The Hobart coastal defences are a network of now defunct coastal batteries, some of which are inter-linked with tunnels, that were designed and built by British colonial authorities in the nineteenth century to protect the city of Hobart, Tasmania, from attack by enemy warships. During the nineteenth century, the port of Hobart Town was a vital re-supply stop for international shipping and trade, and therefore a major freight hub for the British Empire. As such, it was considered vital that the colony be protected. In all, between 1804 and 1942 there were 12 permanent defensive positions constructed in the Hobart region.
Prior to Australian Federation, the island of Tasmania was a colony of the British Empire, and as such was often at war with Britain's enemies and European rivals, such as France and later Russia. The British had already established the colony of Sydney at Port Jackson in New South Wales in 1788, but soon began to consider the island of Tasmania as the potential site of a useful second colony. It was an island, cut off from the mainland of Australia and isolated geographically, making it ideal for a penal colony, and was rich in timber, a resource useful to the Royal Navy. In 1803, the British authorities decided to colonise Tasmania, and to establish a permanent settlement on the island that was at the time known as Van Diemen's Land, primarily to prevent the French from doing so. During this period tensions between Great Britain and France remained high. The two nations had been fighting the French Revolutionary Wars with each other through much of the 1790s, and would soon be engaging each other again in the Napoleonic Wars.French Revolution (1824).
The first permanent British settlement in Van Diemen's Land had begun on 8 September 1803, at Risdon Cove on the River Derwent's eastern shore. However, the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor David Collins on 16 February 1804, saw him make the decision to relocate the settlement to Sullivans Cove on the western shore of the River Derwent. Within days of the settlement's establishment, Collins had decided the new colony would need protection should the French send warships up the river to threaten the fledgling colony. A crude earthwork redoubt was dug into an elevated position near the centre of Sullivan's Cove, in the area that is now Franklin Square, and two ships cannons were placed inside. For the next seven years, this muddy emplacement would serve as the only defensive position of what was growing to become Hobart Town.Heritage Tasmania (2006).
When Governor Lachlan Macquarie toured the Hobart Town settlement in 1811, he was alarmed at the poor state of the defences and the general disorganisation of the colony. Along with planning for a new grid pattern of streets to be laid out, and new administrative and other buildings to be built, he commissioned the building of Anglesea Barracks, which opened in 1814, and is now the oldest continually occupied barracks in Australia. Macquarie also suggested the construction of more permanent fortifications. Following his advice, a new location comprising an area of was selected at the eastern end of Battery Point on the southern side of Sullivan's Cove, and construction began on what was to become the first of a series of new defensive installations.
Mulgrave Battery
By 1818, the new battery had been completed on a location in Battery Point near the present Castray Esplanade, and was named Mulgrave Battery in honour of Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, who was at that time Master-General of the Ordnance. The battery had six guns which projected forward through earthwork embrasures. At first, these were ships guns, but in 1824 they were replaced with 32 pounders.
Upon its completion, the Mulgrave Battery soon attracted heavy criticism from those who had to serve there. Members of the Royal Artillery felt it was inadequate, and one critic is even said to have described the battery as "a poor pitiful mud fort." Engineers reported that the gun carriages were a danger to men firing the guns, and so new timber was sent from Macquarie Harbour in 1829 to make them safer; however, records showed that only one gun had been upgraded by 1831. The same year, the galleries were improved with large 15 metre long sections of timber, heavy bolts, braces and bars.Engineering Heritage Committee, Tasmania Division (2004).
As the colony began to grow larger, more British units were sent to serve in the settlement of Hobart Town. One of these contingents was a commander of the Royal Engineers named Captain Roger Kelsall, who arrived in Hobart in 1835 to take over HM Ordnance Department. When he arrived, he assessed these two fortifications, and wrote in his report that he felt the colony was virtually undefended. He devised an ambitious plan to fortify the whole inner harbour of the River Derwent with a network of heavily armed and fortified batteries located at Macquarie Point, Battery Point and Bellerive Bluff on the eastern shore. He envisaged the forts all having an interlocking firing arc, which would cover the entire approach to Sullivan's Cove, making it impossible for ships to enter the docks or attack the town unchallenged.
The scale of the plan was enormous for such a small colony, the population being approximately 20,000 in the 1830s.Bourke, et al. (2006). This meant that the cost was too prohibitive, considering that at that period the British Empire enjoyed relative peace with the exception of border conflicts in India. Nevertheless, despite funding problems, work using convict labour began in 1840. Mulgrave Battery was enhanced and expanded, and a new site was located slightly further up the hillside on Battery Point, behind the location of the Mulgrave Battery, where construction also commenced in 1840. A semaphore station, built in 1829, and signal mast were constructed above Mulgrave Battery, allowing communication with ships entering the mouth of the river, and through a relay system of masts, all the way to Port Arthur penitentiary on the Tasman Peninsula.
