Smithfield Magazine Area

During the early days of WWII, the Commonwealth Government embarked upon a major expansion to manufacture munitions.  Four munitions facilities were constructed in and around Adelaide, small arms factory at Hendon, a foundry and rolling mill at Finsbury, and explosive and filling factory at Salisbury and a magazine area at Smithfield.

The Smithfield magazine was built early in 1941 on a 530 hectare site, about 5 km north of the Salisbury Explosive and Filling Factory.  It functioned as the storage area for the Salisbury factory’s munitions project, including Cordite, TNT and Nitrocellulose.  The site was located on the corner of Curtis and Andrew’s road, MacDonald Park.

Approximately 95 buildings were constructed, thirty 50 ton magazines and three 100 ton magazines, each well separated and equidistant from each other to minimise the devastation that an explosion would cause (600 feet).  They were surrounded by huge earth mounds and blast protection walls made of sandbags filled with sand and cement. The intention was to drive any explosion that might occur upwards rather than outwards which would affect other buildings.  There were also 3 examination houses, a guard house and office accommodation.  The magazine buildings are constructed of red brick with corrugated asbestos cement roofs and have wide eaves supported by timber brackets. Around 20 families would be moved from their farms as the construction began

The 100-ton magazines (124 ft by 23 ft) were originally used to store finished munitions products and are surrounded by five metre high blast mounds. The 50-ton magazines (63 ft by 23 ft) were used to store bulk explosives.

The bulk explosives were sent from Salisbury in wooden cases and transported to Smithfield by road, initially by horse-drawn vehicle and later by truck or trailer. They were delivered to the unloading sheds and then moved by battery powered electric tramways to the magazine buildings.

The magazine was connected to the existing Adelaide-Gawler railway to enable munitions and stores to be moved in and out of the area. Serviced by the South Australian Railways (SAR), Smithfield had four narrow gauge tramway system.   A little south of the Smithfield station, a 5’3” railway line branched off the main line, ran alongside the northern side of Davoren Road, crossed Andrews road and continued in an east-west directions alongside the road in the Smithfield Magazine area.

To facilitate the movement of munitions within the area, an internal tramway operated.  There were two main 2 foot gauge lines which ran in an east-west direction along each side of the 5’3” line.  Branches came off the 2 foot lines and then off those lines very short spur lines let to individual buildings.  There were 4 to 5 spur lines on each branch.

Generally a loop came off the 5’3” line to service the northern side of each building, while a 2 foot loop operated on the southern side.  The 5’3” rails were set lower than the 2 foot rails so that the platforms of the rolling stock of each gauge and the building platforms were at the same height.

In 1962 moves were made to close the magazine, with the bulk of the explosives destroyed 30 June 1962, and the area of the overall magazine reduced.  A large portion of the land was sold, with some magazine buildings converted into residences by the new owners.  Approximately 551 acres was retained and transferred to the control of the Weapons Research Establishment, which used the site as a holding area for bulk explosives used in experiments in Salisbury and part of the national reserve stock.

In October 1982 the City of Munno Para rezoned the Munitions area to rural living from Rural A.  Land owners permitted to subdivide their properties into 1 ha allotments.

The Department of Defence sold a parcel of 220 ha in May 2003, corner of Curtis and Andrews roads, zoned Horticulture by City of Playford, with the possibility of further subdivision.