Sunday History Photo, Qld
Submitted: Sunday, May 03, 2009 at 00:39
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Member - Doug T (NT)
I have some some other files about Lytton Fort that are way too big to show here so I have made a link to them on my webpage, Dial Up users can try , you'll have time for a coffee while waiting,
These large files will be removed in about a weeks time.
Link to large files
Fort Lytton is a national park in Queensland (Australia), 13 km northeast of
Brisbane. It is located near the mouth of the
Brisbane River on the southern bank.
The Fort was designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley and built in 1880–1881. The fort was used for defensive purposes in
Brisbane until the end of the Second World War after which it was virtually abandoned
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The Fort was established in response to the fear of a Russian invasion in the 1870s and 1880s. To guard the river ‘two six-inch muzzle loading rifled guns and two 64-pounder cannons’ were installed and heavier guns were ‘to face the river and sweep the foreshore’. Barracks were established for the permanent garrison and the soldiers who came to train there. Fort Lytton was maintained for many years as a defence force and thousands of soldiers trained there during the Boer War and two World Wars.
The fortifications at Lytton are one of the few 19th Century military establishments surviving in Queensland, and is a most tangible link with Queensland's military history and the way in which it influenced our past.
Constructed at the township of Lytton near the mouth of the
Brisbane River, the Fort assumed the name of its locality.
Work began in 1880/81 and for the rest of the century there were considerable adaptions and modifications. The area surrounding the Fort was used for defence purposes until the end of the second World War.
It was acquired by
Ampol Pty Ltd as part of a land package for an oil refinery. This refinery was built, but thankfully the Fort and its immediate area was retained.
Image Could Not Be Found
After many years of extensive lobbying by interest groups such as The Arms Collectors' Guild of Queensland Inc., the Fort was finally handed back to the people and placed in the care of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS); and it is they who manage its day-to-day operations.
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