Malabar Battery

Malabar Battery was a coastal defence battery built in 1943 during World War II at Malabar Headland, Malabar, New South Wales, Australia. The battery is also known as Boora Point Battery.

Four story observation post forming part of the Malabar Battery (below)

The battery was constructed to complement the existing coastal defence batteries at nearby Henry Battery, Banks Battery and Bare Island Fort.

Two 6 inch Mark XII guns in gun emplacements on mountings were constructed at the battery. An underground counter bombardment facility, with gun crew ready rooms, ammunition supply and engine room together with a narrow-gauge tramway which was cut into the sandstone and lined with sandstone and a large battery observation post were also constructed at the battery.

The tramway was a single track of 560mm (22in) and was to transport the 6" projectile munitions to the shell expense stores/magazines in the base of each gun emplacement. The tramway traverses through a deep continuous cutting lined with sandstone leads from the ammunition drop off point to the basement of the ammunition supply room and up to the two gun emplacements. Before reaching the gun emplacments the line enters a rectangular section concrete tunnel which is 94m (310ft) long.

Also constructed as part of the battery were northern and southern searchlight blockhouses with associated engine rooms and the battery barracks and toilet blocks.

Following decommissioning of the gun emplacements after the war, the site fell into disrepair.

Ben Buckler Gun Battery

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery is a fortified gun emplacement of the late-Victorian period located in the Northern Bondi locality of Ben Buckler, Sydney Australia. ^[1][2]

History

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery was constructed in 1892 as one of a set of three coastal defense fortifications for Sydney Harbour, the other two being Signal Hill Battery at Watsons Bay and the Shark Point Battery in Vaucluse. These fortifications were the last link in Sydney’s outer defense perimeter, which was intended to defend Sydney from bombardment by an enemy vessel standing off the coast. The fortifications built in the 1890s around Sydney's eastern suburbs were the culmination of some twenty years of construction of harbor defense installations that reflected the changing policy of the time to meet new technologies, threats and styles of warfare.

Gun emplacement

The Ben Buckler Battery is a rare, intact concrete 1890's gun emplacement, which was designed and developed for the new BL 9.2 inch (234 mm) Mk VI breech-loading 'counter bombardment' British Armstrong 'disappearing' gun. The Australian colonies bought 10 of these, three for Sydney, plus an extra barrel, four for Victoria at Fort Nepean and Fort Queenscliff, and two for Adelaide, South Australia, purchased in 1888. The Adelaide guns were never installed at Fort Glenelg and the British government bought them back in 1915. The barrel of the gun that had been installed at Signal Hill Battery survives on public display at the Royal Australian Artillery Museum at North Fort, North Head.

The Ben Buckler gun, Serial Number 7319, is the only complete 9.2-inch in Australia and was the largest gun in New South Wales. The gun barrel weighed 22 tons and it took a total of thirty six horses to transport the barrel from Victoria Barracks in Darlinghurst to the battery in North Bondi; the transit took over three weeks.

Soon after its arrival, the gun was installed on a hydraulically operated disappearing mount. The gun was located below ground level and beneath a domed iron shield set into a wall of reinforced concrete that was ten meters in diameter. The domed metal shield that covered the pit was intended to protect the gun from incoming shells.

Once the gun was loaded, the hydro pneumatic action shunted it forward and up through a slot in the shield. After discharging, the recoil mechanism forced the gun back into its pit. This protected the gun crew while loading and made the gun a very difficult target for an enemy ship to hit. The domed metal shield that covered the pit was intended to protect the gun from incoming shells.

Sometime in the 1950s the army vacated the site. The government was unsuccessful in finding a scrap metal buyer to remove the gun, so it buried the gun and gave the site over to parkland. The gun's existence was forgotten until it was rediscovered in the mid-1990s by Water Board engineers planning a new pipeline. It is now classed as an architectural relic and is under the protection of the Heritage Council.

Ben Buckler Gun Battery, North Bondi is at coordinates 33°53′03″S 151°17′04″E

Illowra Battery, Hill 60, Port Kembla, New South Wales

This is the Hill 60 Bunker Located in Port Kembla, New South Wales. This fortifications formed part of the Kembla Fortress network. Its purpose was to defend Port Kembla in the event of a sea born attack by an enemy vessel standing off the coast during WWII.

The Australian Army took over occupation of the Hill 60 area and the Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from the land and were never permitted to return to the Hill.

Two large gun emplacements were constructed, housing BL 6 inch Mk XI guns and their shields held in storage from the decommissioned World War I cruisers HMAS Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Two large tunnels were built and are steep in descent and have a small gauge tramway used for hauling shells to the guns located at the 2 gun emplacements.

A concrete bunker is connected to the underground tunnel system.

Pictured above is one of two gun emplacement at the Illowra Battery aka Hill 60. The large steel shell is a former gun shield that was taken from one of the decommissioned World War I cruisers HMAS Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne before they were scrapped.

^{There would have to be about 15 to 20 separate rooms connected to these tunnels. Some of the rooms are quite large and were probably used as accommodation for troops and storage for ammunitions.}