Fort Nepean

It was part of a network of fortifications, commanded from Fort Queenscliff, protecting the narrow entrance to Port Phillip.

Their joint report recommended that the basic defences for the Colony should be concentrated on the Heads, and consist of fortifications at the entrance to the Bay and on the shoals between the main shipping channels.

The 4.7-inch QF gun was removed and the emplacement fitted with a searchlight, along with an engine house to generate electricity.

[3][4][5][6][7][Note 1] On 5 August 1914, the German ship SS Pfalz attempted to escape from Port Phillip.

[9][10][11] At 1:30 am on 4 September 1939, within hours of war being declared, the A1 gun fired across the bow of a ship which failed to identify itself.

[7] With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the guns were dismantled and sold for scrap.

The barrels of the historic Mk VII guns which fired in anger were retrieved from the Port Wakefield artillery proving ground and a scrap yard at Brooklyn, Victoria in the 1960s and returned to the fort.