The Hobart coastal defences are a network of now defunct coastal
batteries, some of which are inter-linked with tunnels, that were
designed and built by British colonial authorities in the nineteenth
century to protect the city of Hobart, Tasmania, from attack by enemy
warships.
During the nineteenth century, the port of Hobart Town was a vital
re-supply stop for international shipping and trade, and therefore a
major freight hub for the British Empire. As such, it was considered
vital that the colony be protected. In all, between 1804 and 1942 there
were 12 permanent defensive positions constructed in the Hobart region.
When Governor Lachlan Macquarie toured the Hobart Town settlement in
1811, he was alarmed at the poor state of the defences and the general
disorganisation of the colony. Along with planning for a new grid
pattern of streets to be laid out, and new administrative and other
buildings to be built, he commissioned the building of Anglesea
Barracks, which opened in 1814, and is now the oldest continually
occupied barracks in Australia. Macquarie also suggested the
construction of more permanent fortifications.
Following his advice, a new location comprising an area of 8 acres (32,000 m2) was selected on the hillside of Battery Point just to the south of Hobart Town, and construction began on what was to become the first of a series of new defensive installations.
Mulgrave Battery
By 1818, the new battery had been completed on a location in Battery Point uphill of what is now Castray Esplanade, and was dubbed Mulgrave Battery in honour of Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, who was at that time Master-General of the Ordnance. The Battery had six guns which projected forward through earthwork embrasures. At first, these were ships guns, but in 1824 they were replaced with 32 pounders. Now Hobart Town had two firing positions protecting either side of the entrance to Sullivans Cove.
Despite funding problems, work using convict labour did begin in 1840.
Mulgrave Battery was enhanced and expanded, and a new site was located
slightly further up the hillside on Battery Point, behind the location
of the Mulgrave Battery, where construction also commenced in 1840. A
semaphore station, built in 1829, and signal mast were constructed
above Mulgrave Battery, allowing communication with ships entering the
mouth of the river, and through a relay system of masts, all the way to
Port Arthur penitentiary on the Tasman Peninsula.
The modern Hobart suburb of Battery Point takes its name from the Mulgrave Battery. The original guardhouse, built in 1818 which had been located nearby is the oldest building in Battery Point, and one of the oldest buildings still standing in Tasmania. As the colony began to grow larger, more British Units were sent to serve in the settlement of Hobart Town. Amongst one of these contingents was a commander of the Royal Engineers named Major Roger Kellsall. When he arrived, he assessed these two fortifications, and wrote in his report that he felt the colony was virtually undefended.
He devised an ambitious plan to fortify the whole inner harbour of the
Derwent River with a network of heavily armed and fortified batteries
located at Macquarie Point, Battery Point and Bellerive Bluff on the
eastern shore. He envisaged the forts all having an interlocking firing
arc, which would cover the entire approach to Sullivans Cove, making it
impossible for ships to enter the docks or attack the town unchallenged.
Following the condemnation of the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales, and Prince
Albert batteries in 1878, it was decided to re-institute the plans for
the alteration of the defensive strategy around the entrance to
Sullivans Cove that were first drawn up in 1868.
A triangle of fortresses with the Queens Battery at the Apex, and two new Batteries, the Alexandra Battery, named for Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, and the Kangaroo Battery on the eastern shore would be adequate for the task. Construction began on the new fortifications in 1880, and at the same time, a new permanent field artillery unit, the Southern Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery equipped with two breech-loading 12 pound howitzers and two 32 pounder guns on field carriages, was raised.
Following the dismantling of the Battery Point batteries, much of the stonework was relocated to the site of the Alexandra Battery. The site of the Alexandra Battery is now a public park with commanding views of the river, and much of the original construction is still accessible.
Prince of Wales and Prince Albert Batteries
A new battery, named "Prince of Wales Battery", was completed in 1841. That year ten new 8-inch (200��mm) muzzle loading cannons were lifted into position, enhancing the firepower of the colony's defences. Despite its significant firepower, the poor location and firing angles of the new fortress soon became obvious.
The layout of the fortifications continued to have the Mulgrave and Prince of Wales batteries to the south-west of Sullivans Cove and the Queens Battery to the north-east, until the outbreak of the Crimean War with the Russian Empire. Fear of attack or even invasion by Russian warships of the Imperial Russian Navy, which were known to sail in the South Pacific, led to calls for review of Hobart Town's defences.
A commission was called and it found that further strengthening was needed. With the problems of the Prince of Wales Battery, it was decided a third battery, the Prince Albert Battery (named for HRH Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort), would be constructed even further up the hill, behind the Prince of Wales Battery. These three batteries were to be linked with a series of underground tunnels.
By 1855, the colony of Van Diemens Land was granted responsible
self-government by the colonial Office, and renamed Tasmania. The
Colonial Office began to pressure the newly formed local government to
take more responsibility for the self-defence of the colony.
