Located on the southeast side of Point Halswell, Miramar Peninsula, this site is also known as Kau Point Battery Disappearing Gun Fortification and Observation Post. It is a rare remaining example of an unmodified battery constructed during the period after the second “Russian scare” of 1885. The gun was in service from 1891 – 1922.
The location is some distance from the site of a Maori settlement called Kau-whakaara-waru, from which Kau Bay and Kau Point were named.
In the 1870s and 1880s, prompted by growing fears of a Russian invasion, and the increasing realisation that New Zealand could no longer rely solely on either the British navy or the country's geographic isolation for protection, the New Zealand Government purchased long-range weapons and began implementing the construction of coastal defences. Kau Pt Battery was built in 1891 to support Wellington's then main coastal defence site at Fort Ballance.
Kau Pt Battery consisted of a single, circular concrete emplacement with an 8-inch, 13-ton breech-loading disappearing gun on a Mk II hydro-pneumatic mount (at 60 m above sea level). Behind the gun pit, an underground brick magazine store for 100 rounds of ammunition was built in a deep excavation and the hillside largely restored over it. Further up the hill (at 80 m above sea level and approximately 70 m behind the gun), a semi-circular pit housed a battery commander station with an observation post with a Mk Ib depression range finder and an associated telephone room.
Kau Pt was one of the original three military posts in New Zealand (the other two being in Auckland and Lyttleton) to coordinate the communication of its Fire Command Officer between coastal defences via the newly invented telephone, replacing the flag, semaphore and signal gun methods. The telephone room had a vaulted ceiling and painted wall plaques identifying the names of each of the other defensive positions on the peninsula to which the ten mounted phones were connected. The fact that it used ten telephones rather than one reflected the state of technology at the time, and stands as a marker in New Zealand's history of communication.
During WWI, Fort Dorset became the bastion of Wellington's coastal defence. Kau Pt was kept operational but not continuously manned. The 8-inch gun was decommissioned in 1922 and scrapped. The site was then used solely for ammunition storage. From 1942, it served the new emplacement at Mt Crawford Anti Aircraft Battery on the next promontory of the peninsula.
The fort fell into disuse after WWII ended in 1945, and the gun emplacement was partially filled in with earth in the 1950s. The battery observation post remains in good condition.
The recommended route to this site is to continue up the track that runs along the ridge from Massey Memorial, passing the Mt Crawford Anti-Aircraft Battery (where another cache has been placed), and then follow the old military road on left. This route offers spectacular view of Wellington City and Harbour. It is possible to do a circuit and return via Fort Ballance and Massey Roads on the foreshore, but the track at Mahanga Bay end is more difficult and boggy.
Parking is available across the road from the start of the track to Massey Memorial.
Although the cache is located slightly away from the main track, please watch and listen for muggles as the track is popular with walkers. The cache is a small Sistema container with only a log sheet and a pencil initially. You need to sign the log sheet to claim a find. Please re-hide the cache as found and cover well.
Update 2022-05-22: The old telephone room and its immediate vicinity have been under occupation. The cache has now been moved a short distance away to an accessible spot on the main track. The cache is downsized to a micro, with room for the log sheet only.