[1] The Second World War Hangar No.7, located fronting Terminal Drive on the site of the old Brisbane Airport, is a timber truss igloo structure with ribbed metal sheet cladding.

[1] In September 1829 Commandant Patrick Logan of the Moreton Bay penal settlement founded a secondary agricultural establishment approximately 8 miles (13 km) from the town at Eagle Farm.

[1] The opening of the mouth of the Brisbane River to deep water shipping, and the construction of the railway to Pinkenba stimulated growth in the area around Eagle Farm, and housing subdivisions gradually displaced the pastoral uses of the land.

The pageant also included aerobatics, an aerial derby, speed championships, bombing displays, novelty events, crazy flying, parachute descents and an air battle.

Part of the lease arrangements was that the Queensland Gliding Association was to be allowed to use the site on public holidays, to erect hangars on the land, and to install water supply and any conveniences.

Following the establishment of the Royal Air Force in 1918, Australia's Minister for Defence, Senator George Foster Pearce, appointed the Swinburne Committee to report on the needs of military aviation.

This threat of invasion in 1942 is summarised in a statement made by Prime Minister Curtin in 1944, in which he said now that Singapore was lost and we were unable to concentrate a superior fleet, the strength of our defences was inadequate to defend Australia ... against an enemy with command of the sea and air.

Several Australian and American aircraft were destroyed on the ground or shot down, and large numbers of the RAAF deserted their posts with 278 personnel still missing four days after the attack.

[1] The acquisition of the six furlong (1320 yards) straight extension of Doomben Racecourse and adjacent land bordering the southern boundary of the aerodrome was proposed on 11 December 1941 and was valued at £1,727.

Eagle Farm had direct road and rail links to Brisbane, it was close to port facilities and had potential for expansion and provision of multiple runways.

Initial works were delayed by heavy rain for three weeks converting the ground to a quagmire, and as a result thousands of feet of ashes and coke breeze were carted from the gasworks and deposited in order to keep trucks moving with borrow material from Nudgee.

The Americans advised that the runways were urgently needed for the fighter plane protection of Brisbane, and as a result two ten-hour shifts were organised using 100 trucks which hauled 33,000 cubic yards of fill to complete the section, and on 29 March 1942 a squadron of P-39 aircraft landed.

[1] By April 1942, Anti Aircraft Artillery units were disposed to protect the wharf areas near Eagle Farm, and camouflage painting of the hangars had begun, as well as treatment to the aerodrome and nearby Emergency Military Camps at Doomben and Ascot Racecourses.

[1] The standard igloo design resulted from a need for lightweight prefabricated structures which could be quickly erected as aircraft hideouts, or shelters in more remote areas.

However, Emil Brizay, a French engineer refugee from Singapore in the office of MR Hornibrook is also credited with designing the construction system on which the igloo was modelled.

The igloos at Eagle Farm were one of several designs for lightweight long span structures which utilised timber in small sectional sizes of chords to enable the lattice trusses to be hand nailed in jigs on site and speedily erected at low cost.

[1] These timber truss igloos were widely used, and known locations include Garbutt near Townsville, Cairns, Eagle Farm, Allison Engine Works at Breakfast Creek, Schofield Army Base and Archerfield Airfield.

The air war over China had been in full swing for over four years, little attempt had been made by Allied Intelligence agencies to learn very much about the Japanese equipment, tactics and potential.

Due to severe cuts in military funding following WWI, intelligence units had not been developed for gathering and disseminating this type of information, and the bulk of concern was placed on Hitler's growing airpower and conquests in Europe.

[1] The ATAIU, a small group of intelligence personnel, was formed in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, and later moved to Brisbane under the US 5th Air Force under the command of General MacArthur's Supreme Headquarters of the SWPA in late 1942/early 1943.

Its staff headquarters were in the AMP Building (MacArthur Central) while the technical examination, reconstruction and simulated combat trials with captured Japanese aircraft was located at hangar 7, Eagle Farm.

The Tennessee background of Captain Frank McCoy, who was in charge of the ATAIU, was evident immediately because the initial names had a distinct hill-country flavour, such as Zeke, Rufe, Luke, Nate and others.

[1] A new version of the Zero, which served with the Japanese Naval units, was causing great concern, and battered examples were retrieved from the Buna-Gona area of New Guinea in January 1943.

They retained an intelligence gathering capability in the war zone, with field ATAI units in the SWPA, Pacific Ocean Area, Southeast Asia, China and India.

Archerfield receded into a secondary role as a commuter airport and freight transport centre, and Amberley evolved as the major military base for the RAAF.

Work to hangar 7 consisted of the construction of; a cafeteria (later lunchroom) and kitchen; male and female locker rooms and toilets; personnel officers and first aid room; welding shop, upholstery shop, dope shop and engineers school; partition walls; new external walls to half way line along each side in asbestos cement sheeting and corrugated iron roof with sashes doors; a lean-to addition on the western end and provision of showers and wc's; installation of new skylights and rotator vents in the roof; installation of cold room; check and repair trusses; installation of light and power to workshop section, engineering school and kitchen (electrical work); drainage (civil engineering); and mechanical services.

Eagle Farm served as Brisbane Airport until 1988 with the commissioning of a new complex 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the northeast, at which time most major wartime structures were extant.

[1] The Second World War Hangar No.7, located fronting Terminal Drive to the south on the site of the old Brisbane Airport, is a timber truss igloo structure with ribbed sheet metal cladding.

The ATAIU was formed to collect technical information on aircraft with which to develop combat techniques to counter the Japanese, and their work was integral to the Allied victory in the South West Pacific Area.

The hangar is the last surviving of its type at Eagle Farm, and is one of the few extant Second World War structures which demonstrate the site's former role as a major aircraft assembly depot and aerodrome, and the contribution of that function to the defence of the South West Pacific Area.