[3][4] Marrangaroo Army Camp situated at the end of Reserve Road used to be a major ammunition depot from 1941 to the late 1980s.

During World War II, a "town" was constructed nearby named Hokesville that was in fact a decoy for an RAAF chemical weapons storage site.

[6] During an interview with Plunkett in 2005, chemical warfare armourer, Geoff Burn mentioned he had been involved in the burial of 110-kilogram (250 lb) phosgene bombs near the entrance to the headquarters in 1943.

The legacy of these weapons remains with several hundred empty chemical munition containers being found buried at Marrangaroo Army Camp from May 2008 to February 2009.

'Bathgate' lay on Dr Mackenzie's property, about a mile from the Main Western railway line at the point where it passed through the original Marrangaroo tunnel.

Under wartime conditions, that company had designed and constructed its own NTU retorts based on information from a Bureau of Mines publication.