Little Feet Round the World: Learning History in Newcastle

Fort Scratchley is a historical site located in the West Newcastle o. It was built in 1882 top of Flagstaff Hill overlooking Tasman Sea and Hunter River. it was built in 1882 as a measure to defend the area against Russian attack. However, nothing was fired until 1942. The Australian Army left Fort Scratchley in 1972 and the site has been turned to museum.

Fort Scratchley is opened from everyday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except Tuesday. There is entrance fee but visitors can donate certain amount of money to help the continuity of this amazing site.

Most of the buildings and chambers in Fort Scratchley can be accessed by visitors. Some buildings are reserved as it used to be such as the guard house, part of the barracks and cottages and servants quarters. Some buildings are turned into exhibitions and stores. There is one restricted area, which is the tunnel. The visitor shall follow the tour guide at certain planned timing to visit the tunnel, at certain fee.

Hello, Fort Scratchley

The path towards the fort

Fort Scratchley Hall & Workshop outside the entrance

Walk, walk, walk

Posing with the cannon in front of the entrance

The guard house

The guard???

Studying the plan, I am an engineer

The barracks, where the army slept

Artillery store is turned into souvenir shop

I have a soft spot for tunnels

Exhibits of weapons inside the first chamber of the tunnel

Not only guns and snipers are displayed

Servants' Quarter

The main exhibits of Fort Scratchley is at the main building of this complex, the cottages and quarters. It has been turned into a museum that display the historical timeline, memorial to the heroes, weapons and uniforms and any other stuffs from the past, old newspaper cutting on certain event, etc.

Missile

Historical timeline

Tribute to Commandant Scratchley

The uniform

Wall of honour to the heroes

The uniforms and the equipment

The machine used during that period

The biggest event in the history of Fort Scratchley was the attack by Japanese on 8 June 1942, a week after the attack of Sydney Harbour and a few hours after the attack of Sydney suburb. Japanese submarine I-21 bombarded Newcastle with 34 shells but caused very little damage and no casualties. Australian Army fired 4 shells but none hit the Japanese.

The newspaper cuttings of the event

The shells

The outside of the Commandant's Cottage

Can't lift it up

The stack is called the brass monkey, the most effective way to stack the cannon balls

The parade ground of Fort Scratchley

Battery Observation Post

The tunnel emerges here, a place to fire the cannon

One of the cannons that is still on display

Master Gunner's Cottage

One of the good things of going to Fort Scratchley is the view. It is directly overlooking Nobbys Beach and the famous Nobbys Lighthouse.

Nobbys Beach and Nobbys Lighthouse

That's exactly our next destination. By walking less than 5 minutes, we reached Nobbys Beach is the most eastern beach in Newcastle. The beach leads to Nobbys Head, where Nobbys Lighthouse is located.

Nobbys Head was originally called Nobbys Island because it was an island. It was first sighted by Captain Cook in 1770 and referred as a small round rock island. It was said that many ships had crashed on to Nobbys Island.

A project to connect the mainland and Nobbys Island was initiated by Governor Macquarie in 1818. Convict labours were utilised for this project and it took 38 years to complete. Many convicts were actually lost in the sea during the works. The height of Nobbys Island was trimmed from about 60m to 27.5m as seen now. The trimmed rocks were use to build the connecting pier.