Explore the coastal defences at Harington Point. These were built 1890 - 1906 and were manned as a harbour entrance searchlight during WW1 and WW2. You will need a TORCH!
WARNING: UNPROTECTED DROP-OFFS AND CLIFFS.
There are informal routes between waypoints but SOME AREAS ARE UNSAFE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN AND LESS-AGILE ADULTS.
Be prepared for difficult terrain, steep and scrambly, gorse, mud and puddles. Visit in dry weather as tracks are greasy when wet. Please use commonsense - if it feels unsafe, go back and try another route.
There is a formed track to Waypoints One and Two, in the flat upper area close to the road, and a safe route to Waypoint Three and through the tunnel to Waypoint Four (but expect mud in the tunnel). Then agile people can shortcut from WP Four to WP Five, but this route is unsafe for children and in damp weather. ALTERNATIVELY, to get to Waypoint Five safely and more easily, backtrack the way you came through the tunnel and along the sunken road, back to WP One. Then follow the main track across the hillside down to WP Five.
Use the following URL to open the Harington Point Battery Adventure in the Adventure Lab® mobile app:
https://adventurelab.page.link/Z5fe
The map and waypoint details below will help you find your way around Harington Point. Labcode Waypoints are marked with a red star. There are TWO locations for Waypoint 5 - the proximity zone is large enough to cover both of these. The route takes you past Grandad's Army" , in the tunnel by WP3.
Once you have completed all five LabCodes, open the fifth journal entry to see the coordinates and hint for this cache.
Waypoint One. Underground magazine and living quarters, 1890s.
The main corridor goes right through the building - use either of the two entrances.
The main room was the living quarters for 20 men. It is a step down from the corridor and often gets flooded, so take care.
The most interesting feature is the narrow dead-end corridor behind the magazine. This is a “lamp passage”. There was no electric lighting in the magazine. The lamp passage allowed oil lamps to be set up to shine into the magazines through small windows, without exposing the ammunition to naked flames.
Now go north along the 1890s fortification trench to the No 2 7-inch RML gun emplacement.
Waypoint Two 1890s 7- inch RML gunpit, and WW2 Engine room
This upper part of the battery has two emplacements for 7-inch RML guns, with an observation post between them.
Work was started for the 7-inch 7-ton battery in 1890, but stopped in 1891 due to an economic downturn. Construction was resumed in the mid-1890s and completed by 1899. The first 7-inch RML gun was mounted by April 1899. The second 7 inch RML gun came from the St Clair battery and was in place by 1903. It was the last in NZ, only a year before the muzzle loaders were deemed obsolete and withdrawn from service.
The rifled muzzle-loader was the response to the need for a larger charge to be fired to penetrate armoured ships. The technology of the time could not build breech loading guns to take these larger charges, hence the return to the use of muzzle-loaders
The No 2 7-inch RML gun emplacement was reused in 1941 by the building of an Engine Room (to power the WW 2 searchlight you will see later), shelter and Observation Post. The foundation for the 7in RML was too strongly built to totally remove.
NEXT, return past the magazine and continue 70m south on the 1890's sunken road. The high earthworks protected the road from enemy fire. There are steps down the bank to get onto the lower section. Then follow the lower section of the sunken road north to the 1904 engine room.
Waypoint Three 1904 Engine Room & Generator Platforms for the 1906 searchlight emplacement.
In 1904 this engine room housed a Victoria D2 dynamo, with a cable running down the access tunnel to power the searchlight. That was in place until the end of WW1.
During WW2, from January 1942, a Ford V8 engine was used to run a Holmes generator. That provided power for the 90 cm Mark V anti-aircraft searchlight installed in the 1906 searchlight emplacement.
NEXT go down the steps to the tunnel entrance, turn on your torch, FIND Grandad's Army CACHE. Then continue through the tunnel to the 1906 searchlight emplacement. This tunnel is over 100 m long and has a bend, so it is completely dark in the middle! There is always some mud at the lower end of the tunnel - wear appropriate footwear.
SOMETIMES the searchlight emplacement is flooded! Then, if you want to keep dry feet, you will have to backtrack to WP One, the 1890s upper emplacements, follow the track down to WP Five, the WW2 emplacements, and then back across to WP Four the 1906 searchlight emplacement.
Waypoint Four. Searchlight emplacement 1906
The 1906 searchlight was powered by a Victoria D2 electrical dynamo in the engine room, with an interconnecting cable down the tunnel. Until recently, the original communication notice was on the wall and partly readable – “Alarm – 4 long rings… “ .
Check out the ceiling construction – old railway iron is used in the roof, as a cost-cutting measure. Some of the earlier 1885 forts have attractive construction e.g. Fort Jervois, but Harington Point was built to a tight budget.
