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Victorian Heritage Database place details - 11/9/2021
Fort Queenscliff
Gellibrand Street, QUEENSCLIFF VIC 3225
Fort Queenscliff, located at the corner of King and Gellibrand Streets,
was developed from 1860 onwards.
The fort can best be divided into eight precincts; the Seaward Defences,
Landward Defences, Telegraph Station,Stores, Barracks, Guard House, Parade
Ground and Education Centre.
The Fort was the first and the primary defence site for Port Phillip Bay
and played a command role in relation to the other fortifications around
the heads of the bay.
Fort Queenscliff was a key element in making the bay the most heavily defended
British port in the southern hemisphere at the time.
During the twentieth century, as the strategic importance of coastal defences
was revised, the Fort became a central instructional college for army officers.
After more than 140 years of operation the Fort continues to play a defence
role.
The earliest development on the site was mainly to do with shipping into Port Phillip Bay. Several pilots'
1 cottages were erected in 1841 and the following year a lighthouse was
constructed. In the mid 1850s a telegraph station (used to transmit news
of arriving ships to Melbourne) was built and it survives today within
the fort as the second oldest such station in Victoria. A replacement lighthouse
was erected in 1863 and it too survives today inside the fort, as do the
keepers' quarters built at the same time.
Fears aroused by the Crimean War in the 1850s led to the first military
development at Queenscliff.
Melbourne was now a wealthy city following the gold rushes and had to be
protected from potential seaborne attacks.
British officer Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Peter Scratchley RE
recommended that four forts be built near the heads of the bay, but only
Queenscliff was developed at this time.
In 1860 a sandstone sea wall (350mm thick) was built on Shortlands Bluff
at Queenscliff, and subsequently a battery of three 68-pounder muzzle loading
guns was installed above.
The wall has no equivalent in Victoria and is the most substantial wall
of any Scratchley fort in Australia.
The guns were manned by a volunteer unit raised from the local area.
There are still a dozen Gun Emplacements, dating from the late 1870s-early
1890s.
These are mainly concrete and brick, with some use of bluestone, and several
emplacements have bolts indicating where the guns were positioned.
A restored 6-inch breech-loading gun on hydro-pneumatic mountings has been
installed as well as a Nordenfeldt gun. Four restored cannon barrels have
been placed outside the fort, although these emplacements are not original.
In the late 1870s Scratchley and Major General Sir William Jervois came
to Australia to advise on defensive measures in a number of the colonies.
In 1877 they recommended improvements at Queenscliff.
Two years later the original battery was demolished and two new ones, an
upper and a lower battery, were installed by 1882, at which time there
were strong fears of Russian aggression.
An enclosing wall and keep were begun in 1882 and completed in 1886.
A dry moat was excavated the following year to run along the seaward southern
boundary of the, at 3m deep and 5m.
Also built was a 6 metre high, protective earth mound that provided shrapnel
protection to personnel.
The battery and the lighthouse precincts were by now enclosed together.
The telegraph station and keepers quarters were given over to the military,
although the 1888 signal station and the lighthouse remained in civil use.
The Victorian Artillery was moved permanently to Queenscliff from Melbourne.
Alterations were made to the gun emplacements as the technology of weaponry
continued to evolve.
Defences were built at other points near the entrance to Port Phillip Bay,
but Queenscliff was the most important and was the command centre for the
system, hence the need for landward defences such as the wall, keep and
ditch.
By 1886 Port Phillip was regarded as the most heavily fortified port of
the British Empire south of the equator.
The Victorian Permanent Artillery remained until Federation when the Royal
Australian Artillery staffed the defences.
A Directing Station, Fire Control, was built upon the earth mound 1914
to direct the firing by the fort.
Then in 1915, timber barracks and mess buildings were erected.
These were removed in the mid 1930s and replaced with brick buildings for
the Royal Australian Artillery and the Royal Australian Engineers.
In 1947 all coastal artillery was decommissioned.
The previous year Fort Queenscliff had become the home to the army's
Australian Staff College which it remained until 2000.
During this period a number of demountable classrooms were installed, and
many have since been removed.
In 1982 a museum was established in the fort and tours started running
for the public. Following the departure of the College, the Soldier Career
Management Agency moved into part of the precinct, joining various other
units.
Fort Queenscliff is still owned by Defence.
