HISTORICAL ASPECT OF WELLINGTON'S
MILITARY STRUCTURES.

        Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Known for such structures as "The Beehive" (part of Parliament buildings) and "Te Papa" (the Museum of New Zealand). What is generally not known is the military structures around Wellington. They cover a period of New Zealand's defence from the 1880's to today. This is an often overlooked aspect of Wellington although it is an important aspect of the capital's and New Zealand's heritage.

        The Gardens Battery, Fort Buckley and Fort Kelburne were built during a period when the focus of Wellington's coastal defence was to defend the inner harbour. The batteries built at Pt Halswell, Kau Pt. and the two built at Pt. Gordon (Fort Ballance and Fort Gordon) were built when the focus had changed to that of denying entry into the harbour. These forts were built during a period when Great Britain was at war with Russia. And as New Zealand at the time was a part of the British Empire there was a perceived threat which was met by buying these guns and building these defences. Luckily they were never fired in anger at an enemy which is probably just as well as they were already obsolete by the time they were installed.
        At Shelly bay a depot was built to service the harbour minefield which was to be controlled from Fort Ballance. This minefield was never laid.

        By 1912 there was already a battery of 6" guns at the mouth of the channel to the harbour. These were located at Pt. Dorset, Seatoun. This was the start of the defence focus being to deny an enemy access to the harbour or it's entrance channel. (This focus was to last until the abolishment of coastal defence artillery in the early 1960's.) Also at Seatoun by Pt. Dorset was a tented camp which was the beginnings of what was to become Fort Dorset.
Meanwhile across the Harbour in the Hutt Valley another tented camp had been established at Trentham. This camp grew quickly and was used for training troops who were sent to fight in Europe and Turkey during World War 1.

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        Between the two world wars the tents at Trentham were replaced with buildings. A magazine area was established behind the camp. The Trentham military camp expanded again during World War 2.
        By 1937 Fort Dorset was well established and during World War 2 greatly expanded. More guns were added on adjacent Pt. Dorset (which was now part of Fort Dorset). One of the batteries added was an examination battery. The Palmer Heads Battery was built with 6" guns, Initially it had two guns but a third gun, underground plotting rooms and radar was later added. Another battery that had radar was Fort Opau which was built on the Makara coastline during WW2 and armed with two 6" guns.
        To defend Wellington against attacks by aircraft a ring of 3.7" Anti-Aircraft batteries were built. These were located on the Tinakori Hill, Pol Hill (in Brooklyn), Mt. Victoria, Mt. Crawford, Somes Island and above Burgess Rd in Johnsonville.
        Somes Island not only had a Anti-Aircraft battery but also had a defaulters camp and a Degaussing Station.
        The batteries of Fort Dorset, Palmer Heads and Fort Opau were initially the principal coastal artillery for Wellington. The coastal defences were increased when a battery was built using 9.2" guns. This new battery was built on Wrights Hill above Karori and although it only had two guns installed instead of the originally intended three it had a 18 mile range.

        Many US troops passed through New Zealand - especially Auckland and Wellington on the way to the Pacific Theatre. As a result a number of camps sprang up around Wellington. Central, Anderson and Kaiwarra parks, the Hutt Park and the Clyde Quay boat harbour were used as sites for camps and barracks for US military personnel. Also Silverstream hospital originally to be used by the N.Z. Military was handed to the US military before its completion. There were also camps built near Paekakariki and Titahi Bay. Auckland also had its fair share of camps for the US forces.
        As men were required to man the defences of Wellington there had to be accommodation for them. So a number of camps were erected for N.Z. troops manning them. At Wellington Hospital a emergency ward block was built for the N.Z. Military. This block still exists (after the war it became part of the public hospital) and is now called the "210 Block" and is one of many buildings comprising Wellington Hospital. Silverstream Hospital became a public hospital after the war.

