Ben Buckler Gun Battery, North Bondi

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery is a fortified gun emplacement and defence fortification of the late-Victorian period, it is located in the Northern Bondi locality of Ben Buckler, Sydney Australia. [ [http://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/library/localstudies/historical/big_gun.htm Welcome to Waverley Library ] ] [ [http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5056455 NSW Heritage Office Website - Listing Heritage Items - State Heritage Register - Item View ] ]

History

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery in North Bondi was constructed in 1892 and was one of a set of three coastal defense fortifications, the others being located in Signal Hill and Vaucluse, Shark Point. These fortifications were the last link in Sydney’s outer defense perimeter, which defended the colony from bombardment by an enemy vessel standing off the coast. The fortifications built in the 1890's around Sydney's eastern suburbs were the culmination of some twenty years of construction of harbor defense installations that reflected the changing policy of the time to meet new technologies, threats and styles of warfare.

Gun emplacement

The Ben Buckler Battery is a rare, intact concrete 1890's gun emplacement that was designed and developed for the new Mark 6 9.2" (234mm) breech-loading 'counter bombardment' British Armstrong 'disappearing' gun. The gun was the only complete 9.2-inch in Australia and was the largest gun in New South Wales. The gun barrel weighed 22 tons and it took a total of thirty six horses to transport the barrel from Victoria Barracks in Darlinghurst to the battery in North Bondi; the transit took over three weeks.

Soon after its arrival, the gun was installed on a disappearing mount that was operated by hydraulic power. The gun was located below ground level and beneath an iron shield set into a wall of reinforced concrete that was ten meters in diameter. After the gun was loaded, the hydro pneumatic action shunted it forward and up through a slot in the shield. After discharging, the recoil mechanism forced the gun back into its pit. This protected the gun crew while loading and made the gun a very difficult target for an enemy ship to hit.

Sometime in the 1950s the army vacated the site. The government was unsuccessful in finding a scrap metal buyer to remove the gun, so it buried it and gave the site over to parkland. The gun's existence was forgotten until it was rediscovered by Water Board engineers in the mid-1990s, planning a new pipeline. It is now classed as an architectural relic and is protected by the Heritage Council.

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