OMFG, can't remember where we was discussing it or with who, but it's clear in my mind.
Check out this tunnel...
-35.286643,149.116361
Go street view and look around, notice anything weird??
Check out above the eastern portal, and the roller doors to nowhere above the western approach at the end of Balmain Cres. It's plain as day.
Here's the confirmation...
Thousands of motorists driving through a busy Canberra tunnel each day may be surprised to learn a few metres above is a secret building containing historic treasures.
More than 30 years ago a hidden bunker was constructed above the Parkes Way tunnel on the Australian National University (ANU) campus.
Construction of the Parkes Way tunnel and storage area at Acton in 1977.
ANU archivist Maggie Shapley says the two-storey structure disguised inside the hill includes the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.
"There's 20 kilometres of records in that structure so that is certainly something to think about when you are driving through," she said.
"It might look like a very utilitarian building but it in fact holds some of Australia's historic treasures."
The archives site at Acton Underhill opened in 1981 to store growing business and labour records collected by Professor Noel Butlin since the 1950s.
The vaults house paperwork, photos and memorabilia along with fabric banners used to promote trade union campaigns such as the eight-hour working day.
"The banners were very large and detailed, identifying the union's name and decorated with symbols such as justice and peace, and the various occupations of its members," Ms Shapley said.
"These large banners were often put on a float and drawn by horses, so they are interesting to store in an archives.
"We've come up with a system where they are rolled around very long tubes so there is no pressure on the fabric itself."
The historical records document local companies such as Burns Philip, CSR Ltd, Dalgety's, Goldsbrough Mort, Tooth and Co, and the Australian Agricultural Company.
The archives also trace the history of the union movement including donations from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), and the National Farmers Federation (NFF).
This information is in demand from family historians and researchers like ANU doctoral student Martha Kinsman.
She is researching education unions in the TAFE system to analyse their contribution to vocational training.
"I'm hoping to put together a history of TAFE teachers' activities at a national level," she said.
"It was really quite important both in the Whitlam government and then for quite different reasons in the Hawke and Keating years.
"So it's kind of a comparison of the adventures of TAFE, if you like, through the eyes of the teachers."
Documenting the AIDS epidemic
The site also contains the National AIDS Archive Collection, which follows the identification of the virus and the public health response.
It includes everything from government advertising about the outbreak of HIV through to sex education kits designed to help reduce the spread of the disease.
The grim reaper in a 1987 AIDS education television advertisement.
"It was an attempt to document what was an epidemic at the time," Ms Shapley said.
"A lot of the early education campaigns were not about telling people about what it was but explaining what it wasn't, because people had misconceptions about how you contracted the virus and what behaviours led to it."
She says the emphasis clearly shifted in those early records.
"In the advertising we started to get really shocking advertising where small children were bowled over by the grim reaper to make sure that people understood that it was a threat to their health," Ms Shapley said.
International recognition for diverse records
The Noel Butlin Archives is still accepting donations from companies and unions to expand the collection.
The earliest records date from the 1820s, but popular recent acquisitions include the 1998 waterfront dispute involving Patrick Corporation Ltd and the Maritime Union of Australia.
"There's a wide range of researchers coming here," Ms Shapley said.
"People doing legal research for instance, the Waterside Workers Federation records are heavily used in court cases to do with exposure to asbestos."
The information hidden inside the hill has also been recognised around the world.
"There are two groups of records that are listed on the Australian Memory of the World Register (UNESCO)," she said.
"The records of the Australian Agricultural Company and also 19th century [pre-federation] trade union minute books that we hold, we have 211 of them."
Access to records from the archives can be requested through the ANU's library system.
Or just fucken read it here (includes pix).
Good luck sneaking in though, this place looks like it's locked up tight.
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