Nicknamed the ‘Garage Girls’ after the location of their operations in the garage behind ‘Nyrambla’ mansion, Brisbane, the women of No. 11 Cipher Section, Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) operated British TypeX cipher machines to encrypt and decrypt communications between Central Bureau and other allied command Sigint centres such as FRUMEL or Bletchley Park.
Nyrambla operated as the headquarters for Central Bureau. The work of the ‘Garage Girls’ was top secret. The women were sworn to absolute secrecy and not even permitted to tell their families of their work. The Garage Girls processed huge daily volumes of coded communications spelt out in ciphers. These ciphers changed daily to make it harder for enemies to decipher. The messages were padded with irrelevant messaging to make it more difficult for enemies to understand. The messages were organised in five-letter groups and printed onto a paper ribbon. Accuracy was key in the role, as mistyped letters or symbols could result in wide-scale disaster.
