The magazine was actually originally going to be for powder, but was altered in September 1896 to take shell & cartridges. The land was formally proclaimed a defence reserve on 24 Sept 1896. The gun itself was never actually mounted, just kept in reserve on site. All indications are that the barrel was kept in the main entry passage to the tunnels. The battery was dismantled in 1904.
The Dominion Observatory was built directly over the tunnels in 1907, and some alterations were made then to the magazine. The tunnels were later occupied by seismological equipment, and more alterations were carried out then, including the removal of a section of wall that separated the Lamp Passage from the Shell Store. The Department of Conservation currently administers the battery.
