49-623: Fort Lytton is a heritage-listed 19th century coastal fort in the suburb of Lytton in Brisbane , Queensland , Australia. The name “Fort Lytton” is also used to describe the 1 square mile (2.6 km) military base that surrounded the fort. Fort Lytton was built in 1880–1882, and operated until 1965. The historic fort is now contained in Fort Lytton National Park . The park is open to the public on most Sundays and public holidays. Guided tours are provided by Fort Lytton Historical Association,
98-569: A Royal Australian Airforce radar station. At various times Lytton Hill was also used for civilian applications such as for semaphore communications with the prison located on St Helena Island , to temporarily accommodate a boys reformatory school, and as a radar station for the Brisbane Pilot Service. The Second Boer War was fought in Southern Africa between 1899 and 1902. In total over 3000 Queensland officers and men were sent to help
147-548: A base for the infantry and field artillery units that were needed to protect Fort Lytton from an attack by land. The redoubt was connected to Fort Lytton by telegraph, no doubt backed up by more traditional signalling means such as semaphore. Lytton Hill was able to observe and report ship movements in Moreton Bay, and land movements of attacking forces. In the Second World War, Lytton Hill accommodated an army signals station and
196-513: A command post. The oil company transferred the site of the colonial fort and its associated structures to the Queensland Government in 1988, and this became Fort Lytton National Park in 1990. Lytton Hill and the heavy anti-aircraft battery remain inside the refinery. 27°24′37″S 153°09′05″E / 27.4104°S 153.1514°E / -27.4104; 153.1514 Lytton, Queensland Download coordinates as: Lytton
245-405: A door to two pine stools. Even a bath tub was tried. One pair planned to swim two horses across the bay with themselves as passengers. They were foiled by an alert warder. Then there were those who took to boats. One commandeered a whaleboat after slinging the guard into the water. Others discovered boats which had broken loose from moorings on the mainland and had drifted unseen cross the bay into
294-412: A moat and was an pentagonal structure concealed behind an embankment. It was fortified with two six-inch disappearing guns, also in 1881 a rifle range was added. The layout of the village can be seen in an 1889 map. Lytton State School opened on 18 September 1882 with an initial enrolment of 41 students under teacher Mr A. S. Spencer. It was located on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) site on a hill overlooking
343-450: A motor boat. These days, the island is a tourist destination for school children and visitors to Brisbane alike. The island is visited by Cat O' Nine Tails Cruises. Private individuals can visit the island but are restricted to the picnic area to the south west, and excluding the ruins. History tours of the island operate, including a Ghost tour. 2007 saw the first roving theatre on the island. Cat O' Nine Tails Cruises in conjunction with
392-542: A non-profit volunteer organisation. Fort Lytton was built in 1880–1882 in response to a fear that a foreign colonial power such as Russia or France might launch a naval attack on Brisbane or its port, both of which were located along the banks of the Brisbane River . The fort was designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley . It was located at the mouth of the Brisbane river, and was designed to deny enemy vessels access to
441-616: A number of heritage-listed sites, including: Although Lytton was once a town, it is now primarily commercial and industrial. It shares the same postcode as the Port of Brisbane . Ampol owns and operates the Lytton Oil Refinery in the north east of the suburb ( 27°24′55″S 153°09′27″E / 27.4154°S 153.1575°E / -27.4154; 153.1575 ( oil refinery ) ). The plant could produce 109,000 barrels per day in 2012. Wynnum Wastewater Treatment Plant
490-518: A number of parks in Lytton, including: St Helena Island, Queensland St Helena Island is a heritage-listed island in Moreton Bay , City of Brisbane , Queensland , Australia. It is 21 kilometres (13 mi) east of Brisbane and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the mouth of the Brisbane River . Originally used as a prison, it is now a national park . Local Australian Aboriginals called
539-670: A road was surveyed from Norman Creek . A telegraph line was run from Brisbane to Lytton in 1862. The hulk "Prosperine" in the Brisbane River off Lytton was used as a floating Reformatory for Boys. From 1871 to 1879 the boys were taught by the Reformatory's Sub-Inspector. From 22 July 1879 a qualified teacher was supplied by the Queensland Public Instruction Department to the Hulk "Proserpine" School, after which it
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#1733106383416588-664: A signals station, a radar station and a heavy anti-aircraft battery. Brisbane's defences were progressively strengthened during WW2, in line with Brisbane's increasing strategic significance to the war effort. In particular, by 1943, Brisbane was a major submarine base. A total of 89 submarines were dry docked for repairs in Brisbane over a three-year period. Over 17,000 Australians served in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. Fort Lytton's signal station provided essential communications between Australian and its forces in Korea. The signal station