As a result of these calls, the Tasmanian colonial government began to
establish Volunteer Local Militia Forces. One such force, established
in 1859 was the Hobart Town Artillery Company under the command of
Captain A. F. Smith, formerly of the 99th. (Wiltshire) Regiment, who
began to assume responsibility for the Hobart fortifications from the
Royal Artillery who were increasingly being withdrawn, and had all
departed well before the withdrawal of the last British forces from
Tasmania in 1870. Prior to this, in 1868 a Defence Proposals paper had
been published which outlined the need for greater defensive
fortifications. It also suggested the need for proposed batteries
further to the south of Hobart Town on either side of the river.
Improvements to ship’s armaments meant that the existing
fortifications, which provided covering fire to a range of
approximately 2,000 yards (2,000 m), would allow enemy ships to
ship outside the range of the defenders guns and still be able to
bombard the town. This left the colony virtually defenceless.
The arrival of three Imperial Russian Navy warships, the Africa,
Plastun, and Vestnik in 1872 caused a great deal of alarm in the
colony. Britain and its empire had only been fighting the Crimean war
with the Russians 16 years previously. The colony was virtually
defenceless, and had the Russians had hostile intent, would probably
have easily fallen. Luckily the Russians were on a good will mission,
however, it cause a great deal of debate about the state of the
colonies defences.
It had also highlighted the state of decay the existing fortresses had
reached. Another Commission was carried out, and it was decided the
Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Prince Albert Batteries were inadequate
for the defence of the town. By 1878, both had been condemned, and were
dismantled by 1880. In 1882, the sites were handed over to Hobart City
Council for use as public space, although the tunnels and subterranean
magazines remain. Most of the stonework was removed and reused in the
construction of the Alexandra Battery further to the south.
Following the closures, the tunnels soon became a popular place for
children to play, and at night, the underground magazine rooms often
became a meeting place for men to drink and play cards, until they were
closed and kept permanently locked by the council in 1934.
To this day, the park in which the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Albert
Batteries had been located remains a popular public park, and is named
Princes Park in honour of the men who served in the batteries there,
and as a reminder of the heritage of the site. The iron gate sealing
the entrance to the tunnels and underground magazine rooms can still be
seen at the base of the park.
Queens Battery
As part of Major Roger Kellsall's recommendations, another site to the north-eastern side of Hobart Town was to be used for an additional fortification. This site, located almost exactly underneath the present site of thee Hobart Cenotaph war memorial upon Queens Domain was first constructed in 1838 and opened the same year as Queen's Battery, named in honour of HRH Queen Victoria who was on the throne at the time of the forts construction. It had been envisaged that this would be the grandest of the forts in Hobart, and command the prominent point overlooking the entrance to Sullivans Cove, however the full plans were never developed. The battery was set back by delays and funding problems, and was not completed until 1864.
With the imminent withdrawal of British forces due in 1870, a major
review of defences had been carried out in 1868. It was decided the
current system was inadequate to cope with advances in naval ordinance,
and two new forts would be positioned at One Tree Point and Bellerive
Bluff. The Queens Battery was to assume to apex position of a
triangular coverage of the entrance to Sullivans Cove.
As the Royal Artillery were to withdraw within two years, a handbook containing range tables was created by Staff-Sergeant R.H. Eccleston which suggested that to repel a vessel doing 10 knots (19��km/h) up the river would take 226 men approximately 30 minutes to fire 365 rounds from the 20 guns that were available from the existing three forts to sink the vessel. Despite this, it became an operational and effective position, and for a time served as an effective defence. The Queens Battery remained in operation until the 1920s.
Alexandra Battery
Following the condemnation of the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales, and Prince Albert batteries in 1878, it was decided to re-institute the plans for the alteration of the defensive strategy around the entrance to Sullivans Cove that were first drawn up in 1868.
A triangle of fortresses with the Queens Battery at the Apex, and two
new Batteries, the Alexandra Battery, named for Princess Alexandra, the
Princess of Wales, and the Kangaroo Battery on the eastern shore would
be adequate for the task. Construction began on the new fortifications
in 1880, and at the same time, a new permanent field artillery unit,
the Southern Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery equipped with two
breech-loading 12 pound howitzers and two 32 pounder guns on field
carriages, was raised.
Following the dismantling of the Battery Point batteries, much of the stonework was relocated to the site of the Alexandra Battery. The site of the Alexandra Battery is now a public park with commanding views of the river, and much of the original construction is still accessible.
Kangaroo Battery
The presence of the Russian warships in the Derwent River, and the condemning of the Battery Point batteries in 1878 had expedited the development of the Alexandra and Kangaroo Batteries.
