Sydney's Forts To Be Renovated
The tunnel is long, dark and cut through solid sandstone, a testament to Victorian engineering. It opens out into a series of sunken, zig-zag trenches that in turn lead to a set of enormous circular gun emplacements. A century ago this historic military fort, which commands spectacular views of Sydney's harbour, rang to the clatter of pith-helmeted colonial troops in hobnailed boots.
Now the soldiers have been replaced by a modern army of carpenters, masons and electricians who are restoring the fortifications of George's Heights to their former glory.
The fort is one of seven former military sites dotted around the harbour that are being renovated by the Sydney Harbour Trust and returned to the public as parks and heritage sites. They occupy headlands and peninsulas with breathtaking views of city centre skyscrapers, the Opera House, beaches and bush land.
They date back to a time when Sydney, as an outpost of the British empire, feared attack from first the Russians and then the French. As the historian Geoffrey Blainey noted: "An armed raider could emerge from the Pacific, enter the harbour at night, and do immense damage at a time when Sydney did not even know that Britain was at war with another sea power."
From the 1870s, the colonial administration embarked on a frenzy of building fortifications. In 1891, nearby Chowder Bay became the base for the Submarine Mining Corps, a select unit whose job it was to maintain a line of underwater explosive mines across the harbour. They would be detonated under any attacking ships.
Now the soldiers have been replaced by a modern army of carpenters, masons and electricians who are restoring the fortifications of George's Heights to their former glory.
The fort is one of seven former military sites dotted around the harbour that are being renovated by the Sydney Harbour Trust and returned to the public as parks and heritage sites. They occupy headlands and peninsulas with breathtaking views of city centre skyscrapers, the Opera House, beaches and bush land.
They date back to a time when Sydney, as an outpost of the British empire, feared attack from first the Russians and then the French. As the historian Geoffrey Blainey noted: "An armed raider could emerge from the Pacific, enter the harbour at night, and do immense damage at a time when Sydney did not even know that Britain was at war with another sea power."
From the 1870s, the colonial administration embarked on a frenzy of building fortifications. In 1891, nearby Chowder Bay became the base for the Submarine Mining Corps, a select unit whose job it was to maintain a line of underwater explosive mines across the harbour. They would be detonated under any attacking ships.