637-483: A water-filled moat. Approval for construction of the fort at Lytton was given by the Parliament of Queensland in 1878. A field force of field artillery, engineers and infantry was also established to defend against a land attack by enemy forces. The government did not favour cavalry, as mounted soldiers could be recruited from the police force in an emergency . A small marine defence force was also developed, consisting of
686-460: Is a pan in the west of the suburb ( 27°25′36″S 153°08′34″E / 27.4266°S 153.1427°E / -27.4266; 153.1427 ( Clunie Flats ) ). A pilot station and a village were established at Lytton in 1859. It was most likely named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–73) who was the Colonial Secretary of State in 1858–59. It would be two years before
735-449: Is a sewage treatment plant on Tanker Street ( 27°25′06″S 153°09′54″E / 27.4182°S 153.1650°E / -27.4182; 153.1650 ( Wynnum Wastewater Treatment Plant ) ). It releases treated water into Crab Creek ( 27°25′00″S 153°10′00″E / 27.4166°S 153.1666°E / -27.4166; 153.1666 ( Crab Creek (mouth) ) ) which flows into Moreton Bay . There are
784-543: Is an outer riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane , Queensland , Australia. In the 2021 census , Lytton had "no people or a very low population". The historical region was a significant naval base after the establishment of Fort Lytton between 1880 and 1881. The Fort safeguarded the city and shipping routes from hostile invasions during the colonial period as Brisbane was close to the French naval garrison at Nouméa. The suburb
833-477: Is bounded by the Brisbane River to the north-west. It is 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of the Brisbane CBD , but travel by the railway or road is considerably longer. Lytton Hill is in the north-east of the suburb ( 27°24′51″S 153°09′43″E / 27.4141°S 153.1619°E / -27.4141; 153.1619 ( Lytton Hill ) ) 26 metres (85 ft) above sea level. Clunie Flats
882-462: The Brisbane River lies St Helena Island. For more than 60 years from 1867, St Helena was the place of imprisonment for many hundreds of society's outcasts, for here was located colonial Queensland's foremost prison for men. In the early 1860s, as Brisbane's gaol at Petrie Terrace became more and more crowded, about 30 prisoners were transferred to an old hulk, called the Proserpine , anchored near
931-604: The mangroves at St Helena. Still others tried to break into the prison boathouse. Some prisoners perished in their attempt. The aborigine, Burketown Peter, clinging desperately to a wooden target-frame used by the warders during rifle practice, vanished beneath the waters of Moreton Bay as his makeshift raft headed out to sea on an outgoing tide. One of the island prison's most publicised episodes took place in November 1911, when prisoners Henry Craig and David Mclntyre vanished for nearly two weeks. Most people believed they had escaped to
980-405: The 19th century St Helena Island was a quarantine station. It was also used to hunt dugongs for their meat and oil, a business that was profitable until the number of dugongs decreased, leading to the failure of the business. It was operated as a prison from 1865 to 1933. Five of those involved in the 1891 Australian shearers' strike were imprisoned there. Four kilometres from the mouth of
1029-479: The 50 or so men involved were recaptured, although three disappeared without trace, two were drowned or taken by sharks in Moreton Bay, and a few were caught several years later. By the turn of the century, the St Helena establishment had grown to accommodate over 300 prisoners in a maze of buildings surrounded by a high stockade wall. It operated as a self-sufficient settlement, and even exported some of its produce to
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#17331063834161078-552: The British Empire, which had made many enemies by the nineteenth century, when other colonial powers were rapidly expanding their empires. At the time the fort was built, Brisbane had fewer than 100,000 people, with an annual trade worth more than four million pounds. Brisbane was more vulnerable to naval attack than Sydney or Melbourne as it was just three days' sail from the French naval garrison at Nouméa . Local defences were essential as Moreton Bay had numerous island on which
1127-858: The British forces to fight the war, most being mounted troops from the Queensland Mounted Infantry, the Queensland Imperial Bushmen and the Australian Commonwealth Horse. Nine contingents sailed from Brisbane between November 1899 and May 1902. Most (and probably all) contingents mustered and trained at Fort Lytton prior to embarkation. During the First World War, Fort Lytton was mainly a training facility for troops preparing to go overseas. Also, Fort Lytton had its own wharf where numerous troops embarked. The Fort's artillery
1176-524: The Fort Lytton site was handed over to the Ampol oil company to build the Lytton Oil Refinery . Whilst most of the site was transformed into oil refining and storage facilities, three parcels of land were left intact. They were the site of the colonial fort and its associated structures, Lytton Hill and its associated structures, and the site of the heavy anti-aircraft battery, containing four protected gun pits and
1225-568: The conditions at Petrie Terrace gaol had become so unbearable, the prisoners from the Proserpine were set to work building a gaol instead. On 14 May 1867, the Governor of Queensland signed a proclamation declaring the island 'a place whereat offenders under order or sentence of hard labour or penal servitude may be detained'. In the years that followed, St Helena was to become Queensland's showpiece prison. The toughest years on St Helena were undoubtedly
