Bunkered down in a history mystery

By Tania Martin
After months of speculation over the need to drill a hole in the car park of the town’s football ground, the local historian got his wish.
A small crowd milled around the car park as Mr Rawson started the drilling that was expected to unearth a World War II bunker.
Mr Rawson told the Mail in March that for more than 30 years locals had believed the bunker lay beneath the car park.
He said if there was something down there it could be ecologically unsound and needed to be investigated.
After drilling down more than 30 metres the car park excavation was aborted, finding nothing but dirt and clay.
But Mr Rawson believes the myth is far from busted.
He said drilling the hole had proven that there was a certain amount of back-fill dirt beneath the surface.
Mr Rawson said the older soil was on the top and newer red clay beneath it.
“The soil tester said it looked like the soil was upside down,” he said.
“This means that someone has deliberately back-filled the space between the bunker and the surface … we were always told they had put a gully in and it’s a good chance we drilled into the back-filled area of that gully.”
Mr Rawson now wants to further investigate the area between the cricket nets and clubrooms.
“It’s between the two places we think it might be,” Mr Rawson said.