ASIO, THE ADELAIDE OFFICE

 

In the first week of March 1949, a new security service was formed with its first office situated in Adelaide. The first formal employee was Adelaide Barrister and solicitor Bernard Tuck and his Director was Geoffrey Reed, High Court Justice, South Australia. 

Tuck had spent his war time years in Queensland working with the Commonwealth Security Service under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Bob Wake. Wake was to become ASIOs third employee closely followed by Ray Whitrod. Followers of this blog will recall how there was quite some ill feeling between Wake and then Commander Rupert Long. Commander Long represented both MI5 and MI6 in Australia and was the first Director of the Combined Operations Intelligence Centre, Melbourne

Bernard Tuck, sometimes known as 'Friar', was, in fact, the man who recruited Ray Whitrod, then a Detective Sergeant in the SA Police force.   The date of his appointment is not clear at this time but he was charged with setting up B2, the counter-espionage unit of the new organisation, that was accomplished in June 1949 whilst Whitrod was still present in Adelaide. He was to move to Sydney shortly after and was joined by an ex NSW Polce officer, Leo Carter. 

It wasn't until August 1949 that the organisation was formally named by Reed as ASIO. Prior to that the MI5 liaison officer Courtenay Young had been referring to it as 'the 'Australian Security Service' which, for obvious reasons, was considered inappropriate.

ASIO ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

There were three  sections or activities for ASIO that mirrored the set up of MI5:

B1, Counter Subversion

B2 Counter-Espionage

C which was protective security

There were 3 Directors one for each of the three major regions of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra with Sydney being the headquarters. Smaller offices were maintained in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Hobart and Port Moresby. Tuck was to become the Director in Canberra and Bob Wake was appointed Director to HQ Sydney. Commander HC Wright was appointed Director for Melbourne, Captain Eric Nave joined Wright responsible for liaison with the armed services.

There was a lot of dissatisfaction with Wake, he was thought not to be of the right stuff for such an important role. It is believed that some of that stemmed from charges against him for wearing medal ribbons to which he was not entitled.

Another Adelaide man, Robert Pearson, was to replace Wake as Director of Sydney operations following a reorganisation that saw Wake placed in control of the National Operations of B1 and B2.

THE ADELAIDE OFFICE

The insurance building to the left of this image is believed to have housed the early ASIO offices in Waymouth Street, Adelaide.

The first office was in poor condition and situated in Waymouth Street. It was there that Director Reed was to interview a young ex-Navy and Commonwealth Investigation Service member, Les Scott. Les had been seconded from the CIS to the Weapons Research Establishment at Salisbury. It was later recalled by Les that during the interview there was an occasional glint of a monocle worn by a man in the shadows of the room,, that man was Courtenay Young. Les was soon to be transferred to Sydney to work on the 'case' as VENONA was known by the service.

In charge of running local agents in Adelaide from 1949 was a Rod Allanson. This man was responsible for recruiting an Adelaide lady, Anne Neil, who was to successfully infiltrate the CPA in South Australia and the South Australian Peace Council. She became the secretary to one Elliott Johnson, a solicitor but also a senior figure in the SA CPA and at National level. Interestingly Anne was able to operate in the CPA with a 'secret membership'.

Later investigations in Adelaide carried out by then Regional director John Stringer focused on the three main likely targets for the GRU and the KGB being, the Long Range Weapons Establishement where a principal scientific officer was under suspicion, Woomera and SA Mines Department employee, a senior Geologist was the focus of investigations there. This set up takes on additional meaning when we consider the Nosov connection to 4 South Australian Agents, two allotted to penetrating LRWE and two to focus on Woomera.

As you can see, there was a great deal of activity happening in and around Adelaide in those early Cold War years, and whilst this post talks about ASIO, many of the characters played their part pre-ASIO days. We are now in a position where we can blend what we know of ASIO and other agency operations and the existence of agents from both sides at the relevant times.

I will add more to this post in the coming days.