The design of the fort was a pentagon shape that fitted conveniently into the point of the bluff above the cliff. The ditch, tunnels and underground chambers had to be cut out of solid stone and faced with masonry. Several loopholes and firing ports were fitted into the stone encasements to allow rifle fire from every aspect of the fort. In case of an attempted infantry assault, caponiers faced both landward sides of the fort, with firing positions facing each direction.
This meant that the only position to safely assault the fort with infantry was up the sheer cliffs of Kangaroo Bluff. Access to the caponiers was through iron hatchways that opened into open passageways three metres deep. These in turn led to tunnels accessing underground magazines, stores, a lamp room, well and the loading galleries. The loading galleries were ingenious and allowed the guns to be muzzle loaded with shells dragged along a conveyor belt directly to the muzzle of the gun, when it was in a downward tilted position.
Construction of the Kangaroo Battery was begun when excavations began
to be dug in September 1880, according to the plans of Colonel P.H.
Scratchley, a Royal Engineer who had been placed in charge of
overseeing construction of defences for all of the Australian colonies.
Work was intermittent and beset by funding problems and delays, but in
May 1883, Patrick Cronly was placed in charge of the construction on
behalf of the Public Works Department, and under the supervision of
Staff Officer Boddam, work was completed the following year with the
arrival of two massive 14 tonne eight-inch (203 mm) cannons from
England. The construction had cost £8,150 ($A16,300) at a time
when labourers earned an average wage of about 4 shillings (50c) per
day. The guns fired shells weighing 81.7 kg, and thanks to the
barreled rifling, had excellent range and accuracy. In 1888, two
smaller QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt guns were added. Although the
projectiles were only 2.7 kg, they also had excellent accuracy and
range. The same year, a Nordenfelt machine gun was mounted facing the
entrance gate of the fort.
The first shots were fired on 12 February 1885. Later that year, a dry
mound, and deepened wet moat were added, as was further coarse-work
covered in broken bottle glass set in mortar. Fences were constructed
around the moat in November 1885 when a local boy fell into the moat
and drowned.
From 1887, both the Alexandra and Kangaroo Batteries were being manned
by detachments of the Southern Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery, as well
as the Tasmanian Permanent Artillery. In 1901 Tasmania joined the new
Federation of Australia, and all of the city's fortifications passed
into Commonwealth control. Kangaroo Fort remained operational until the
1920s, but never fired a shot in anger. In 1925, all of the guns were
buried as obsolete, and in 1930, the Clarence City Council took over
the site for use as a public park. In 1961, the Scenery Preservation
Board acquired the site, and in 1970, the site was turned into a
historical site, with the guns being dug up and put on display. The
site is now operated by Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service
and is a major tourist attraction.
Piersons Point & Fort Direction
With the outbreak of World War II, the Department of Defence acquired land near South Arm close to the mouth of the Derwent River on the eastern shore, from a Mr. Courtland Calvert and his sister in September, 1939. At first, the land was used purely as a training ground, with mock battles that were disruptive to locals being fought day and night. But as war preparations evolved, the Commonwealth decided that the port of Hobart would require some degree of defence to protect the state���s vital zinc industry that was crucial to the war effort.
Major Mark Pritchard was the first commanding officer of the new
defences that became known as Fort Direction. By the end of 1939,
construction of two fortified six-inch (152 mm) Mk VII gun
emplacements, and a small four room weatherboard control building had
been completed. There was also soon a flagpole and set of naval signals.
Throughout the war, there was a 24-hour watch every single day, and the
site was usually manned by at least 15 Royal Australian Navy personnel.
A record of every ship entering the Derwent River between 1940 and 1945
was kept. Between 1941 and 1944, both guns were regularly used for
training exercises. Although never used in hostile action against enemy
vessels, the guns were fired in anger once. A liberty ship entering the
mouth of the Derwent River failed to obey instructions issued from the
Naval Command on the hill above the fort, and one shell was accurately
fired across her bow, which immediately resulted in the liberty ship
hoving to.
On the opposite western shore of the Derwent River, another emplacement
was constructed with one four-inch (102 mm) gun. However, several
huts to house men were constructed at that location as well as a
complicated underground tunnel and command structure. Local residents
recall barbed wire still surrounding the site well after the war and
the site’s de-commissioning. Nearby Goat Bluff was also the
location of further underground tunnel systems.
The only enemy action to ever affect Hobart happened on 1 August 1942,
when a submarine-launched Japanese spy plane flew from the
submarine’s mooring in Great Oyster Bay south along the east
coast of Tasmania, before flying northward along the Derwent River
surveying Hobart and then returning to its mother submarine. Although
both emplacements detected the flight, the plane was at too high an
altitude to fire upon, and no aircraft were available to intercept it.
After this event, two anti-aircraft guns were positioned on nearby
hills, but the Japanese never returned to Tasmania again during the war.