80 years on, Aussie codebreakers honoured

The work of the “Garage Girls”, a group of women who decoded enemy messages during WWII, has at last been recognised as part of Australia Day honours.

The Garage Girls and their drivers in 1944.

Their top secret work went unrecognised for 80 years, but the contribution of three Aussie women to the allied war effort has finally been heralded among the Australia Day honours.

They were known as the “Garage Girls”; a team of about 30 young women from the Australian Women’s Army Service who worked around the clock at a joint Australian-American intelligence headquarters in Brisbane during World War Two. Housed in a garage at the back of a mansion in suburban Ascot, the women would decode encrypted Japanese messages on Typex cipher machines, the devices which also helped turn the war in Europe when they were used at England’s Bletchley Park.

The intelligence decoded by the Garage Girls was used for a range of military purposes, including the planning of Operation Vengeance, the successful shooting down of Japanese naval chief Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto by the US military in April 1943.

Joyce Grace (left), Coral Hinds (r) and other members of the Garage Girls during World War Two. Picture: Courtesy of Joyce Grace

Three surviving ‘Garage Girls’, Coral Hinds, Joyce Grace and Ailsa Hale, have been awarded the Australian Intelligence Medal for their service to a job which could not be acknowledged publicly for decades.

Rachel Noble, the Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), said the Garage Girls “came from a vast array of different backgrounds and achieved the extraordinary”.

“They are our modern day heroines and an inspiration to our people,” she said.

“The work they did in harsh conditions shortened the war and no doubt saved many lives. It is humbling for us all to finally see their incredible achievements recognised.”

Joyce Grace.

Coral Hinds.

Joyce Grace, who is set to turn 100 on March 4, said she was “very proud” of the recognition.

“I was just an ordinary worker in a drapers’ store and I got a letter from the government asking me if I would leave my job and do something for the war effort,” she said.

Ms Grace said the messages she decoded meant little to her at the time, but the bigger picture became apparent 30 years later, when the Garage Girls were finally allowed to discuss their experiences.

The Garage Girls at AWAS Barracks Chermside during World War Two.

“The Japanese were trying to get into Australia via New Guinea,” Ms Grace said. “But it was the start of the end for Japan when [Yamamoto] went, because he was their number one man. They got him about 10 minutes before he was due to arrive. They knew exactly where he was and what aeroplane he’d be on, and who was with him. We knew everything about him.”

Ninety-seven year old Coal Hinds recalls the Garage Girls as a cohesive group of “wonderful friends” who “never complained”.

Author Allie Sinclair with Coral Hinds, and Sinclair’s historical novel, based on the Garage Girls.

Even the night shift – midnight to 8am – was undertaken with a sense of service, she said.

“It was the job and we just did it,” she said. “We thought we were doing something good.”

The Garage Girls story might have been lost to history altogether if not for author Alli Sinclair, who tracked down the survivors and interviewed them for her 2021 novel The Codebreakers, set in Brisbane during World War Two. She’s also working on a larger documentary project about female codebreakers which she hopes to have on screens within 18 months.

Ms Sinclair said she was “delighted” the Garage Girls were being recognised, “especially because they had to keep silent about it for a really long time”.

Originally published as 80 years on, Aussie codebreakers honoured