Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre is a heritage-listed former military building at 9 Lambert Road, Indooroopilly, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

[1] Three brick and timber cell blocks (c. 1942-1943), and their related former exercise yard, located at 9 Lambert Street, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, are the last surviving purpose-built elements of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, which was the headquarters of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) from late 1942 to mid-1945.

The later Q-Store and Office building (c. 1959–1960), and a Motorized Transport Cover (c. 1959–1960) were purpose-built infrastructure for the Australian Army's Northern Command Provost (military police) unit that occupied the site from 1951 to c. 1984.

[4][5] The large two storey timber residence Tighnabruaich, on 3.8 hectares (9.4 acres) of land on the bank of the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly, was requisitioned by the AMF on 17 August 1942,[6] Requests for repairs and additions to the two residences on the site (Tighnabruaich and Witton House) also occurred in August 1942[7] and the Australians established the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre there in early September 1942.

[8][1] The site of the Interrogation Centre was once the estate of Henry Charles Stanley, Chief Engineer for Railways in Queensland, who built Tighnabruaich c. 1889–1892.

Indooroopilly developed as an elite suburb in the late 19th century, and a number of large villas, including Tighnabruaich, were later erected on the banks of the Brisbane River.

[1] On 19 September 1942, the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), a joint US-Australian unit, was formed by MacArthur's Chief Intelligence Officer, Brigadier-General Charles A. Willoughby, and established its headquarters at the Interrogation Centre.

[19] The American-born Nisei, whose families were removed from the US West Coast in early 1942 due to fears about the loyalty of Japanese Americans, were to prove invaluable to the Allied War effort.

The Nisei enlisted men soon moved into tents at a property directly across the river (Neilson House on Rosebery Terrace, since demolished).

An Allied Works Council (AWC) meeting in early December 1942 merely noted a requisition for £2000 of alterations and additions to "three premises" at "ATIS Indooroopilly".

[26] The work was allocated to Mr Holt, Supervising Engineer of the Bridge Board, with the order lodged on the Main Roads Commission and a time of completion of six weeks.

The project "Indooroopilly, GHQ, 3 special buildings" was also included in a list of requisitions to January 1943, with the handwritten annotation "Detailed Interrogation Centre".

[32][33][1] In its first month of operation the ATIS, which was a polyglot unit including Americans, Australians, Canadians, British, Chinese, White Russians, and East Indies Netherlanders, processed 1000 captured Japanese documents, translated 90, and interrogated seven prisoners, the first Japanese POWs (captured at Normanby Island near Milne Bay) reaching Brisbane on 30 September 1942.

[1] The Interrogation Centre was officially acquired by the Australian Government on 26 April 1945,[45] Ownership was transferred to the Commonwealth on 13 June, registered 7 January 1946[46] and subsequently a variety of military units were accommodated there.

In July, the ATIS left and until the end of the war the site was the barracks for No.2 Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), which was transferred from St Peter's Lutheran College on Indooroopilly Road.

After WWII the Australian Provost Corps had been reduced to one platoon in each of Queensland, Victoria and NSW, plus some units involved in the occupation of Japan.

[1] Two more buildings (extant in 2016) were added to the Provost headquarters c. 1959–1960, forming a complex around the perimeter of the former POW exercise yard, which at some point was sealed with bitumen as a parade ground.

[63] In 1961 the building was described as being 150 by 21 feet (45.7 by 6.4 m), with concrete foundations and floor; brick walls; hardwood posts; galvanised iron cliplock roof; some cement rendered lining; and some hardboard ceiling.

Also in 1974, a timber interwar residence (not extant) was relocated from the Kelvin Grove Military Reserve to face Clarence Road to the east of Tighnabruaich.

The units totalled 112 personnel, 39 vehicles and 25 motorcycles, and the western (central) cell block was being used for "additional storage and office accommodation".

The area immediately around the former defence buildings, in the southern half of the site, is terraced, stepping up from west to east; and is accessed and set well back from Lambert Street to the north.

The guard rooms and bathrooms generally have painted brick walls, narrow timber cornices and are free of skirting boards.

[1] Features not of cultural heritage significance include painted finishes to brickwork, tile and linoleum floor linings, flat sheeting lining some cell walls, fibre cement sheeting, modern bathroom fixtures, plywood boarding over windows and doors, wire mesh screens, and metal barred screens.

[1] Elements that are not of cultural heritage significance include: lightweight partitions in the store section, linoleum floor linings, kitchenettes, plywood boarding over windows and doors, paint over external brickwork, and wire mesh and timber screens dividing the subfloor area.

[1] The Motor Transport Building is a brick and timber-framed structure with a concrete slab floor and a skillion roof clad in profiled-metal sheets.

The building is rectangular in plan and is largely open for the provision for vehicle-parking in the centre, with brick enclosures at the northern and southern ends.

[1] Non-significant elements include wire mesh and corrugated metal sheets that divide the central parking area, and plywood boarding over windows.

As the headquarters of the joint United States-Australian Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) from 1942-1945, the Interrogation Centre played an important part in Queensland, Australian, and global history.

The 1950s expansion of the Provost Corps, and of the military police presence at the former Interrogation Centre, was due to the introduction of Australia's third National Service scheme (1951–59).

Both these buildings demonstrate the facilities (office and storage space, and vehicle garaging) required by a Provost unit to carry out its duties.