During WW1 this searchlight (and a 6 pounder quick-firing gun in a temporary emplacement in the upper part of the battery) were manned by the No 2 Company Garrison Artillery Territorials. The Examination Anchorage (where ships were required to stop) 1914-15 was marked by buoys from Harrington Point across to Haywood Point.
In 1941, a searchlight improvised from three railway locomotive headlights and run off 6-volt batteries was installed here. In February 1942 this was replaced with a 90 cm Mark V anti-aircraft searchlight, run by a Ford V8 engine and Holmes generator in the 1904 engine room. These were removed in July 1945.
NEXT - the fast but more difficult route - carefully climb out the right-hand side of the emplacement. Follow the track above tangles of WW2 barbed wire, along to the WW2 gun emplacements.
ALTERNATIVELY - as a safer and easier route - backtrack the way you came through the tunnel and along the sunken road, back to WP One. Then follow the main track across the hillside down to WP Five.
Waypoint Five. WW2 gun emplacements & searchlight
There are TWO locations to visit at this waypoint. You need to collect information from both locations for the LabCode answer.
5a) Northern Nordenfeldt 6 pounder Quick Firing Gun Emplacement 1941.
Harington Point was reoccupied in WW2 as part of the harbour mouth defence. Otago was a Class 2 defended port, so defensive mining was not approved.
These two 1941 gun emplacements, a war shelter and a 1943 searchlight emplacement were built at sea level.
In 1941 two obsolete 15 pounder quick-firing guns were installed as makeshift anti-motor torpedo boat/anti-submarine guns. At the end of 1941 these guns were replaced by two 6 pounder Nordenfeldt quick-firing guns, just as old but with a higher velocity and rate of fire.
The guns and searchlights were manned by the C Section, 82 Heavy Battery, 11 Heavy Artillery Regiment (from May-Dec 1943 temporarily renamed 13 Heavy Regiment).
NEXT Go down the steps to a small cove, then south around the rocky shore to the 1943 searchlight emplacement.
5b) Searchlight Emplacement 1943.
In March 1943 a 90 cm Mark V Projector Fortress searchlight was installed in the searchlight emplacement, run off a Perkins Diesel engine with English Electric generator.
The engine room for the 1943 searchlight was built on top of the old 1890s No 2 RML gun emplacement in the upper section of the battery, which you saw at WP2.
The searchlights and QF guns were removed in July 1945. The reserve is now managed by the Department of Conservation.
RETURN route from the WW2 gun emplacements is up the steps, then follow an easy trodden track through the gorse back up to the upper defences.
Background
NZ became a self-governing colony in 1852, when the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Act, and self-defence became an ongoing issue. Britain’s naval supremacy would still protect the shipping lanes, but we were responsible for our own coastal defences. The closest British naval force was the Australian Squadron stationed in Sydney – it would take a week for help to arrive.
We were not concerned about NZ being invaded, because of course Britain would protect her territories. The Royal Navy was the cornerstone of New Zealand’s defence. But we were extremely vulnerable to a hit-and-run raid from one or two hostile warships, perhaps to divert British naval forces from a crisis elsewhere. We might not even know a war had started - until the telegraph reached Australia in 1872 and NZ in 1876, it took months for news to travel from Europe to NZ.
War scares – Russia, France, USA, Prussia/Germany – and defence reports
Over the next decades, numerous war scares would raise concerns among the public and the government.
In 1854, during the Crimean War, two Russian frigates evaded the Royal Navy near Hawaii and the Russians repulsed an Anglo-French attack on Petropavlosk Naval Base in Kamchatka Peninsula.
The prospect of war with France during 1859 led the Colonial Office in London to warn NZ to prepare to repel a possible surprise attack from French forces in New Caledonia.
There were clashes between British and American interests throughout the American Civil war 1861 – 65 (the UK favoured the Confederate side). The Royal Navy’s Australasian Squadron was pulled back to Sydney to counter the threat of war.
Each war scare was followed by a panicked review of defence requirements. Both local and overseas experts provided reports, plus contributions from the Colonial Defence Committee and Royal Commissions.
But, by the time a report was completed the prospect of war would have passed and the costs would invariably be beyond the colony’s resources, so the matter would be dropped until the next crisis.
Also, military technology was changing incredibly rapidly. Wooden sailing ships were replaced by armoured propellor-driven steamships. The muzzle-loading smooth-bore cannon of the Crimea War were replaced by breech-loading rifled artillery with hydraulic recoil, shells, and accurate gun-laying. New weapons such as electrically-detonated mines were developed. A report’s recommendations might be out of date in a few years.
Internal wars and Imperial troops
From 1860 – 1872, civil war broke out across the North Island between the government and some Maori tribes. Up to 18,000 Imperial troops and a significant naval force, supported by local militia, gave a sense of security against external threats. But, Imperial troops were expensive and Britain withdrew them by 1870 despite protests.
