 After Newcastle was shelled by the Japanese in June 1942, the Australian armed services quickly took action and set up the 131 Radar Station to serve and protect Newcastle from aircraft attack.Attention was directed towards radio direction and location and, by the end of 1942, an extensive network of radar units had been developed.Each of these stations could plot direction and range but 131 Radar Station, being a Ground Control Interception (GCI) unit, also had the advanced technology to gauge height from the signals received.