to be too long to be defended in the event of invasion. Instead, various defensive lines were planned further south. These tank traps on the Mount Lindesay Road near Tenterfield were part of a defence line between Brisbane and Sydney. The pointed hardwood posts were sunk 1.5 metres in the ground. This is a boulder strewn landscape and explosives were used to break up boulders and add them to the defences. The idea was that these obstacles would force the tanks to rise, exposing their more vulnerable areas to Australian attack.

The invasion never happened so we don’t know how well the traps would have worked.