Fort Queenscliff – The Empire’s First Shot

That’s pretty.

The promontory over there is Point Nepean,…

…and there’s a fort on the top – Fort Nepean – from where the British Empire’s first shot of the Great War was fired (and Australia’s first shot in the Second World War, too).

Because we are in south eastern Australia, close to Melbourne (marked in mauve), to be more specific, in the state of Victoria.  Fort Queenscliff, our present location, is marked in red and Fort Nepean in blue, the strategic importance of both clear to see.

I say we.  These photos come courtesy of long-time TBN supporter Daisy from Down Under, who sent them to me some time ago now, has probably forgotten all about them, and will be as surprised as the rest of you to see this post.

Entrance plaques.  The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 and the gold rush that followed made the Australians quite paranoid – and probably rightly so – that an enemy ship (French, Russian, maybe even American) could simply sail into Port Philip Bay and on up to Melbourne and demand large quantities of gold bullion, held in the city’s banks, in exchange for not bombarding the place, and so to defend Victoria’s goldfields they built a series of military fortifications to protect the bay, of which Fort Queenscliff was the headquarters.

The Guard House, built in 1884, is the earliest building still being used for its original purpose.  Apparently that old bell on the wall was loud enough to be heard in the fort’s underground tunnels, which we shall see later.

Beyond the tree…

…the cells,…

…which are indeed wooden, but there are steel bars within the wooden layers.

To be fair, I’ve crashed in worse places in my time.  But I could leave whenever I wanted.

V.C. Garden, remembering the exploits of three Aussies awarded the Victoria Cross, although presently I have no idea which three.  Anyone?

Iron loopholes in the wall…

…as we approach the Keep, built between 1883 & 1885, the fort’s final line of defence.

The bricks are of local manufacture, and specially made to powder rather than disintegrate into shrapnel when hit by a cannon ball.

Interior view – more loopholes, although only for really tall blokes.  Actually, some of the bricks could be removed to give a soldier a foothold on the wall, allowing him to fire through the loophole, ammunition being winched up from below.

Originally built in 1854 as the fort’s Telegraph Station, relaying arrivals and departures, this was the first building worth the name to be constructed here.

In the foreground,…

…one of eight water tanks providing fresh water for the fort’s occupants.

The place, as is the way with forts, is littered with artillery pieces, the whys & wherefores of these two (there’s a second in the background)…

…explained on this information board.

Saluting battery overlooking Mud Islands (above & below).

You’ll spot Mud Islands on the earlier map, inside Port Philip Bay, about five miles to the east of Fort Queenscliff,…

…somewhere out there.  This panoramic view looks from north east – Melbourne is a little over thirty miles thataway – to east, where, over on the far right,…

…that’s the Mornington Peninsula, at the very end of which, off-picture further right,…

…we find Fort Nepean.

The Black Lighthouse (there’s a white one, too – see first photo) and the Signal Station, built in 1863 & 1888 respectively.

Round this corner, the Armstrong 8-inch ‘disappearing’ gun.

Coastal guns were highy susceptible to well-aimed naval guns from offshore ships,…

…but this one could do a disappearing act on its pneumatic carriage, allowing its loaders to do their job in relative safety…

…before the gun would reappear to fire.  One of four originally installed at Fort Nepean, the story goes that, ‘When moved to Queenscliff following its restoration and installation here in 1982, this gun was actually fired with a half strength blank charge to commemorate the centenary of the fort. The shock wave blew out most of the windows in the barrack block on the other side of the Parade Ground and cracked several windows in nearby houses in the town while also covering the dignitaries in a cloud of black soot. The Museum has promised the Borough Council never to fire the gun again’.

Parade Ground & Staff College, the scene of the aforementioned window-shattering-soot-depositing debacle.

6-inch Mk VII gun, the standard Australian coastal gun during both World Wars.  Or maybe just a wooden dummy to fool Japanese reconnaissance planes, hence it being referred to as the Pinocchio Gun.

Real gun, and the crew at Fort Nepean who fired the first shot in the Great War.

Early on 5th August 1914, soon after Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, the German cargo steamer S.S. Pfalz* attempted to escape from Port Philip Bay past the forts.  Orders were given to the Fort Nepean guns to ‘stop her or sink her’, and a shot across her bow stopped her progress, following which she returned to port where her crew was arrested and presumably interned.

*seen here later under Australian colours as the troopship H.M.T. Boorara.

On the left of this group of officers, and in close-up on the right, Midshipman Richard Stanley Veale, the man who directed the first shot to be fired.  Veale was aboard S.S. Alvina, an Examination Service ship that intercepted the Pfalz, from where he hoisted the ‘H’ flag indicating a hostile vessel*, to which the Fire Directing Station at Fort Queenscliff responded by ordering Fort Nepean’s gunners to open fire.  Veale would soon find himself part of the volunteer Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) in German New Guinea, the scene of Australia’s first action of the Great War, and would go on to serve in both world wars, retiring in 1952.

*Veale would later give two different accounts of these events; this is the more widely accepted version.

Steps up to one of the gun emplacements, with the Fire Directing Station on the mound in the background.

Underground shelter,…

…and underground magazine.

And this may be one of them, I really don’t know, but if this is a sentry box, I’d sneak up on you from the right and close the door……

Vintage wiring meets (more) modern wiring.

The King’s shilling.

Back up top, another cannon,…

…this particular one of the 32-pdr smooth bore variety,…

…and still talking guns, this public domain photo shows, in the centre, the very gun that fired that first shot, barrel 1489, and on the left, barrel 1317, which fired Australia’s first shot in World War II, at 1.30 a.m. on 4th September 1939, also a warning shot at a ship, soon revealed to be an Australian freighter, that had failed to identify itself.

Daisy, mate, I thank you wholeheartedly for these pictures.  Betcha you thought I’d forgotten about them?  Certainly not!  Hope I’ve done them some sort of justice.  Keep the faith.