Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Is Gona Barracks still and active military barracks?
In October 1998, following a period of scaling down of activity at the site, Gona Barracks officially closed. Units based at the barracks were dispersed to other Army bases, the museum shifted to Enoggera and a war memorial flagpole sent out to the Royal Australian Regiment Memorial Walk and Contemplation Building at Enoggera.[1]
The two Household regiments rotated the barracks between Combermere Barracks and Regent's Park barracks, and then when Regent's Park Barracks became too cramped, from 1932, between Combermere Barracks and Knightsbridge Barracks. In 1938 the Household Cavalry were ordered to Palestine still mounted as cavalry and still actively engaged in ceremonial duties but did not arrive in Palestine until 1939.
Numerous isolated trees have seeded themselves throughout the site and in particular on batters created during earthworks in the 1920s on the upper barracks and in 1953 on the lower barracks. Several isolated Ficus platypoda occur is scattered locations on the lower barracks. These specimens are of a moderate size and may have self-sown, planted or may be remnant.[1]
The Second World War ended in August 1945, and in the months that followed, Kelvin Grove Military Reserve saw the demobilisation of returning soldiers, and the disposal of surplus stores. In 1947, 48 buildings consisting mainly of the RAE Maintenance Company and Signals Camps in the Lower Barracks area, were designated as surplus to Army requirements and sold.[1]
The Site of the Military Barracks and Soldiers Garden is a rare archaeological site. The circa 1790 Parramatta military barracks was one of only two military barracks built during the period of Captain Arthur Phillip's term as Governor of NSW. The site has the potential to provide the earliest surviving physical evidence of a convict period military barracks in Australia.
Gona Barracks is important because of its aesthetic significance. The World War I buildings in the upper barracks area are of aesthetic significance as a group of similarly scaled buildings constructed of timber, positioned around a central open space or parade ground area. These qualities are enhanced by the overall intactness of the exteriors of most of these buildings.[1]
The lower barracks area is located to the north-east of the upper barracks area. A driveway joining the two barracks areas runs from the north-western elevation of the Engineers' depot to the eastern elevation of the Quartermasters store in the lower barracks area. External access to the lower barracks area is gained via Blamey Street and Kelvin Grove Road, through the upper barracks. The area developed for Engineers is located in the northern portion of the lower barracks, while the area for Signals is positioned in the southern portion of the site.[1]
The boundary of the Kelvin Grove training area altered somewhat throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. In the lower barracks area, two acres were purchased from the Queensland Government in 1953, and in subsequent years, the Army exchanged some of its land for privately owned land to make the Barracks site more symmetrical and to accommodate the expansion of the Signals depot. A portion of a Queensland Government road reserve was also purchased at a cost of £1000 in 1961. While the lower barracks area was expanding in this period, the upper barracks area was reduced in size. The laundry site had been privately leased since the 1920s, and in 1954 the building and equipment was sold to the company, Bishops Laundry and Dry Cleaners, and thereby excised from the barracks site.[1]
The World War I era buildings in the upper barracks area of Gona Barracks demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as a surviving precinct of buildings from this period, and as examples of the early design of buildings by the Commonwealth. The concentration of drill halls, and the number of different types of drill halls for the various services sited at one location was not a common military practice at the time. The gun park, services, artillery and engineers drill halls are rare surviving examples of their type.[1]
The Precinct was built at a cost of around $60 million on the site of the Gona Barracks, an Australian Army barracks, which was decommissioned in 1998.