The 1870’s
We felt very vulnerable… The Australian colonies were starting to provide for their own defence -- Victoria's powerful monitor Cerberus arrived in Melbourne in 1871 -- so New Zealand needed to do the same!
In 1871 a defence review was completed by Dunedin’s own Lt Col John Cargill, Commander of the Otago Militia and Volunteers (he built the tunnel at Tunnel Beach). Cargill suggested using the newly invented torpedoes (i.e. mines) at Taiaroa Heads to help defend Otago Harbour. Photo https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/30781
Another review was completed in 1871 by Lt Col Sir William Jervois, one of the Empire’s leading authorities on coastal defence. Working from maps alone, he favoured batteries of heavy guns at the harbour entrance.
In 1873 David Luckie, editor of Auckland’s Daily Southern Cross, exploited this fear to boost sales, publishing a hoax report of a Russian invasion of Auckland by the ironclad cruiser Kaskowiski (‘Cask of whisky’).
Britain did annex Fiji in 1874, removing the danger of that island being used as a base by any hostile raider. But German and American interests in Samoa were unchallenged.
Russia declared war on Turkey in 1877; Britain’s Colonial Defence Committee advised New Zealand to act at once to meet a possible attack from Russia. The new 1876 telegraph cable link with Britain gave urgency to this request. Following up Jervois’s 1871 defence recommendations, the New Zealand government ordered 7-inch RML guns and 64 pounder guns. These guns arrived in 1879 but were put in store.
In 1880 Sir Peter Scratchley recommended three torpedo vessels fitted with spar torpedoes for each main port, working together with shore batteries to repel a lone raider. Harington Point would defend Port Chalmers with two 7-inch RML guns and a 64-pounder RML gun Submarine mines across the harbour entrances were desirable, but expensive. One spar torpedo boat for each port and a mine-laying steamer were purchased to protect the harbours at Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers.
The Jervois influence
Jervois became Governor General of NZ in 1883. He gave an influential 1884 address to the Royal Society of NZ where he laid out his harbour fortification plans, which included modern “disappearing guns”, supporting gun batteries and minefields for the four main harbours. Major Henry Cautley prepared detailed plans for the fortifications.
After much vacillation, another serious Russian scare in 1885 finally precipitated action. The Russians occupied Pendjeh in Afghanistan, which threatened a further Russian advance towards British India. Within three months, guns were hastily positioned in improvised emplacements. Then work started on permanent emplacements, using standardised designs developed by Lt Col Tudor-Boddam, all on a tight budget. By 1900 we had seventeen permanent coastal artillery fortifications dominating the strategic points in all our major ports. The forts were staffed by self-directed volunteer units that were mainly funded by the government but varied widely in experience and equipment. In 1909 these were replaced by a conscripted Territorial force that included artillery units.
The total cost of our Victorian coastal fortifications was over £500,000 - an immense amount for our small colony during the depression of the 1890s. Probably this extensive defence system was more than was needed to deter an attack from raiders and provide safe havens for the Royal Navy – but it was visible evidence that we were indeed doing our bit for the British Empire.
Building Harington Point Battery
The Harrington Point Battery was the last part of the "Russian Scare" defences built in Dunedin. Work at Harington Point only started after construction of the South Dunedin gun batteries 1885 - 86 (St Clair, Lawyers Head and Ocean Beach) and the Taiaroa Head fortifications 1885 – 89 (Disappearing gun, and Channel, Lighthouse, Saddle, and Howlett Point batteries).
In 1890 part of Wiremu Potiki’s family farm was taken as a “reserve for defence purposes” as seen on the Survey map. (This northern part of Otago Peninsula was Maori land, not part of the 1844 Otago Block sale)
There were plans for a minefield below the Point as Dunedin’s principal harbour defence. Harington Point Battery would be the minefield observation station and control point, working with the torpedo boat Taiaroa (1884 – 1904) based at Deborah Bay.
The minefield was surveyed as two ground-mine fields half a mile apart, on the channel within the bar. However, in the end, the minefield was never laid.
Although construction started in 1890, work went slowly due to the economic downturn and lack of funds. Prisoners were used for the heavy labour – in October 1898 two escaped, but were recaptured within an hour: ODT 25 Oct 1898
It was 1899 before the Harington Point gun emplacements and underground magazine were completed with one 7-inch RML gun. A second 7-inch RML gun was placed in 1903. In 1904 the engine room for Victoria D2 dynamo was finished and in 1906 the searchlight and long access tunnel were completed. The battery was operated by the Permanent Militia and the Naval Artillery corps.
