Fort Queenscliff

About

Fort Queenscliff, in Victoria, Australia, dates from 1860 when an open battery was constructed on Shortland's Bluff to defend the entrance to Port Phillip. The Fort, which underwent major redevelopment in the late 1870s and 1880s, became the headquarters for an extensive chain of forts around Port Phillip Heads. Its garrison included volunteer artillery, engineers, infantry and naval militia, and it was manned as a coastal defence installation continuously from 1883 to 1946. The other fortifications and armaments around the Heads were completed by 1891, and together made Port Phillip one of the most heavily defended harbours in the British Empire. The first Allied shots of World War I were fired when a gun at Fort Nepean fired across the bow of the German freighter Pfalz, as she was attempting to escape to sea. The orders to fire came from Fort Queenscliff. The same gun, with a different barrel, also fired the first Allied shot of World War II. By 1946 coastal artillery was outmoded, and the Fort became home of the Army Command and Staff College. After the three Service Staff Colleges were combined into the Australian Defence College in Canberra, it became the base for Army's Soldier...

In 1852, the Lieutenant Governor of Victoria C.J. La Trobe commissioned a surveyor to lay out a town at Shortland's Bluff. On 1 May 1853, he appointed a postmaster at the Bluff to transship Geelong and Western District mails. This first settlement was proclaimed Queenscliff on 23 June 1853, and two months later the first town lots were sold. Prior to these developments, between 1838 and 1843, pilot operations had begun, a grazing lease had been granted, and a lighthouse had been established in the area.

In 1853–54, cottages for the pilots and a house for the Health Officer at the Quarantine Station were built in Gellibrand Street, and a Customs Officer was appointed. A church and school, the first hotel and a second lighthouse were also built. The telegraph office was built and began operations in January 1855. The pilots' cottages were mainly occupied by the Health Officer and Customs boatcrews because the pilots preferred to live elsewhere, and they commissioned some of the first private dwellings in the town.

In the next few years development continued, and more houses, shops and hotels were built. By the time the Borough was incorporated in 1863, Hesse Street was established as the main street of the town, and Queenscliff boasted five hotels, a library and cricket and recreation reserves. In addition, there was a lifeboat and a jetty, and small steamers began offering trips around the Bay. The Presbyterian church had been opened, a Church of England was being created, and a site had been selected for the Roman Catholic church. A fishing industry had commenced in the town, and the first requests had been made for a railway.

A detachment of the Victorian Volunteer Artillery had been formed in Queenscliff in 1859, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Alexander Robertson. Construction of a gun battery began at Shortland's Bluff the following year, which caused the building of two new lighthouses, the Queenscliff High and Low Lights, in 1861-63 since the original lighthouse stood on the site now needed for the battery.

A military railway line from Geelong opened in 1879 which allowed better public access to the Bellarine Peninsula area and improved the supply of building materials to the Queenscliff area. In the 1880s, large buildings were erected in the town - Lathamstowe and the Esplanade, Grand, Queenscliff, Royal and Ozone hotels. A new pier was built in 1885 and this encouraged the building of a larger paddle steamer, the Ozone. Continuing prosperity during the 1880s and 1890s led to the building of more guest houses and two further paddle steamers, the Hygeia and the Weeroona, which serviced the tourist trade.

Queenscliff became one of the most popular Victorian seaside resorts until greater prosperity and the increasing popularity of the motor car enabled people to look further afield for their holidays. The attraction of the town for the holiday-maker came from its unique blend of military and civilian activities, the picturesque fishing fleet and the ever-changing seascape.

The defences at Queenscliff and elsewhere around Port Phillip were developed in the second half of the 19th century, to protect Melbourne and its outlying settlements from invasion by hostile foreign powers. These hostile powers were, at various times, identified as the French, the Russians and, at one stage during the American Civil War, the United States.

In particular, the Crimean War (1853–56) stimulated public concern over Victoria's defences, and after protracted discussions, reports and inquiries, Captain (later General Sir) Peter Scratchley of the British Army arrived in Victoria in 1859 to advise on the development of the Colony's coastal defences. His recommendations included a proposal to construct four large batteries of guns at the entrance to Port Phillip, and suggested Shortland Bluff as the site for one of these batteries. He also recommended the construction of an inner ring of gun batteries around Hobsons Bay to provide a more intimate protection for Melbourne.

Following the 1875-76 Royal Commission into the Volunteer Forces, the Victorian Government invited the Director of Works and Fortifications in London, Lieutenant General Sir William Jervois, to Victoria to further advise on Victoria's defences. He arrived in 1877 accompanied by the now Colonel Scratchley. Their joint report recommended that the basic defences for the Colony should be concentrated on the Heads, and consist of fortifications at the entrance to the Bay and on the shoals between the main shipping channels. Between 1879 and 1886 their recommendations were substantially actioned and the Bay defences were progressively developed.

