 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.