1274-448: The country's worst criminals. In 1891, for example, there were 17 murderers, 27 men convicted of manslaughter, 26 men convicted of stabbings and shootings, and countless individuals responsible for assaults, rapes and similar violent crimes. Because of this, St Helena had to be a secure prison — and it was, through its isolation and its iron rule. During its lifetime, there were fewer than 25 serious attempts by prisoners to escape. Most of
1323-489: The early ones, and the ruins on the island testify to the hard work that the prisoners had to do. These, too, were the years of severe punishment — the lash, the dreaded dark underground cells, the gag, and energy-sapping shot drill. These were the years that gained St Helena its fearful reputation as 'the hell hole of the Pacific' and 'Queensland's Inferno'. But in these days tough measures were used, because St Helena housed some of
1372-442: The enemy could establish a base. Based on the recommendations of the illustrious British soldiers and military tacticians Colonel Sir William Jervois and Scratchley, Queensland opted to rely heavily on Fort Lytton as a fixed defence position for its capital and wealthiest port, Brisbane. The fort is a typical nineteenth century garrison - a pentagonal fortress concealed behind grassy embankments - surrounded for greater protection by
1421-553: The island Noogoon but it was renamed St Helena after an Aboriginal man named Napoleon was exiled there in 1827. The island is visible from the mainland, particularly the suburbs of Wynnum , Manly and Lota . It has its own permanent water supply, a spring in the centre of the island. Many migratory birds use the island as a watering hole; it forms part of the Moreton Bay and Pumicestone Passage Important Bird Area , so identified by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of migratory waders , or shorebirds. In
1470-414: The island mangroves and scrub where they were captured by searching warders, supplemented, if necessary, by police from Brisbane, or driven out by hunger, or by intolerable hordes of mosquitoes. In fact, only one man was not recaptured after escaping from the island prison. Notorious gunman Charles Leslie was whisked from the island early one morning in 1924 by criminal accomplices who were waiting offshore in
1519-508: The mainland and, as a result, a search was undertaken across South East Queensland . Warders turned out each day to search St Helena from end to end. Police and blacktrackers patrolled hundreds of kilometres of mainland coastline. On the twelfth day the prisoners reappeared. They had been hiding above the ceiling of the tailors ' workshop on St Helena, where they had been aided by a prisoner accomplice who supplied them daily with food and water. Most escapees, however, rarely got any further than
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1568-491: The mainland, including bricks for many of Brisbane's buildings, clothes to be sold in Brisbane, and white rope for ships, which was made from imported Sisal Hemp plants. In the island workshops the prisoners were taught such trades as carpentry, boot making, tailoring , tinsmith, saddle making, bread baking and butchery. The island boasted a prize dairy herd which won many awards at the Brisbane Exhibitions . The island
1617-659: The majority of prisoners and the workshops had been removed to the Boggo Road Gaol on the mainland, the island became a prison farm for trusties , with a few dozen resident inmates tenaciously dismantling the ageing edifice. Many prison buildings remain. The last prisoner left the island on 15 February 1933. The last prison superintendent was Mr Patrick Roche. "It is impossible", wrote the Visiting Justice in 1869,"for prisoners to escape from St Helena. I am convinced of it. They would have three miles to swim." In fact, history
1666-442: The mouth of the Brisbane River. In 1866, as part of their labours, the prisoners were taken each morning across the waters of Moreton Bay by whaleboat to St Helena Island. Here they were put to work sinking wells , clearing scrub, quarrying stone and building accommodation for a new quarantine station. They were brought back to the hulk each night. Government plans for the quarantine station were scrapped later that year — because
1715-454: The net when required. Warning of vessels approaching the boom was provided by indicator loop and photo-electric beam systems across the river mouth downstream of the fort. Guns at fort were used in protect the boom gate. These included a 4.7-inch (120 mm) naval gun and a twin 6-pounder rapid-fire gun which was remotely controlled from a 15-metre (49 ft) high lookout tower. Many other defence activities were based at Fort Lytton including
1764-399: The river. This was initially achieved by a remote-controlled minefield across the mouth of the river, and four muzzle-loading heavy guns (two 80pdrs and two 64pdrs). By 1888, the 80pdr guns were replaced with two 6-inch (150 mm) 100pdr breech-loading disappearing guns. Five years after that, the defences were increased with the addition of two quick-firing Hotchkiss 6pdr guns. The minefield
1813-426: The school was renamed Wilson Youth Hospital School, while the older boys remained at Westbrook and had correspondence classes if desired. Wilson Youth Hospital School closed in 1968. During the years 1876–1908 a local post office was open. Due to Lytton's location on the south-east bank of the Brisbane River at its seaward end Fort Lytton was built in the 1881 to guard the mouth of the Brisbane River . The fort had
