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Fort Buckley was one of the first emplacements to be thrown up during the 1885 scare. The battery was armed with two 64pdr RML that were 77 feet apart with a small OP on the hillock between them. There is a beautiful picture of one of the emplacements at this time and it shows that the emplacements had a concrete base and were surrounded by an earthen and sandbagged parapet. A small timber lined magazine was dug into the rear of the hillock on which the OP stood, connected by a covered walkway which ran between the guns. This walkway was a timber-lined trench covered by timer roof. The emplacements were rebuilt in concrete in 1886. The rear of the battery and part of the flank were palisaded and 50 yards of musketry parapet provided local defence. A hut was for the gunner-in-charge. A solid stone magazine with 2ft thick walls had been built in the valley below in 1879, as Wellington's municipal and military explosive storehouse. This was used to store ammuntion for the fort.
Around 1893 a proposal was put forth to place the guns at the Low Battery on Point Gordon. This never occurred. While the battery was no longer considered of much use, the guns were drilled on till at least 1900. A caretaker was eventually placed in charge of the fort. During the Second World War an anti-aircraft gun was situated on a knoll above the caretakers house, which was occupied by the soldiers who manned the gun. The caretakers house eventually burnt down in a bush fire sometime in the 1950s. Threatened by a housing development, the fort was purchased by the Wellington City Council as a reserve around 1999/2000. |
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