Fort Warrnambool, Victoria

‘1884 Field Artillery Gun overlooking the sea on Cannon hill, Warrnambool’,
Libraries Australia ID 49408382 

Warrnambool Fort, also known as Warrnambool Garrison and Flagstaff Hill, was a new site built as part of a wider state upgrade in Victoria's coastal defences in the late 19th century.  The original coastal defence battery in Warrnambool was an earthen emplacement for Smooth Bore gun on Cannon Hill, about one Kilometre west of the new battery at Flagstaff Hill.

The original battery on Cannon Hill, from the Warnambool and District Historical Society. It shows a (probable) 32pdr smoothbore muzzle loading gun in the 1860s.  Compare with the photo above.

In 1877, Royal Engineer Officers, Major General Sir William Jervois and Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scratchley, published their report with the basis for coastal defence for the next thirty years in New Zealand and Australia. On Friday 4th February 1887, it was reported in the Warrnambool Standard , that tenders were let by the Public Works Department for the construction of a two gun battery at Warrnambool.

Two 80-pdr RML guns were part of a consignment of twenty-six guns sent to Australia in December 1866. These two guns were mounted in the new fortification in 1887, and the original guns from Cannon Hill were re-sited to the new battery location at the same time.  In front of each gun is a semi circular concrete wall with a mound of earth separating each emplacement from in front and to the sides, protecting the neighbouring gun crews from any potential explosions. Built into the fort in between each gun emplacement is infantry parapet allowing them to defend the Fort from ground attack with small arms fire. By November of that year, the 80 pounders were being used for live fire training.

"A target was moored out to sea at a range of about 960 yards. Major Helpman fired the first shot which proved to be a well-directed one as the shell struck the target shattering it into fragments. The concussion from the firing of the guns caused the whole of the ruby glass in the lower lighthouse to be broken."

The original wooden carriages (which can be seen on site) were replaced by iron garrison carriages in 1888. In 1898 a further upgrade saw an Armstrong 5-inch Breach loading gun on a hydro-pneumatic (disappearing) mounting - effective round approx 5000 yards - was installed between the two existing 80-pdr RML gun emplacements. 

In 1910 the Fort was decommissioned, the original 80pdrs relocated a displays to Cannon Hill (see first pic in this post), and the 5-inch gun was sent to the Suez Canal(!)  Two mobile 4.7-inch naval guns where then used to arm the local artillery battery but were employed mostly at Lake Gilear firing range until the battery was dissolved upon outbreak of WW1.

The 80pdrs were returned to Flagstaff Hill in 1973 and the site, badly overgrown by now, was fully reconditioned as a heritage project. On the 100th anniversary of the Fort the 80pdr guns underwent a full overhaul and renovation of Australia Army apprentices. Fort Warrambool was one of three defensive works built in the area in the 1880s. The other batteries were Portland Battery and Port Fairy Battery. A brief summary of the Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland Batteries and volunteer units serving them, prepared by David McGinness, can be downloaded here.

The Battery's 1887 fit of 2 x 80 pounder guns as seen today at the Flagstaff Hill Fort:

Mounting for the 5 inch BL gun, between the 80 pdrs

 

https://www.naa.gov.au/blog/colonial-victorias-unsung-defender