1862-545: The sea on the Old Brisbane Road, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the Lytton Wharf (approx 27°25′31″S 153°09′50″E / 27.4253°S 153.1638°E / -27.4253; 153.1638 ( Lytton State School (former) ) ). In 1911, the buildings were relocated to Wynnum North and the school renamed Wynnum North State School in 1911. Wynnum North State School closed on 31 December 2010 as it
1911-405: The two gunboats Gayundah and Paluma , the torpedo boat Mosquito and a number of armed barges . Lytton Hill was the only significant hill in the one square mile Fort Lytton complex, giving it enormous defensive significance. It is located about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) east of the colonial fort. In the mid-1880s a redoubt (mini-fort) was constructed on the hill to serve as a lookout and as
1960-407: Was amalgamated with Lindum State School and Wynnum Central State School to create a new Wynnum State School. The Wynnum North State School site was sold and redeveloped as an apartment complex. At the 2011 census , Lytton had a population of 6 people. In the 2016 census , Lytton had a population of 6 people. In the 2021 census , Lytton had "no people or a very low population". Lytton has
2009-520: Was closed in 1908, but the disappearing guns continued in operation until 1938. Throughout its life, Fort Lytton was a major training base. Thousands of soldiers trained at Fort Lytton for the Boer War , World War I and World War II . For its first forty years the fort was also the main training base for Queensland's reserve soldiers. Each year up to 5000 reservists attended training at Fort Lytton's "Easter Encampment". The Australian colonies were part of
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2058-449: Was equipped with two six inch guns, giving combined coverage of most of Moreton Bay. Also, the navy operated indicator loops and remote-controlled minefields in the deep water channels of Moreton Bay, giving them the potential to detect and destroy enemy vessels including submerged submarines. One of Fort Lytton's roles was "Inner Inspection Station". This meant that it could send out inspection parties to board and inspect ships to insure it
2107-462: Was extensively farmed, particularly in the later years as a prison. Maize , potatoes, lucerne and other vegetables thrived in the rich volcanic soil and the sugar mill crushed over 75 tons of locally grown sugar annually by 1880. In many ways, St Helena was regarded as a model prison for the times, and held in high regard by visiting interstate and overseas penologists . By the 1920s, the prison had begun to show its age. In its later years, after
2156-435: Was now part of a much larger defence system. Between 1937 and 1943, four more coastal forts were built to defend Moreton Bay. These forts provided the outer defence to prevent enemy vessels from reaching the mouth of the Brisbane River, while Fort Lytton provided the inner defence. The four outer forts were Fort Bribie and Fort Skirmish on Bribie Island, and Fort Cowan Cowan and Fort Rous on Moreton Island. Each of these forts
2205-432: Was safe to allow them to proceed up the river. A ship ( HMAS Kinchela ) was permanently anchored near the middle of the river off Fort Lytton. Two permanent heavy steel boom nets blocked the river permanently on the far side of Kinchela. Two movable steel boom net gates blocked the river between Kinchela and the fort, and were opened and closed by a large winches mounted at Fort Lytton and on Kinchela. Search lights illuminated
2254-571: Was significantly upgraded at this stage, including upgrades to radio equipment, masts and aerials (antennas). Fort Lytton began closing down as soon as the Second World War ended. However, the signal station remained operational until late 1965. The fort's last significant defence operation was in October 1965 when the signals station was used to gather intelligence on the "Indonesian coup" which resulted in rise to power of General Suharto who would later be appointed as president. Shortly after this incident,
2303-408: Was to show that the island was almost escape-proof. Over six decades, there were more than 50 prisoners desperate enough to try to escape but, despite several super-human efforts, their attempts proved futile. A few tried to swim. They were doomed to failure due to the dangers of the tides, offshore winds, choppy seas and sharks. Some took to crudely made rafts of driftwood and logs. One man lashed
2352-462: Was used operationally on two occasions, firing warning shots near two ships (a Dutch steamer and a local fishing vessel) that were failing to follow wartime procedures. Immediately following the war, the Fort was used as an extension of the adjacent quarantine station by accommodating quarantined returning soldiers in tents. Fort Lytton's role in the Second World War was very different from previous times. It
2401-697: Was variously known as the Lytton Stockade School and the Lytton Reformatory School. In 1900 the reformatory and its school moved to Westbrook, west of Ipswich, where the facility was known as Westbrook Reformatory for Boys and the school was renamed Westbrook Reformatory School, then later renamed Westbrook Farm Home School. On 5 July 1961 the school and its primary school-aged boys moved to the Wilson Youth Hospital in Windsor , Brisbane and
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