Shark Point Battery
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The Steele Point Battery is a small fort, on the shores of
Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...
in the eastern
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
suburb of
Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.
, Australia.


History

Talk of the need for harbour defences was noted as far back as 1857, while referencing the alternate name of Steel Point. The land on Shark Point was resumed from its private owners and construction of the battery began in 1871 and was completed in 1874 with an additional barracks being added in 1880. The site was designed under the supervision of colonial architect
James Barnet James Johnstone Barnet, (1827 in Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland – 16 December 1904 in Forest Lodge, Sydney, New South Wales) was the Colonial Architect for Colonial New South Wales, serving from 1862 to 1890. Early life Barnet was born ...
who was responsible for designing several other harbour fortifications during this period. In 1872 three 80-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns were installed. It has been stated that the Shark Point battery was upgraded in 1893 to hold a BL 9.2 inch (234 mm) Mk VI breech-loading 'counter bombardment' British Armstrong 'disappearing' gun. This is incorrect, as there were two different 'Shark Point' batteries. The Shark Point Battery with the 9.2in Hydro-Pneumatic gun mounting as actually at Shark Point, Little Coogee. Three such batteries protected
Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...
and the city from bombardment from the sea. The other two are the Ben Buckler Gun Battery at
Ben Buckler Ben Buckler is an urban locality in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the suburb of North Bondi in the Waverley Council local government area. It is sometimes referred to simply as "the nor ...
, and the Signal Hill Battery at
Watsons Bay Watsons Bay is a harbourside, Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Watsons Bay is located 11 km north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, ...
. The design of the batteries included a domed metal shield that covered each gun pit was intended to protect the gun from incoming shells. The Clovelly Shark Point Battery's 9.2 inch gun's serial number was 7317. At some point the Vaucluse Shark Point was rearmed with three 5-inch breech-loading guns. The Shark Point battery formed part of the
Sydney Harbour defences Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour was protected by coastal battery, coastal batteries and other fixed defences from the early 19th century until the 1960s. These defences were constructed to protect the Australian city of Sydney from attack by enemy ...
and was originally built at a time of fears of a Russian attack and other concerns such as in the withdrawal of British garrison troops, threats to British dependencies and increasing self-reliance in defence matters. The fort worked in conjunction with various other forts located on Sydney Harbour that were also built in or around 1871. These forts included, the Middle Head Fortifications, the
Georges Head Battery The Georges Head Battery, also called the Georges Head Military Fortifications, is a heritage-listed former military fortification located on the Georges Head on Chowder Bay Road, Georges Heights, New South Wales, Australia. The site consis ...
, the Lower Georges Heights Commanding Position and another small fort on
Bradleys Head Bradleys Head is a headland protruding from the north shore of Sydney Harbour, within the metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is named after the First Fleet naval officer William Bradley. The original Aboriginal inhabi ...
, known as the '
Bradleys Head Fortification Complex The Bradleys Head Fortification Complex is a Heritage register, heritage-listed former mast (sailing), mast and defensive battery and military fortification and now war memorial and recreational area located at Bradleys Head Road within the Sydn ...
'. The original form was for two 68-pounder guns with further guns placed at the other South Head site. In its last form, the battery consisted of three sandstone gun emplacements or pits with embrasures for the guns to fire through. These pits were connected by open passages and covered passages that led into underground chambers that consisted of a
gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications re ...
, a shell and artillery store and two shell and lamp recesses built of stone. The site had its own living quarters that included amenities for the workers manning the fort. The fort was surrounded by a picket fence with a sandstone base and another barbed wire fence for security. The fort also had its own jetty with connecting roads. Steele Point at present consists of a three-gun battery. The passageways, tunnels, magazine store and barrack room are now partially buried. The stone
lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...
cover of the entry to the rear emplacement was smashed and the tunnel filled with debris, allowing water to seep in causing damage to the interior. The
stonework Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using rock (geology), stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with Mortar (masonry), mortar ...
of the lower emplacements and connecting passages are in good condition and there is still one gun emplacement located above ground. The land on which the fort is located was granted to the state of New South Wales in 1980 and later became the responsibility of the
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is a directorate of the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment and responsible for managing more than 890 national parks and reserves, covering over 7.5 million hectares of land ac ...
. A small portion of the land on which the fort is located is used as a
degaussing Degaussing, or deperming, is the process of decreasing or eliminating a remnant magnetic field. It is named after the gauss, a unit of magnetism, which in turn was named after Carl Friedrich Gauss. Due to magnetic hysteresis, it is generally not ...
station by the
Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...
. The larger area is Heritage Listed as
Nielsen Park Nielsen Park is a Heritage register, heritage-listed historic site, park and nature reserve located at Greycliffe Avenue, Vaucluse, New South Wales, Vaucluse in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of New South Wales, Australia. T ...
. Steel Point was renamed to Steele Point in 1993.


See also

*
Military history of Australia The military history of Australia spans the nation's 230-year modern history, from the early Australian frontier wars between Aboriginal people and Europeans to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 21st century. Although th ...


References


External links

{{Barracks Batteries Bunkers and Forts in Sydney Artillery battery fortifications in Australia Bunkers in Oceania Commonwealth Heritage List places in New South Wales Forts in New South Wales History of Sydney James Barnet buildings in Sydney 1874 establishments in Australia Vaucluse, New South Wales