Fort Queenscliff was developed as an enclosed battery armed with heavy-calibre cannons on Shortland's Bluff. Swan Island at the northern end of town covered the western shipping channel and was similarly fortified. Two 'island' forts, at Pope's Eye and South Channel, were to be raised on existing shoals in the Bay to cover West, Symonds and South Channels. Although the South Channel Fort was eventually built, work on Popes Eye Shoal was discontinued because improvements in ordnance meant that other forts could effectively close the shipping channels.

Torpedoes and mines were located at Swan Island and were to be laid across the shipping channels in times of war. Swan Island was permanently manned by Engineers of the Victorian Military Forces. Plans for a fixed gun battery adjacent to the signal station at Point Lonsdale did not proceed, but defences on the western side of the Bay were supplemented by mobile artillery being stationed there during both world wars. Fort Nepean, Fort Cheviot and Fort Pearce on the eastern side of the Bay were also developed and, although on a lesser scale, were similar to those at Fort Queenscliff.

By design Fort Queenscliff became the command centre for the Heads defences, probably because of its strategic location and established telegraph links with Melbourne. In recognition of its importance, a landward defensive system around the Queenscliff guns was commenced in 1882.

By 1886 Port Phillip was the most heavily fortified port in the Southern Hemisphere. Over the next fifty years, the Bay Forts were manned, and both Fort Nepean and Fort Queenscliff were fully operational during both World Wars. In 1946 Fort Queenscliff ceased to be a coastal artillery station.

The first military works at Queenscliff commenced in 1860, with the construction of a sea wall along the top of Shortland's Bluff. Built from sandstone quarried at Point King, this sea wall was positioned directly east of the site of the original upper lighthouse. It was designed to strengthen the cliff face and allow the positioning of heavy-calibre guns in an elevated location, right on the edge of the Bluff.

By 1864, the construction of the first permanent battery, directly above the sea wall, was completed as Captain Scratchley had recommended. The Shortland's Bluff battery was made from local sandstone at a cost of £ 1,425. Designed in a quatrefoil pattern, it accommodated four 68-pound muzzle-loading cannons which were manned by the Volunteer Artillery, made up of local residents.

The building of this battery required the construction of new lighthouses. In 1861, contracts were let for the lighthouses to replace the timber-framed leading light built in 1854, and the badly decaying sandstone upper light. Both new lighthouses were built in dressed basalt and by February 1863 were operational. The timber light was subsequently re-erected at Point Lonsdale as the first Point Lonsdale Lighthouse. In 1862–63, lighthouse keepers' quarters were erected at the Bluff for both Queenscliff lighthouses. The upper quarters still survive within the Fort. Between 1864 and 1879, the rate of military construction at Queenscliff declined. In 1870, as the last detachment of British troops left Victoria, the debate on the Colony's defences remained unresolved and the future of the Queenscliff battery was by no means certain.

The period 1879-1889 was the major stage of development at Fort Queenscliff. New works recommended by Scratchley and Jervois were started and formed the basis of the layout of the Fort as it stands today. In 1879, two contracts were let for the construction of an upper and a lower battery. The lower battery was to contain four 80-pounder rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns, and the upper battery three 9-inch RML guns. Both batteries were completed by early 1882, although not armed. In 1882, work commenced on the walls of the Fort and a keep and proceeded erratically until their completion in 1886. A year later a ditch or dry moat was excavated around the Fort walls to provide a further defensive measure. An array of support facilities were also erected, including a drill hall (1882), barracks (1885), assorted sheds and stores, a guard house (1883), and a separate cell block (1887). These buildings were all constructed from timber and corrugated iron, were purely functional and had little architectural embellishment. Many of them still exist today. With the erection of the wall, the civilian presence in the Fort came to a virtual end, and by 1887 both the lighthouse keepers' quarters and the post and telegraph office were turned over to military use. From this point on, regular civilian entry to the Fort has been restricted.

In 1889, two BL 9.2 inch (234 mm) Mk VI breech-loading 'counter bombardment' British Armstrong guns were installed, one on a Hydro-Pneumatic mounting enabling it to function as a 'disappearing' gun, and one on a Central Pivot Barbette mounting. Two of the BL 9.2 inch (234 mm) Mk VI guns on Hydro-Pneumatic carriages were also installed at Fort Nepean, and three (one each), at Ben Buckler Gun Battery, Signal Hill Battery, and Shark Point Battery in Sydney.

After 1890, apart from continual improvements to the Fort's guns and their emplacements and the construction of search-light apertures, little development took place within the Fort until World War I from 1914 to 1918. Around 1915, substantial development occurred along the northern boundary of the parade ground which involved the removal of an old shrapnel mound from behind the wall and the erection of a number of timber barracks and mess buildings.