Thursday, February 4, 2010

Brooklyn Battery WW2

The Brooklyn Battery was located in McKell Park , Brooklyn NSW , mainly an anti - aircraft battery , this battery was made to protect the Brookyln river area and the Hawkesbury River railway bridge , artillery was located across the bay at Little Wobby in purpose built fake houses and an anti submarine net was placed from the tunnel mouth to Dangar Island.

This week I located the Brooklyn Battery that I had read about a few times lately , I spotted what I thought was the gun emplacement from Google Earth. There is no map that shows it's position readily available so I thought I would just wing it down to Brooklyn on a day off and have a look myself.
As it didn't look like to much of a hike I decided to take my mutt Chewy with me , he likes an adventure too , as long as we don't go to far or into to much thick bush , once the little bastard has had enough he just parks and waits til I carry him out.

Hurry up Chewy !

Chewy on our last mission , tail down / tongue out / one ear starting to droop = he's good for another half k then I'm gonna have to carry him !

So I headed to Brooklyn and the marina area in the centre of town , took a right hand turn up the steep road to the headland and into McKell Park.
In what was one of my most easiest treks , Chewy and I meandered across the park and took a trail down to the point , while keeping an eye out for any concrete formations in the bush I noticed there were many hobos and backpackers encamped in the overhanging sandstone cliffs along the headland , in fact every cave had a pair of legs hanging out of it - talk about hobo central geez !

3 Inch gun emplacement 2010

I get to the lookout and feel a bit downhearted as this is the hexagonal shape I saw from Google Earth "Damn it's just a bloody lookout" I think to myself , then I have another look at the raised centre with a iron nub in the middle , I then notice that the concrete part of the lookout is a lot older than the rest , in fact it's the same style of formed concrete I've seen a lot ...
So I sit down on the seat provided and have a think , then I look down and see this ....

Plaque on Flat Rock Point

Bingo , just a small tad of info left there by someone who knew people like me would visit
... the anti aircraft battery , which consisted of Bofors AA guns on Mckell Park overlooking the river and one AA gun on each side of the first railway bridge. A 3 inch gun was placed on Flat Rock Point - Noel Johnson 1993
A few pics later and my mission is done , the gun positions on the old rail bridge are probably long gone as they built a new bridge in 1940 - 46 and it lies on railway property so entry verbotten !

3 Inch Gun

A 3 inch gun that was used by Coastal Defense units in the USA , Australia had the same guns and the big clue is look at the base - it's hexagonal just like the concrete base of the lookout

Bofors 40mm AA Gun

A Bofors 40mm AA gun , you will probably find one of these in the gardens of your local RSL Club , every town had one or 2 during the war , there's one in the carpark at West Gosford RSL and I think the little club in Springwood Avenue still has one out the side , also theres a rather nice one at the front of The Entrance RSL Club kept undercover.

Hawkwesbury River

Looking downstream from the gun emplacement , the furthest point on the left is Juno Point , home of another gun battery and on my mission list !

Old RAN landing barge

Seen this old Navy landing barge moored at Brooklyn , looks like it's the local garbage scow now going by the dozen or so Otto bins on deck , thought I'd post this one for Spike , who likes a good boat pic and is strangely absent from the blogging scene lately .... hurry back Spike !

3 comments:

  1. Excellent. Have you visited the Australian War Memorial website? They have some great pictures. Also, the nla website has some interesting war records.
    Chewy looks like a few other Heinz staffies I have known. Just as well he is portable, by the sounds of it. My (not my) dog just topped 57 kilos at the vets the other day.

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  2. Cheers Francis - it's fun

    Yes Sarah , that and anything else I can surf into , love the National Archives as well
    Chewy is gettin past 12 years old and he still zips through the scrub like a rabbit
    I remember having to carry my 40+ kilo bull terrier x cattle dog about 1 k back to the car after the stupid thing wore all his pads off his feet running over sandstone rocks all day at the local swiiming hole lol

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