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Fort Arthur
At the end of the nineteenth century, it was felt that there was a need to have a battery – an artillery emplacement – on the high ground at the western end of Fremantle. This became Fort Arthur (Wikipedia calls it Arthurs Battery), and consisted of two large artillery pieces and several buildings, three of which remain.
The largest building, originally provided for a sergeant's quarters, is now the HQ of the Round House Guides. The other two, a laboratory and a barracks (later known as a workshop) are now artists studios, when they are in use.
Plans were prepared for batteries (gun emplacements) at Fremantle and Albany in the early 1890s. The Albany battery was constructed jointly by the colonies, however the Fremantle one did not proceed until after Federation (1901).
In 1903 negotiations commenced between the Commonwealth and State Governments for the establishment of a defence reserve on the headland west of the Round House. The two principal individuals involved were John Forrest, Minister for Home Affairs in the newly formed Commonwealth Government, and Walter James, Premier of Western Australia.
After submitting a proposal to the ‘Colonial Defence Committee’ in London, it was agreed that the Commonwealth Government would install two 6 inch (15.24cms) B.L. (breech loading) Mark VII guns at Arthur’s Head and two 7.5 inch (19.05cms) guns at North Fremantle. The decision was announced in a statement by the Secretary of the Department of Defence on 11 October 1904 and read as follows: “The object of providing fixed defences for Fremantle is to deter hostile cruisers from lying outside the breakwater and destroying the walls, etc., and the ships lying alongside by gunfire”.
Plans for the battery and associated buildings were prepared in Melbourne. A draftsman, A.E. Francis, was sent to Perth in early 1904 to complete drawings and specifications underthe supervision of Major J.T. Hobbs, Staff Officer Engineering Services for the Australian Army in Western Australia.
The land required by the Commonwealth for the defence reserve was occupied by the Fremantle Harbour Trust. There was a walled compound containing quarters, two cottages, a flag room, a signal mast, a signal station, and a lighthouse tower with a time ball on top. The site for a battery was chosen for the same reasons it had been the obvious place for lighthouses, signal masts and the time ball;
it was the highest part of the headland, overlooked the port and had uninterrupted views of Cockburn Sound.
Before the battery could be constructed Harbour Trust buildings had to be demolished. Although the land was to be provided free of charge, the Commonwealth agreed to pay £3800 ($7600) for removal of buildings from the site and for reinstatement of their functions. It was agreed to relocate two cottages, the signal mast and signal station, the time ball, and to demolish the lighthouse tower, the flag room and the quarters. Two new cottages were to be built beside the relocated ones and are adjacent to the Round House.
Early in 1905 finished plans were sent to the Western Australian Public Works Department, responsible for the Commonwealth funded construction, and tenders were advertised soon afterwards. The successful tenderer was C. H. Carter for the sum of £4935 ($9870). This included construction of the quarters and toilet.
After a position for the gun emplacements had been chosen, concerns were raised about the stability of the site as there were caves, probably dug by whalers, at the bottom of the cliff. It was suggested that these be filled and that the emplacements be moved north if they were over the top of the caves.
Before the guns were placed at ‘Arthur’s Head’ there was a debate in the Commonwealth Parliament about the potential danger to Fremantle’s buildings if they were fired. Although the guns were never fired in anger, they were used in exercises, and windows in nearby buildings were broken. One exercise involved H.M.A.S. Sydney.
Work commenced on the construction of the battery in 1905. One of the first tasks was to excavate an area between the gun emplacements and the Round House where a shell store and quarters were to be built below the line of enemy fire. By the middle of 1906 the following structures had been built: two gun emplacements with an underground magazine between them, a shell store, an artillery store, quarters, and a toilet. It is also possible that a command post and a flagstaff were constructed during this period. The quarters can be seen below the level of, and to the north-west of, the Round House. The high land on which the gun emplacements were situated was to the west of the quarters, but was quarried in 1965-66.
Later works included the construction of latrines (1906-07), barracks (1907-08), a laboratory (1912), another magazine, a shell store (1912), a coal house(1916), and a command post (1938-40). The drill ground was gravelled in 1907 and the area was sewered in 1914. In 1943 the guns were moved to a battery at Leighton and later sent to Albany where one barrel remains.
During the 1950s Fort Arthur’s Head was looked after by caretakers and the land was eventually transferred back to the Fremantle Harbour Trust for £10500 pounds ($21000). In 1965 the Fremantle
Harbour Trust obtained a Crown Grant for the land to a depth of 40 feet (12.19 metres) below ‘natural level’. By the following year they had quarried much of the land and pushed the spoils into the sea, reclaiming land which was later used for storing materials and equipment. A shed was constructed on the quarry floor, below the original position of the gun emplacements.
The only structures which remain are the quarters, the toilet, the laboratory and the barracks (workshop). There is evidence of some of the other buildings; and the concrete cylinders, on which the guns were mounted, are in the water by the start of South Mole.
City of Fremantle February 1990
This information sheet and the reports on which it is based were prepared by David Wood. The reports are available for inspection at the Fremantle Library.
The Arthur Head Collection
The Arthur Head Collection was a project coordinated by the City of Fremantle with funding from a grant available from the Federal Government to celebrate the Bicentennial year in 1988 [resulting in] a huge collection of materials in various formats including documents, reports, photographs, maps, bibliographies etc. to help research the site. ... Pam Harris, Librarian, Fremantle History Centre. May 2018.
The Arthur Head Collection 1990 Report
The City Council in 1990 published a folder containing a summary of the research Pam Harris mentions above, consisting of a page about each of these buildings. This is one of them.
References and Links
Wikipedia notes on Arthurs Battery – and Harbour Battery.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 25 May, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/arthurhead/fort.html (it was last updated on 17 January, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.