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Point Halswell

While almost all the first generation forts were built in the inner harbour, the second generation were exclusively built on the Miramar Peninsula, thus covering the channel into the harbour. Point Halswell was part of this second generation. After saying that, it does appear that two RML guns were mounted on Point Halswell during the initial scare. This consisted of one 7-inch RML and one 64-pdr RML. These were not built in permanent concrete emplacements, and were removed when it came to build the 8-inch emplacement which was constructed in the 1890s. A 6-pdr quick-fire gun was installed just above the emplacement to supplement its fire-power sometime in the late 1890s. The 8-inch gun itself was removed in the 1920s as with most of the other older forts at that time. Then in 1927 the land that the fort was built on, was handed over for a memorial to a former premier of the country. The gun pit was lined with marble, and Massy and his wife were interned within. Originally the memorial consisted of a pyramid placed on top of the gun pit, this was replaced with the massive marble memorial that is there now. Later during WW2 the area directly above the memorial was used as Port War Signal Station, the remains of which can be found directly above the memorial on the hillside.

Here you can see the pyramid, and the OP to the right. (Military Reserve, Point Halswell, Wellington 1/1-006711; G. Permission of the Alexander Turnbill Library , National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.)

Picture of Massy Memorial, the dome towards the end of the memorial is about where the gun pit is located.

Underground

Picture inside the cartridge store. Here you can see pieces of the gun carriage. The wheel for moving the gun around, and the rollers the carriage sat on.

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