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Green Hill Fort and Wireless Station
Fort Victoria
Throughout World War II Thursday Island served as the headquarters for text-transform:uppercase
allied military operations in Torres Strait and Green Hill Fort was used as a signals and wireless station and ammunition store for Australian and US forces. The fort served no further military purpose after World War II. About 1954 a weather station was established within the fort, as part of a national weather reporting system. After the closure of the weather station in 1993, Green Hill Fort was presented to the Torres Shire Council as a public park and tourist attraction. The three six-inch breech-loading guns remain in position, overlooking the approaches to Thursday Island.
Place information
Location
Place type
Radar/signal station
History
These late-nineteenth century fortifications stand in isolation at the top of Green Hill which forms a dramatic backdrop to Thursday i sland-known to the Kaurareg people as Waibene. The first government resident, Henry Chester, left Somerset on Cape York in 1877 to take up residence on Thursday Island which was then declared a port of entry. However, it was John Douglas, who replaced Chester in 1885, who was responsible for opening the port as a centre for regional commerce. Within a decade Port Kennedy, as the early settlement was known, was the hub of the trepang and pearl-shell fisheries in...
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