The Fort of Deception
Jan. 20th, 2016 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranSo, back we go to the fort at Queenscliff, where all turns out to be not quite as it seems...
The fort was first established after the Victorian Gold Rush, when the new colony of Victoria suddenly became the richest in the British Empire. A river of gold flowed into the city of Melbourne and it quickly dawned on the locals that, apart from a sudden need for expensive holiday houses where they could take in the sea air, there was also possibly a need to defend the bay from foreign invasion.
Queenscliff was the obvious answer to both problems, and the fort was built on the cliffs overlooking the rip, where its guns could fire across the mouth of the bay (and the occasional pacific gull).
The fort was built up over many decades, with different buildings competing for the prime real estate overlooking the shipping lane. This shipping signal tower originally consisted of just the top two wooden floors, until the red brick barracks were built behind it, cutting up the view from the sea. The solution was to raise it up one level by adding the brick storey. The pale yellow building on the left meanwhile, was the old telegraph office and was actually there before the fort was built around it.
The fort is most famous for its BL 9.2 inch "disappearing guns". These were big breech-loading cannon which were raised up on giant hydro-pneumatic mounts. The idea was that the guns could be loaded in the relative safety of the casemate, hidden from view, then raised automatically and fired, "disappearing" as the recoil pushed it down again, and supposedly leaving the enemy bewildered.
The gun you see here actually came from the South Channel Fort, one of a number of defensive structures built in the bay (similar to the Pope's Eye, where we saw the gannet colony).
Whether the cunning design of the disappearing guns actually worked is an open question. Certainly, by the time the second world war rolled around, the powers that be were suspicious that foreign powers might have worked out where the fort was by now. By this stage, the disappearing guns had been replaced by high velocity "Pinocchio" guns like these. I say "like", because these ones are dummies that were left in place after the real guns were moved in secret to Point Lonsdale. So, instead of disappearing guns, the fort ended up having illusory ones.
The view looking into Port Phillip Bay. In the distance, in the middle of the frame, you can just make out the Pope's Eye.
For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the fort, so here's a glimpse of one of the walls (also featuring a straw-necked ibis). After serving many purposes, including a staff college and a military career management agency, there are now no uniformed personnel on base and the buildings (which none of the public is allowed to look inside) are used for storing boring archives. But of course, they would say that, wouldn't they...
So, that's the end of our tour of the bay, although there are still many more sights to see. There is still the South Channel Fort to visit, plus a collection of islands known as Mud Islands, which host nesting colonies of a vast number of seabirds. Then there are the local dolphins, which we didn't manage to see, and the famous Couta boats - sailing fishing boats that would race out and back so they could be first to sell their quota of fish. But all those will need to be other adventures, for other days...
The fort was first established after the Victorian Gold Rush, when the new colony of Victoria suddenly became the richest in the British Empire. A river of gold flowed into the city of Melbourne and it quickly dawned on the locals that, apart from a sudden need for expensive holiday houses where they could take in the sea air, there was also possibly a need to defend the bay from foreign invasion.
Queenscliff was the obvious answer to both problems, and the fort was built on the cliffs overlooking the rip, where its guns could fire across the mouth of the bay (and the occasional pacific gull).
The fort was built up over many decades, with different buildings competing for the prime real estate overlooking the shipping lane. This shipping signal tower originally consisted of just the top two wooden floors, until the red brick barracks were built behind it, cutting up the view from the sea. The solution was to raise it up one level by adding the brick storey. The pale yellow building on the left meanwhile, was the old telegraph office and was actually there before the fort was built around it.
The fort is most famous for its BL 9.2 inch "disappearing guns". These were big breech-loading cannon which were raised up on giant hydro-pneumatic mounts. The idea was that the guns could be loaded in the relative safety of the casemate, hidden from view, then raised automatically and fired, "disappearing" as the recoil pushed it down again, and supposedly leaving the enemy bewildered.
The gun you see here actually came from the South Channel Fort, one of a number of defensive structures built in the bay (similar to the Pope's Eye, where we saw the gannet colony).
Whether the cunning design of the disappearing guns actually worked is an open question. Certainly, by the time the second world war rolled around, the powers that be were suspicious that foreign powers might have worked out where the fort was by now. By this stage, the disappearing guns had been replaced by high velocity "Pinocchio" guns like these. I say "like", because these ones are dummies that were left in place after the real guns were moved in secret to Point Lonsdale. So, instead of disappearing guns, the fort ended up having illusory ones.
The view looking into Port Phillip Bay. In the distance, in the middle of the frame, you can just make out the Pope's Eye.
For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the fort, so here's a glimpse of one of the walls (also featuring a straw-necked ibis). After serving many purposes, including a staff college and a military career management agency, there are now no uniformed personnel on base and the buildings (which none of the public is allowed to look inside) are used for storing boring archives. But of course, they would say that, wouldn't they...
So, that's the end of our tour of the bay, although there are still many more sights to see. There is still the South Channel Fort to visit, plus a collection of islands known as Mud Islands, which host nesting colonies of a vast number of seabirds. Then there are the local dolphins, which we didn't manage to see, and the famous Couta boats - sailing fishing boats that would race out and back so they could be first to sell their quota of fish. But all those will need to be other adventures, for other days...
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no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 09:27 am (UTC)On the boat tour of the Rip for example, the guide told us a story of how the fort was designed to have visible small guns that would lure intruders into a false sense of security only to be ambused by the "disappearing" guns. But when we went on the fort tour, the small guns he pointed out turned out to be several generations later. Also, he told us that the black lighthouse (one of only three in the world) was painted black so as not to be an aiming mark for the fire control station. It turns out it was actually built of local bluestone (as were many buildings around the bay) because it was much more durable that the sandstone that otherwise makes up most of the rock here.
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Date: 2016-01-20 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-20 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-01-25 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 04:34 am (UTC)In secret, eh? I hope they don't prosecute you for spilling the beans!
The Pacific gull looks remarkably unperturbed in that third photo--maybe he knows the secret about the guns!
no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-26 01:18 pm (UTC)