Green Hill Fort is a heritage-listed fortification at Chester Street, Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia.

[1] The Green Hill Fort complex on Thursday Island was constructed between 1891 and 1893 as part of the Imperial and colonial whole-of-Australia defence in the lead up to Federation.

[1] The office of the Queensland Colonial Architect appears to have prepared the plans for the 1890s underground magazines and store rooms, and certainly did so for the barracks and several early 20th century additions.

[1] Somerset, on the eastern tip of Cape York, was established in 1864 by the Queensland government as a haven of refuge and coal and supply depot.

[1] In 1877 the colonial governments of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, anxious to secure the land defence of their coastlines, jointly invited British Royal Engineer Colonel Sir William Jervois, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter H Scratchley, to inspect existing defence installations and recommend how they might be improved.

The clearest statements of his views appear in the evidence he gave to the 1881 Commission on New South Wales Defences, of which he was vice-president and chairman of the military sub-committee.

Scratchley retired from active military service on 1 October 1882 as honorary major-general, but was still employed by the Colonial Office as defence adviser for Australia.

Recognising the strategic position of Thursday Island at the northern entrance to Australian waters, he suggested a telegraph station be established there.

[1] From its completion it was clear that Green Hill Fort was designed to protect the coaling station at Port Kennedy, not to defend Torres Strait.

Late 19th century changes in military and naval technology, including longer range weapons, and ironclad cruisers made Green Hill Fort, from its inception, obsolete for anything other than protecting the coaling station.

Improvements were made to the Green Hill battery in 1912, including a new underground powder magazine, an air-conditioning system for the cordite store, and a laboratory outside the fort gate.

The civilian population was evacuated and Green Hill Fort was used as a signals and wireless station and ammunition store for Australian and American forces.

[1] Green Hill Fort complex is situated on the western end of the high ridge that forms the east-west spine of Thursday Island.

[1] The 1950s weather station structures, small timber and fibrous cement buildings, included a main office, balloon shed, masts and toilet.

[1] A small cleared area at the western extent of the forest may be associated with the Kaurareg people or with late 19th century Chinese market gardening.

Reinstatement of the ramparts was considered a major task and difficult to maintain, and a low heritage and visual impact public viewing area was constructed on the site of the weather station.

[1] Architectural upgrades to doors and sash windows, and installation of ventilation fans and a toilet were undertaken to meet the requirements for visitor facilities.

The three 6-inch BL gun emplacements on their sunken working platforms behind protective abutment walls, and associated structures are an intact example of 19th century military fortifications developed when the Australian colonies were assuming responsibility for national defence.

There has been little subsequent alteration to the fabric of the fort, and this facilitates an appreciation of the work of Jervois, Scratchley and Druit, and its importance in Australian military history.

As a result the place has a predominantly intact array of representative 19th century features, including embankments and a terreplein on which the gun batteries were mounted.

[1] Criterion H: Significant people Green Hill Fort has significant heritage value for its associations with Colonel Sir W F D Jervois and Lieutenant-Colonel Peter H Scratchley, whose reports to colonial governments formed the basis of defence planning in Australia from the late 19th century, and with Major Druitt RE of the Queensland Permanent Artillery who was in charge of the works at Green Hill Fort.

[1] This Wikipedia article was originally based on Green Hill Fort, entry number 105419 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 15 May 2019.