The Blue Mountains Gazette, Wednesday, 26 November, 2008 9

By Damien Madigan

It’s already shed light on themuddy trenches of Belgium’swestern front and the secretunderground apartment blocksof Stalin’s Russia, but a popularpay television series is about toturn its gaze to a mushroom-sprouting tunnel in Glenbrook.

Although the connectionmight at first seem incongruous,the tunnel’s recently revealedhistory as a storage site forchemical weapons during WorldWar II made it an ideal subjectfor the History Channel series,Cities of the Underworld.

Presenter Don Wildmanfilmed segments for the episodeearlier this month, providing aninteresting diversion for Sundaymorning shoppers in Glenbrookvillage before interviewing twoformer RAAF armourers at theold railway tunnel.

Now used as a mushroomfarm, the tunnel housed enoughmustard gas to wipe out the pop-

ulation of Sydney during WorldWar II. Bound to secrecy at thetime, the men who worked thereonly gained widespread recog-nition this year following thepublication of a book onAustralia’s chemical warfarehistory by author GeoffPlunkett.

Eighty-four-year-old Penrithresident Geoff Burn was happyto be involved in the HistoryChannel documentary althoughhe is still stung by the lack ofofficial acknowledgment suc-cessive governments haveshown to the young men whocarried out the dangerous workat Glenbrook.

“I look at it as if it’s too late . . .We waited over 60 years to getany sort of recognition whatso-ever — before that we didn’texist,” he said.

Mr Burn was joined in theseries by 83-year-oldGerringong resident ArthurLewis who swapped his family’sParramatta home for a masonite

hut at Glenbrook during the1940s.

The History Channel’s smallLA crew also filmed segments atCockatoo Island, Middle Headand the Abercrombie Caves dur-ing their Australian sojourn.

The episode on the Glenbrooktunnel will air in 2009.

Glimpse of the past: Penrith'sGeoff Burn (left) with Arthur Lewisnear the Glenbrook tunnel wherethey worked as RAAF armourersstoring chemical weapons duringWorld War II.

International interest: History Channel presenter Don Wildman films the introduction for a documentaryon Glenbrook's secret wartime past in the village's shopping centre earlier this month.

TV turn for Glenbrook

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