What Is Fort Lytton's Defence?

Situated in the mouth of the Brisbane River in Moreton Bay, in the eastern coast of Australia, the Fort Lytton National Park preserves the remains of the oldest colonial fortress in Queensland, built in 1880-1882. The fort acted as a defence for the harbour of the capital city, Brisbane, situated 15 km inland, and represents the colony’s first response to the need to provide for its own defence system following the withdrawal of the British Imperial Garrisons in the 1860s and 1870s. Fort Lytton continued to be Brisbane’s main coastal defence point until WWII, when it became an inner defence fortification protecting the largest US Navy submarine base in Australia. The highly intact remains demonstrate the transformation of the former British
Jervois and Lieutenant-Colonel Peter H Scratchley’s report identified the area of Lytton, in the mouth of the Brisbane River, as an ideal location in which to build a defensive fortress with the goal of protecting the Port of Brisbane, located 10 km inland, from potential raids.
Fort Lytton’s design, developed by Jervois and Scratchley with assistance by colonial architect FDG Stanley, reflects the characteristics of 19th century military architecture in the British colonies: a geometrical pentagonal plan surrounded by a sloped earthwork parapet, or glacis, and a wet moat crossed by a bridge.
Jervois and Scratchley’s initial defense strategy included an electrical submarine minefield across the river and four machine guns. The minefield was the main defensive system as it would impede the entrance of boats to the mouth river. It was controlled from the test room and was connected to the observation firing room. Because this minefield could be subject to attacks by small unarmed boats, the plans included the installation of two 64 pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns in pits 3 and 4 to defend the
In 1885, the tension between the colonial powers of Russia and Britain caused a general military alert in the Australian colonies. Worried about a potential Russian invasion, the Queeensland government decided to accelerate the completion of the fort and reinforce its defenses by installing two 10-banelled Nordernfelts in purpose-built gunpits outside of the fort.
The development of fast engine-driven small craft in the end of the 19th century made the existing artillery obsolete, and so in 1893 the heavy 64-pounders were replaced by two Hotchkiss 6-pounder quick firing guns in pits 3 and 4, the last of which has been preserved nearly intact.
The fears of the colonial government never realised and, due to the lack of military menaces, Fort Lytton lost its defensive role, the submarine mining works being dismantled in the 1910s. The bastion became then an army training and embarkation point, hosting the annual Easter encampments that gathered volunteers, cadets and servicemen for a general army training.

Fort Lytton and World War