The Crows' Nest Position

Located to the west of Fort Queenscliffe was the "Crows' Nest" position. This was an emplacement for an Hydro-pneumatic gun-mount. It's not marked on any modern map that I could find, but I knew that the position had to be on high ground and about 2 km to the west of the fort.

This Chistmas past, my partner and I were cycling in the vicinity of the fort and came across a patch of overgrown sandhills on a patch of rising ground sandwiched between the water and some housing development. I was very pleased to note that exposed on the flanks of one such sandhill were some concrete fragments.

Looking at the last image, I think that it is stronly suggestive of the concreate apron which still surrounds the HP position on point Nepean at "Eagles' Nest".

My theory is that when the position became redundant it was buried - as was the case with the surviving HP mounting at Fort Nepean - and that over time it has become overgrown as can be seen today.

I wonder if the subterranean parts of the position would still be intact and just need to be cleared out?

I'd like to do a proper site survey at some stage.

Hydro-pneumatic Gun Mount at Queenscliff and Point Nepean

Details of the HP Gun mount at Queenscliff, both above and below the shield.

This is a bit of a wide shot looking into the interior of the Bay. The rusty gun shield can be seen in the middle of the shot. Note the shape of the slot cut into the top to allow the passage of the gun. After it fell out of use, this gun position had the weapon removed and the the position was simply filled with what passes for soil at the Point.