moved east to the other side of Saltwater Creek where a new Edge Hill railway station was erected. The former Edge Hill Railway Station stood where RAN fuel tanks 1 and 2 were constructed in 1943. For some years the Cairns Town Council continued to transport quarry material from Edge Hill to Cairns via its own tramway, using the former railway alignment, but this was abandoned by 1923. In 1940 about 10 acres (4 hectares) at Mt Islay, above the recreation reserve, again was gazetted as a municipal quarry, this time for land reclamation purposes. The base of Mt Islay lay within the recreation reserve and from 1940 the slope adjoining the gazetted quarry was excavated as part of the quarry workings. During World War Two Cairns became an important military base in the Pacific region. From September 1942, military personnel began to arrive for deployment. Providing the infrastructure to support the allied war effort at Cairns became a priority, and the decision to build Royal Australian Navy fuel storage tanks in Cairns was given under the highest level of National Security. Early planning positioned the fuel installation behind wharf no.8 at the dockyards on Trinity Inlet, but as both the Australian and United States navies intended to expand warehouse storage facilities in this area, an alternative site was sought. Two Australian Navy staff visited Cairns in late 1942 and approved a site at Edge Hill that could be camouflaged from the air and would be difficult for an aerial enemy force to attack. It was also sufficiently distant from the wharf precinct to be of little danger to the port if there was enemy action. The site chosen was on the southern slopes of the Mt Whitfield Range (Mt Islay), adjacent to the recreation reserve. Part of the site was located within a quarry reserve (R.903), part within the recreation reserve (R.267 - now known as Flecker Botanical Gardens) and part on a disused railway reserve. Three large concrete and two large steel fuel tanks were built and commissioned for use by the Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy in 1943. Up to eight tanks were planned but only five were constructed. The Allied Works Council, established in February 1942 to co-ordinate civilian construction of Allied military defence facilities in Australia, undertook site preparation and construction of the tanks, auxiliary buildings, bunds and underground pipeline. The first