        Shelly bay became in World War 2 a naval base with workshops and a slipway for servicing the Fairmile launches, accommodation, wharves and a naval magazine depot. Another magazine area was located among the hills of Belmont in the Hutt Valley. This was used by the Army and was extensive with 62 magazine buildings within it. There ware also numerous pill boxes, road blocks, stores and office accommodation in use by the military at the height of Wellingtons defence in World War 2. There was even a harbour boom and minefield.

        In August 1957 the then Minister of Defence announced that the Coast defences were no longer needed. So as a result in the early 1960's an Australian company got the contract to scrap the guns at Fort Dorset, Palmer Heads and Wrights Hill. That company then sold the scrap metal to the Japanese - Ironic since the Japanese were the people whom those guns were installed to defend us from.
        During the 1960's and 70's children were playing around the pill boxes and emplacements that were around the place. These were deemed dangerous and so many of the emplacements around the foreshore were removed as well as the Anti-Aircraft emplacements within Wellington City Council reserves on Tinakori Hill and Mt. Victoria. The 6" battery emplacements at Fort Dorset and Palmer Heads were also demolished.
        Fort Kelburne built during the 1880's was demolished during construction of Wellington's urban motorway late 1963.

        At Fort Dorset the buildings varied from being built in the 1920's up to the 1980's. Most of the building exteriors had remained largely unchanged over the years despite the fact that many of the buildings were internally refurbished in the 1980's. This refurbishment is ironic since the camp was officially closed about November 1991. With the closure of the fort the land was deemed surplus to defence requirements. From then various groups and people have had permission to use some of the buildings while Fort Dorset went through the official process for disposing of Crown land. Early August 1999 saw demolition start on the central part of the fort to make way for the new Seatoun school. The northern part is to be developed for housing.

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        What remains around Wellington gives us an overview of what was built . Fort Buckley was the only battery in Wellington that was armed with 64 pdr guns that never had it's armament upgraded. Fort Ballance had Hydro-Pneumatic Breach Loading guns that disappeared into the gun pit after firing, Nordenfeldt quick firing guns and 64 pdr guns. Also at Fort Ballance is a rare example of a "See Saw" type searchlight battery. There is only a handful of these world-wide.
        The buildings at Shelly Bay date from before World War 2 to the 1980's. Most of the buildings, wharves, workshop and slipway however were built during the second world war. Shelly bay is part of the Defence owned land on the headland of the Miramar Peninsula. This defence land also has the Kau Pt. Battery, Fort Ballance, Fort Gordon and a 3.7" Heavy Anti- Aircraft Battery. This land is to be disposed of. However the disposal has been progressing slower than that which occurred for Fort Dorset.
        Fort Dorset appears to refuse to die as the demolition work is progressing very slowly with less than a quarter of the buildings demolished by early April 2000. Pt Dorset, adjacent to Fort Dorset still has remains of observation posts, fire control/command posts and magazines scattered around the ridge lines south of the camp's location. Emplacements of the 4" examination battery also remain.
        The Wrights Hill Fortress is one of only three batteries built in New Zealand that were equipped with 9.2" guns. It is the only one in publicly accessible. The Wrights Hill Fortress Restoration Society Inc. is the custodians of the fortress and are restoring it. They also open it up periodically for the public to visit it.

        None of the gun emplacements that remain have any guns in them and most are devoid of any fittings and furnishings. One emplacement - the Halswell Battery has been converted into the Massey Memorial. Despite this the battery is still structurally intact.

        The military works that currently remain give us an overview in the development of weapons used in coastal defence before the age of guided missiles, laser guided bombs and satellite photography based reconnaissance. Despite the loss of pill boxes, Fort Dorset, Fort Kelburne and two 6" coastal defence batteries Wellington has a reasonably good collection of military structures that still exist that when viewed as a collective whole prove to be of educational value. If they are preserved, restored and managed in a appropriate sensitive manner they will benefit future generations. They can look at them and get an understanding of how wars were fought in the days before computers and computer chips. These sites collectively also give us a look at the development of military architecture from mortar and brick to reinforced concrete.

        They help to reinforce our sense of our nations heritage as well as our nations identity.

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© Darcy Waters 1999
E-mail me on capdef@orcon.net.nz