The ordnance receipt, storage and distribution facilities, and domestic area for 9 Australian Advanced Ordnance Depot were developed around the base of Teppa Hill and between it and Perta Hill as a direct response to a strategic requirement to supply ordnance to the Australian Army units based in Darwin and the Top End of the Northern Territory during World War II.

Established in 1942, the site played a vital role in the supply of ordnance and associated stores to the operational units in Darwin and the Top End of the Territory. As the requirements for ordnance grew, so the area evolved as the depot expanded to accommodate some 46 buildings.

Following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, the depot was abandoned by the military. Post war disposals, saw all but the former Mess Hut removed from the site. A series of tenants have occupied the site from 1947, adapting the former Mess Hut to meet their individual requirements. The Mess Hut itself is significant not only in its wartime associations, but also importantly in its demonstration of the adaptations of a series of postwar occupants.

The former World War II site at Lot 547 and the extant former Mess hut in particular, remains one of the very few military sites in the Alice Springs area that demonstrates a continuum in occupation and adaptation and is a significant part of the heritage of the town and the region.