Green Hill Fort, Chester St, Thursday Island, QLD | Photographs: | None | | List: | Register of the National Estate | | Class: | Historic | | Legal Status: | Registered (30/05/1995) | | Place ID: | 18695 | | Place File No: | 4/06/271/0002 | | Statement of Significance: | | Green Hill Fort is significant for its association with the development of Australia`s defence at a National level. The Fort`s construction was an early product of collaboration between the colonies on defence matters and as such it represents the move towards an integrated defence policy that occurred in the years prior to Federation. The Fort was built and maintained in response to the perceived threat from firstly the Russians and later the Germans and the Japanese. It is therefore illustrative of one of the enduring themes in Australian defence planning, the threat of invasion from the north (Criterion A.4). | | Official Values: Not Available | | Description: | | The fortification of Thursday Island was recommended in the Jervois/Scratchley report of 1881 and was supported four years later by Rear Admiral Tryon, the Commander-in-Chief on the Australian Station. There was concern to protect the trade route and coaling station, particularly as the Russians were perceived as a threat to the isolated British colonies in Australia during the 1880s and early 1890s. During the 1890s, the question of fortifications became part of the wider debate on Australian Federation. At the Federation conference in 1890 a committee of the colonial military commandants was formed to pursue the fortification issue. They visited Thursday Island in April 1891, selected the Green Hill site and authorised the commencement of construction in August. By March 1893 the fort was operational and fifty members of the Queensland Permanent Artillery were posted there. The three 6in breech loading guns provided by the Imperial government were soon rendered absolute through advances in military technology and in 1896 a 4.7in gun was placed on Milman Hill. Following Federation, the fort was handed to the Royal Australian Artillery and by 1912 the garrison had increased to ninety-three men. One notable visitor during this period was Lord Kitchener, who inspected the fort in 1909. During World War One the fort was placed on full alert but despite a number of scares did not play an active role. From 1919 the importance of the fort declined and in 1,929 the barracks were abandoned. The main barrack buildings were dismantled and shipped to Darwin which had become the northern focus for defence. The fort buildings were used by the Navy for ammunition storage and in 1942 were again used as part of the island`s defences. In the early 1950s the site became a weather station. The fortress is located at the very top of Green Hill at the south-west end of the island, affording spectacular views. Three 6in breech loading guns are mounted in a large concrete emplacement. These are serviced by tunnels and a track for a munitions trolley. Beneath this emplacement is the munitions store comprising a series of underground rooms in concrete. The entire construction was completed by hand and the rubble was used to reinforce the concrete walls. The weather station structures built in the 1950s consist of a main office (3600m x 7500m) with a timber frame, fibro cladding and a timber floor and a balloon shed (3600m x 5600m) and toilet (1300m x 1700m) that have timber frames, fibro cladding and cement floors. There are four fibreglass water tanks of 1,200 litres capacity, two for rainwater adjacent to the office and two for town water adjacent to the balloon shed. The main office has a 10m mast on the roof with guy wires from three points to cement blocks in ground, the mast is attached to the Dines anemometer. These recent structures are erected over the fort site and do not interfere with the original materials, although they have a visual impact on the site. | | History: Not Available | | Condition and Integrity: | | The Fort itself remains in structurally sound condition and is essentially intact, except that no fencing remains and the store shed on the battery terreplain has been demolished. The right fire commander`s cell (FC Cell) has been filled in but the walkway remains and the FC Cell has been fenced by Telecom to contain a satellite dish and equipment. At present the Artillery Store has been concreted up (c 1942) and the store room enclosed and used by the weather station. In 1980 the 4th Field Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery, based in Townsville, cleaned and painted the guns and the interior of the fort as a community service. The Bureau of Meteorology weather station that currently occupies the site is due to close in February/March 1993. | | Location: | | About 1ha, 1.5km west-south-west of Thursday Island town, comprising all structures and formations associated with the fortifications at the summit of Green Hill, Thursday Island. | | Bibliography: | Paul Jolly, SURVEY OF BUILDINGS AND SITES ON CAPE YORK PENINSULA,
1990.
`Guns wait for war`, in COURIER MAIL, 12 DECEMBER 1992.
Foley, J.C., TIMELESS ISLE: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THURSDAY ISLAND,
TORRES STRAIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, THURSDAY ISLAND, 1982. |
Report Produced: Mon Jan 29 18:12:57 2007 |