The modern Hobart suburb of Battery Point takes its name from the Mulgrave Battery. The original guardhouse, built in 1818 which had been located nearby is the oldest building in Battery Point, and one of the oldest buildings still standing in Tasmania.
Prince of Wales Battery and Albert Battery
The new battery, named the "Prince of Wales Battery", was completed in 1842. That year ten new muzzle loading cannons were lifted into position, enhancing the firepower of the colony's defences. Despite its significant firepower, the poor location and firing angles of the new fortress soon became obvious. The powder magazine was fitted out in 1845.
The layout of the fortifications continued to have the Mulgrave and Prince of Wales batteries to the south of Sullivan's Cove and the Queen's Battery to the north, until the outbreak of the Crimean War with the Russian Empire. Fear of attack or even invasion by Russian warships of the Imperial Russian Navy, which were known to sail in the South Pacific, led to calls for review of Hobart Town's defences. A commission was called and it found that further strengthening was needed. With the problems of the Prince of Wales Battery, it was decided a third battery, the Albert Battery (originally called Prince Albert's Battery after HRH Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort), would be constructed even further up the hill, behind the Prince of Wales Battery.
By 1855, the colony of Van Diemen's Land was granted responsible self-government by the Colonial Office, and renamed Tasmania. The Colonial Office began to pressure the newly formed local government to take more responsibility for the self-defence of the colony.
As a result of these calls, the Tasmanian colonial government began to establish Volunteer Local Militia Forces. One such force, established in 1859 was the Hobart Town Artillery Company under the command of Captain A. F. Smith, formerly of the 99th. (Wiltshire) Regiment, who began to assume responsibility for the Hobart fortifications from the Royal Artillery who were increasingly being withdrawn, and had all departed well before the withdrawal of the last British forces from Tasmania in 1870. Prior to this, in 1868 a Defence Proposals paper had been published which outlined the need for greater defensive fortifications. It also suggested the need for proposed batteries further to the south of Hobart Town on either side of the river.
Improvements to ship's armaments meant that the existing fortifications, which provided covering fire to a range of approximately 2000 yards (1830 metres), would allow enemy ships to sit outside the range of the defenders guns and still be able to bombard the town. This left the colony virtually defenceless.Parks & Wildlife Service (2007).
Three Imperial Russian Navy warships, the Africa, Plastun, and Vestnik, arrived in January 1882. Britain and its empire had fought against the Russians 26 years previously during the Crimean War and the colony was virtually defenceless. The Russians were on a goodwill mission, but had they had hostile intent, the colony would have easily fallen. As a result, the visit caused a great deal of debate about the state of the colony's defences.Massov (n.d.).The Mercury Newspaper (18 Jan 1882), Hobart. Available: trove.nla.gov.au
It had also highlighted the state of decay the existing fortresses had reached. Another Commission was carried out, and it was decided the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Albert Batteries were inadequate for the defence of the town. By 1878, both had been condemned, and were dismantled by 1881. In 1882, the sites were handed over to Hobart City Council for use as public space, although the subterranean Prince of Wales magazine remains. Most of the stonework was removed and reused in the construction of the Alexandra Battery further to the south.Hobart City Council, Parks and Gardens (n.d.).
Following the closures, the entrance to the old magazine soon became a popular place for children to play, and at night, the underground magazine rooms often became a meeting place for men to drink and play cards, until they were closed and kept permanently locked by the council in 1934.
To this day, the park in which the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Albert Batteries had been located remains a popular public park, and is named Princes Park in honour of the men who served in the batteries there, and as a reminder of the heritage of the site. The iron gate at the entrance of the underground magazine rooms can still be seen at the base of the park.
Queen's Battery
As part of Major Roger Kellsall's recommendations, another site to the north-eastern side of Hobart Town was to be used for an additional fortification. This site, located almost exactly underneath the present site of the Hobart Cenotaph war memorial upon Queens Domain was first constructed in 1838 and opened the same year as Queen's Battery, named in honour of HRH Queen Victoria, who was on the throne at the time of the fort's construction. It had been envisaged that this would be the grandest of the forts in Hobart, and would command the prominent point overlooking the entrance to Sullivans Cove; however, the full plans were never developed. The battery was set back by delays and funding problems, and was not completed until 1864.
With the imminent withdrawal of British forces due in 1870, a major review of defences had been carried out in 1868. It was decided the current system was inadequate to cope with advances in naval ordnance, and two new forts would be positioned at One Tree Point and Bellerive Bluff. The Queen's Battery was to assume the apex position of a triangular coverage of the entrance to Sullivans Cove.