Fort Scratchley Military Museum

FScratchley3.jpg (66975 bytes)
History of Fort Scratchley

The Fort Scratchley Historic Site is a nineteenth century Coast Defence Fort and is located in a commanding position guarding the Hunter River Estuary.  It was constructed in 1882 and extensively modernised in 1892 and then again in 1910. As a result, this single site shows the development of Australia's coast defences from the muzzle loading era through to its zenith during World War II.

During the Second World War, Fort Scratchley’s guns went into action against an attack by a Japanese submarine. Fort Scratchley is the only Australian coastal fort to have fired on an enemy vessel.

Remaining at the fort are most of the original gun emplacements and underground ammunition stores and magazines, as well as four 80 pounder rifled muzzle loading guns and two 6 inch Mark VII breech loading guns, which are examples of the earliest and the latest guns used at the fort.

With the changes in modern warfare, the defence force vacated the site in 1972.

 
Objectives of the Museum

The Society preserves the military heritage of the fort, maintains the tunnels, observation posts, gun emplacements and underground magazines. The Society’s collection contains war relics, uniforms, records and photographs primarily relating to the history of the site and the military history of Newcastle.

 
Some key objects
 
Photograph (c. 1890) showing the 9" rifled muzzle loading gun which was the main armament of the fort from 1882 - 1892. FScratchley1.jpg (18646 bytes)
A view from the main gate into the fort with Nobby's in the background FScratchley2.jpg (34524 bytes)
Photograph of the 6" Mark 7 gun which was one of two used against Japanese submarines in 1942. FScratchley3.jpg (66975 bytes)
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