A heritage assessment of the Gona Barracks site determined that it was the buildings of the upper barracks around the parade ground that, as a group, were of a greatest significance. A partnership between the Queensland Department of Housing, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland University of Technology was formed to develop a mixed-use urban village precinct using the Gona Barracks site and adjacent land. The university built its Creative Industries precinct re-using Gona Barracks buildings and introducing new buildings, sited to reinforce the rectangular form of the Gona barracks parade ground. The re-development won major planning and design awards from the Urban Development Institute of Australia.[4]
During the 1960s the Australian Army began renaming their barracks sites, drawing on prominent battles for the names. The Kelvin Grove site became "Gona Barracks", derived from the Battle of Gona, fought between Japanese and Australian troops on the north coast of Papua New Guinea between 16 November and 9 December 1942. The barracks continued to evolve and new military units moved to the site. In 1965 five brick houses were built along Blamey Street at a cost of £30,000 for use as married quarters. Two of the houses were later removed from Blamey Street, and the remaining three were excised from the barracks site. In 1966 the parade ground area was resealed in order to install two helicopter landing pads, while by the 1980s, a new steel demountable lecture room was constructed where the former riding school once stood. Another building, the 1934 staff officers quarters, was removed and relocated to Witton Barracks at Indooroopilly in 1974. In the 1970s portions of army land were acquired by the Main Roads Department for various road works adjoining the site, while another portion was sold and became part of the Kelvin Grove Campus of Queensland University of Technology.[1]
A heritage assessment of the Gona Barracks site determined that it was the buildings of the upper barracks around the parade ground that, as a group, were of a greatest significance rather than individual buildings. A partnership between the Queensland Department of Housing, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland University of Technology was formed to develop a mixed-use urban village precinct using the Gona Barracks site and adjacent land. The university built its Creative Industries precinct re-using Gona Barracks buildings and introducing new buildings, sited to reinforce the rectangular form of the Gona barracks parade ground. The re-development won major planning and design awards from the Urban Development Institute of Australia.
Surviving documentation indicates that the barracks were constructed of poor quality bricks (possibly under-fired) with a mud mortar as a bonding agent, and it was soon apparent that the buildings would not last. Collins records in his account of the early colony, that in January 1798 the military barracks (along with other buildings in the settlement) were in such a state of disrepair that they could not support their own weight. Despite efforts to repair the buildings by March 1810 the then Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, had determined that new barracks were needed. He informed the Colonial Office that considerable monies would soon need to be expended to erect new military barracks. Work on the new barracks at the site of the current Lancer Barracks in Smith Street, Parramatta was underway by March 1819. It was reported at the time that the old barracks were too decayed to be occupied any longer. It is unclear when the old military barracks were demolished however they appear to have been removed by the time the site of the barracks was granted to Archdeacon Thomas Hobbes Scott in 1829.
Gona Barracks occupies a site of almost seven hectares in the inner northern Brisbane suburb of Kelvin Grove. The complex comprises approximately 70 individual buildings, located in two fairly evenly divided areas known as the "upper barracks", accessed via Kelvin Grove Road, and the "lower barracks" entered from Sylvan Road. The upper barracks area features an expansive central parade ground area, around which a group of buildings is arranged. The lower barracks feature two main groups of buildings set within grassed and bituminised areas.[1]
The former Gona Barracks is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as evidence of Queensland's preparations for military involvement in various world conflicts. Specifically, Gona Barracks is associated with the expansion of military training for militia forces after the introduction of compulsory military training in 1911, the provision of facilities for specialist militia units, and the continuation of voluntary military forces until 1998. The place contains World War I drill halls built for militia units of infantry, and more specialised groups such as the artillery, engineers and service corps, and as such demonstrates the extent of the various sections of the armed forces at the time and the commitment of the citizen soldiers who composed these units. The general size of the barracks site also demonstrates the site's early history as the Brisbane Grammar School endowment, from 1879 to 1911.[1]
Gona Barracks has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history as the World War I buildings in the upper barracks demonstrate the development of military technology. The buildings constructed for the artillery, service corps and engineers demonstrate in their form and room layouts the important role played by horses in military activity at that time, which was later supersede by motorised transportation.[1]
The Royal Military Academy at the south end of Woolwich Common was also designed by James Wyatt and has an almost equally long façade in Mock Tudor style. Other military buildings that survive include Connaught Barracks (built as the Royal Artillery Hospital in 1780), Green Hill Military School and Royal Herbert Hospital on Shooters Hill. The Royal Engineers' HQ was moved to Chatham in 1856, but a small detachment remained in Woolwich, quartered in what is now Engineer House on Mill Hill, just off the Common. Several listed buildings were demolished in the 1970s, including the Grand Depot Barracks of the Royal Military Artificers (1803), Cambridge Barracks (1842, of which the gatehouse still stands) and Red Barracks (1858, only the boundary wall and entrance gate remain). The latter two, on Frances Street, were originally built as the Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich for the Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines, and each was considered an innovative and influential design. The Marines departed with the closure of the Dockyard, whereupon the buildings were converted into barracks accommodation for various military corps. Rushgrove House (1806) housed the Colonel Commandant of the Marine Barracks (later Cambridge Barracks) from 1855.
