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Crows Nest Camp Searchlight Emplacements

Location

The Esplanade and 1 Flinders Street QUEENSCLIFF, QUEENSCLIFFE BOROUGH

File Number

Original Hermes No: 121039

Level

[1/3]
Crows Nest Camp Searchlight
[2/3]
Crows Nest Camp Searchlight
[3/3]
Crows Nest Camp Searchlight

Statement of Significance

Statement of Significance as recorded under the Queenscliff Heritage Study 2009

The following is the statement of significance from the Victorian Heritage Inventory:

Part of the defensive network installed to protect Port Phillip Heads. These facilities are shown in plans dated 1918 (Read, 1918), but searchlights have been known to exist in this area before this time. Possible State Heritage significance as part of the defence landscape of Port Phillip and Queesncliff. Local value as part of the Queenscliff/ Shortlands Bluff defence landscape.

In addition the following is also noted:

The Crows Nest camp searchlight and gun emplacements are of historical significance to the Borough of Queensliff and potentially also to the State of Victoria, for their association with the ongoing and evolving Port Phillip Heads defence network of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The structures emphasise the historically important strategic and naval fortification role of Queenscliff in defending Melbourne. They also, through their location, orientation, plan and form, provide evidence of the workings of these defensive structures, and of the historical approach to defending Port Phillip Heads and Melbourne.

Group