The Fort Queenscliff Military Historical Society now occupies the 1887 Office associated with the Electric
Engine Room; it is of brick construction. The Society's Museum is in the
bomb proof Electric Engine Room built into the protective earth mound,
with a vaulted access tunnel.
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敵対する勢力とは時期によって異なる。１８００年代初頭は、ナポレオンからナポレオン三世時代のフランス(1800-1870年)、クリミア戦争時代のロシア、南北戦争時代(1861年から1865年)のアメリカなどであった。英国の植民地であるが本国から遠く離れており、電信も電話もない時代であり、単独で難しい決断を迫られることもあった。クリミア戦争（
Crimean War ：1853-56)）により国防の意識が高まった。１８５９年に英国陸軍のピーター・スクラッチニー将軍（Peter Scratchley）がメルボルンを訪問して植民地の海防にアドバイスを行った。ポートフィリップ湾の出入り口に巨大な大砲の砲台（batteries）建設を建言し、ショートランド（Shortland）のブラフ地区（Bluff）が建設用地とした。
スクラッチニー将軍は、メルボルンの更なる防衛の為に、ホブソン湾の内部の数か所に大砲砲台の建設を建言した。１９７５年から７６年にかけて普通軍（徴兵制ではない）の創設に関して植民地最高機関であるロイヤル委員会が開催された後、ビクトリア政府はロンドンの防衛施設長官（Director
of Works and Fortifications）であるサーウィリアム・ジャーボイス（William Jervois）中佐を招聘した。ジャーボイス中佐は、スクラッチニー将軍と共にメルボルンを訪問した。ビクトリアの基本的な防衛は、フィリップ湾の出入り口に集中することを建言した。湾の入り口と水路の浅瀬に要塞（ortifications）を建築することを提言した。
１８７９年から８６年にかけて、建言は実行に移され、湾の防衛は、段階的に進行した。クイーンズランド要塞は、囲われた要塞として建設され、大口径の大砲（heavy-calibre
cannons）がショートランドのブラフ地区に建設された。クイーンズクリフの町の北側にあるスワン島は、西側のモーニントン半島への水路に位置するが、同様に要塞化された。湾の浅瀬にある法王の目（Pope's
Eye）と南水路（South Channel）に設置されたふたつのスワン島の要塞は、西側地区、シモンズ（Symonds）地区、南水路を防衛した。南水路要塞（South
Channel Fort）は、建設されたが、法王の目の浅瀬の要塞化は見送られた。それは各要塞の強化によって、効率的に敵船の水路を閉鎖できるからであった。
魚雷と機雷がスワン島に保管され、戦時には航路に設置される予定であった。スワン島は、恒久的にビクトリア軍工兵隊によって駐留が決定された。ロンズデール岬の信号所（signal
station）の隣接地に固定式大砲砲台が計画されたが進展しなかった。第一次大戦と第二次大戦時のポートフィリップ湾の西側の防衛は、スワン島に駐在する移動式砲兵隊によってカバーされつことになった。
ポートフィリップ湾の東側の防衛は、ネピアン要塞（Fort Nepean）、シェボー要塞（Cheviot）、ピアース要塞（Fort Pearce）がクイーンズクリフ要塞に比べると小規模ではあったが建築された。クイーンズクリフ要塞は、デザイン的にも実質的にも防衛司令部が置かれたが、戦略的な立地が理由である。メルボルンと電信線が引かれた。
クイーンズクリフ要塞の大砲郡を中心とした内陸防衛システムは、１８８２年に運営開始された。
１８５２年チャールズ・ラトローブビクトリア総督はショートランドのブラフ地区（Bluff）で土地監督官に町を設計するように命じた。土地監督官は、同年５月１日にブラフに郵便局長を指名して、ジーロンとウェスタン地区の郵便物を取り扱わせた。最初の移民により同年６月２３日にクイーンズクリフが宣言され、２か月後に町の区画が販売開始された。１８３８年から１８４３年には放牧の最初の免許が与えられ、灯台が建設された。１８５３年から５４年に水先案内人用の小屋と検疫所（Quarantine
Station）の検疫官（Health Officer ）の家屋がジェリブランド通りに建設された。税関職員が派遣された。教会、小学校、最初のホテル、二番目の灯台が建設された。