The Gona Barracks site was established just prior to World War I in the 1910s, for the purpose of military training for specialist units of compulsory militia forces. The site continued to develop and became a Citizens Military Force training complex in the 1950s, and later an Army Reserve recruitment centre.[1]
The barracks were built between 1909 and 1911 on behalf of the Ministry of Colonies as Education School for soldiers and Petty Officers of the KNIL to a design by architect Jos Limburg in the style of rationalism, and is named after Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin who laid the first stone himself. The Corps Colonial Reserve moved in 1911 from the Waal barracks in the Benedenstad to this barracks in Nijmegen-Oost on the corner of the Dommer van Poldersveldtweg and the Daalseweg. With the move almost all activities of the Colonial Reserve were accommodated in Nijmegen: recruitment and selection, training, the care of broadcasting and handling of the returned and health care for the sick and wounded. The care for disabled people took place at Bronbeek in Arnhem. After the Second World War the role of the barracks changed. The KNIL was officially dissolved on 26 July 1950. For the handling of the administration due to the demobilization of KNIL soldiers who were not included in Royal Netherlands Army, the " 'KNIL Center Netherlands' " was established. On March 14, 1951 the center was officially closed. Until 1953, colonial military cases were still being dealt with. In 1951 the complex, together with the nearby Krayenhoff Barracks and Snijders Barracks, was taken into use by the Air Force Instruction and Military Training School (LIMOS). In 1995 the army pushed off the barracks and the complex became an asylum seekers' center. The barracks have a monument status. The Military Hospital, which was a separate part of the barracks, was demolished in 1992. Some smaller buildings that were part of the hospital, such as the porter's house and the so-called octagonal low 'radio building', have been redesigned.
Jefferson Barracks County Park includes the several museums, museums that house artifacts and history of Jefferson Barracks while it was an active United States Military Post. The Powder Magazine Museum focuses on the history of Jefferson Barracks from its inception in 1826 until its closure in 1946. The Old Ordnance Room, also once a powder magazine, features temporary exhibits with military themes. The Laborer's House Museum shows a typical mid 1800s family residence.
Leighton Barracks is a former military garrison, located on top of a hill in the Hubland area east of the City of Würzburg, in Franconia, Germany. It was active as a military base between 1936–2008, from 2012-onwards part of the barracks has converted to new rôle as additional academic buildings and student accommodation for the University of Würzburg
Gona Barracks is a heritage-listed barracks at 3, 7,12, 25 & 26 Gona Parade, Kelvin Grove, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c.1914 to 1960s. It is also known as Kelvin Grove Military Reserve and Kelvin Grove Training Area. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 7 February 2005.[1]
In recent years, Army recruitment in south-east Queensland became centred at the Gona Barracks site. Over the years, the use of many buildings changed and alterations to the buildings were made, especially in the upper barracks area. The former Artillery drill hall, former Engineers depot and the former AASC drill hall have been particularly altered internally.[1]
Gona Barracks is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places, as the layout of the World War I buildings illustrate the military use of the site. This group of buildings was carefully and deliberately placed around a central parade ground area, a practice which was followed in other parts of Australia. The World War II buildings also demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type of building, constructed of timber with corrugated iron roofs, elevated on low stumps.[1]