Wellington's Coastal Defences

Wellington's Coastal Defences began with the 1885 scare. A number of emergency emplacements were quickly built at Point Halswell, Point Gordon and Kaiwarrawarra. These were generally made of timber and sandbags. Those emplacements at Point Gordon and Kaiwarrawarra were later concreted and made permanent, where as the ones at Point Halswell were replaced completely with a more modern gun. New emplacements were built, and previous ones added to. By 1895 the majority of the work was done.

Most of these batteries soldiered on through World War One, some being added to along the way. They were all deactivated by 1925. Meanwhile new forts had been, and were being built. In 1910 Fort Dorset was created. In 1933 work began on Palmer Head.

Then finally on Wrights Hill work on a massive fortress was begun in 1942. With Fort Opau out at Makara built around the same time, the new system of defences was complete. Of the older forts only the defences at Point Gordon were updated at all. After the war, the area was largely abandoned. The newer forts (excepted for Fort Opau) were used for the Compulsory Military Training regime. They remained in use right till 1957 when all Coastal Artillery was disbanded.