Hobart’s rise as an important shipping port in the early 1800s made the British colonial authorities fear that it could become a target for enemy forces. Their solution? A network of batteries along the shores of the River Derwent.
Queens Battery, the first of these, was built in the 1830s and became the city’s longest-serving fortification. It was equipped with three large cannons that used shots that had to be heated in a special on-site oven before they could be fired.
British soldiers manned the battery until 1870, when they were withdrawn from Tasmania and replaced by volunteer troops.
It eventually became defunct, and was filled in with soil in 1924. The Hobart Cenotaph was subsequently built on the site.
An archaeological dig in 1989 uncovered the remains of the shot oven but yielded nothing else of interest.
Alexandra Battery & Kangaroo Bluff Battery
Queens Battery would have shared strong similarities with the other two batteries in Hobart’s defence network (Alexandra Battery in Sandy Bay and Kangaroo Bluff Battery in Bellerive).
Tas That Was is a column that includes:
- anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
- historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
- documentaries about locations in Tasmania.
If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to [email protected].
Callum J. Jones is passionate about telling stories. He studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. Callum has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.
