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‘Q’ Australian Heavy Battery and Army Signal Station
Turtle Battery and RAAF 36 Radar Station site
Two 155mm guns were located on Hammond Island from May 1943 to January 1945, covering the eastern approaches to the Prince of Wales Channel in the Torres Strait, and an army signal station on Hammond East Hill above the battery was used by RAAF 36 Radar Station during 1942–1943. The site is located at the northeast end of Hammond Island, between Menmuir Point and Turtle Head.
The surviving reinforced concrete elements of the battery include two circular gun mounts close to the shoreline, about 80m apart. Each has a ready-ammunition store at the rear, with traverse walls on three sides. The western gun mount is set higher than the eastern, and two larger magazines are located between the mounts. There are also two searchlight installations, each consisting of a searchlight station and a generator room. One installation is about 130m northeast of the western gun mount, while the other is about 350m southeast of the eastern gun mount.
About 200m southwest of the gun mounts is a Battery Observation Post (BOP) on the hill. Nearby is a shallow gun pit for a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun, its stone rubble walls lined on the inside with corrugated concrete. On top of the hill about 400m south of the BOP is a three-room former signal station with a generator room nearby. Modern marine navigation equipment has been installed on the roof of the signal station.
Place information
Location
Place type
Fortifications
History
During the 19th century colonial defence planners had recognised that the Torres Strait was strategically and commercially important, and Thursday Island was fortified in the early 1890s with a battery of three 6-inch breech loading (BL) guns on Green Hill, and a Quick Firing (QF) 4.7-inch gun was installed on Milman Hill in 1897. These defences were soon obsolete, and as Australia’s northern defence focus had shifted to Darwin, the Thursday Island defences were dismantled in 1932. However, the 6-inch guns were left in place at Green Hill Fort, where they remain today. Later, the Green Hill Fort was used...
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