In 1902 Britain and Japan signed an alliance, and then in 1905 the Japanese annihilated the Russian fleet at Tsushima. That ended the “Russian threat”, so now major defence works were focussed on the harbours of national importance (Auckland, Wellington, and Westport – which provided high-grade coal for the Empire’s fleet).
In 1906 a 6 pounder Nordenfeldt QF (quick firing) gun was sited to the north of Harington Point, although no emplacement was built. This “wicked little” gun did some “pretty shooting” in the November 1907 annual class-firing practice: Otago Witness 20 Nov 1907
The 7-inch RML guns were declared obsolete in 1904, but one was still there in 1907 when it experimentally fired a canister of half-pound cast iron shot as a defence against torpedo boats: Otago Witness 27 Nov 1907
World War One
During the early months of WW1 a German squadron under Vice-Admiral von Spee was at large in the Pacific, and coastal defences were on high alert. At Harington Point the 6 pr QF gun and the searchlight were manned by the No 2 Company Garrison Artillery Territorials. The Examination Anchorage (where ships were required to stop) 1914-15 was marked by buoys from Harington Point across to Haywood Point. Once the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were destroyed at the Falklands in December 1914, the threat to New Zealand was much reduced - but during 1917 the German raider Wolf laid mines around the North Island and the raider Seeadler under Count von Luckner was in the Pacific.
After WW1, New Zealand became reliant on the British naval base being built at Singapore. We knew our coastal defences would only have to hold out until a British relief force arrived…
World War Two
Harington Point was reoccupied in WW2 as part of the harbour mouth defence. Otago was a Class 2 defended port, so defensive mining was not approved. Two 1941 gun emplacements, a war shelter and a 1943 searchlight emplacement were built at sea level. An engine room for the 1943 searchlight was built on top of the old 1890s No 2 RML gun emplacement. The guns and searchlights were manned by the C Section, 82 Heavy Battery, 11 Heavy Artillery Regiment (from May-Dec 1943 temporarily renamed 13 Heavy Regiment).
In 1941 two obsolete 15 pounder quick-firing guns were installed as makeshift anti-motor torpedo boat/anti-submarine guns. At the end of 1941 these were replaced by two 6 pounder Nordenfeldt quick-firing guns, just as old but with a higher velocity and rate of fire.
From 1941 until 1945 there were two searchlights at Harington Point, each initially improvised from three railway locomotive headlights run off 6-volt batteries. In February 1942 a 90 cm Mark V anti-aircraft searchlight was installed in the original 1906 searchlight emplacement, run by a Ford V8 engine and Holmes generator. In March 1943 A 90 cm Mark V Projector Fortress searchlight was installed in the new 1943 searchlight emplacement, run off a Perkins Diesel engine with English Electric generator. The WW2 Battery Observation Post and the 1941 engine room for the Perkins engine and the generator were in the upper 1890’s section of the battery. The searchlights and QF guns were removed in July 1945.
The reserve is now public land, managed by the Department of Conservation. The site has been overgrown by gorse and defaced by graffiti and rubbish. However, it has now been partly cleaned up by volunteers, and a management plan is being prepared: ODT 22 September 2019
Useful sources:
- In Defence of Our Land: A Tour of NZ’s Historic Harbour Forts Russell Glackin 2009 Excellent overview & good read.
- Defending NZ: Ramparts on the Sea 1840- 1950s Peter Cooke Defence of NZ Study Group 2000 The authoritative reference work!
- Defending Dunedin: The Archaeology of Dunedin's Coastal Fortifications 1885-1945. Alex Scahill http://www.academia.edu/14520921/Defending_Dunedin_The_Archaeology_of_Dunedin's_Coastal_Fortifications_1885-1945._BA_Hons_thesis A description of all Dunedin’s coastal defence works.
- The Russian Scares Frank Rands RNZN Communicators Association 2014 https://rnzncomms.org/the-russian-scare/ A short outline of the batteries in each harbour.
- The Disappearing Guns of Auckland (PhD thesis 1995) Mitchell, John http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2325 Excellent background information
- Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 17, 1884 New Zealand Institute. Anniversary Address of The President, His Excellency Sir W. F. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.B., etc., Delivered to the Members of the New Zealand Institute, at the Anniversary Meeting, held on the 4th. October, 1884 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1884-17.2.5 and https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1884-17.2.5/1
- Wikipedia: Coastal Fortifications of NZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_fortifications_of_New_Zealand
- Military wiki: Coastal Fortifications of NZ https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Coastal_fortifications_of_New_Zealand
- New Zealand Coastal Defences website https://sites.google.com/site/nzcoastaldefences/dunedin-s-coastal-defences Maps and photos of all the main forts.
- Kiwi Adventures Harington Point Gun Emplacements https://adventure.nunn.nz/2016/01/12/ready-for-the-invasion-that-never-came-harington-point-gun-emplacements/
- Archives NZ survey map 1890 land taken for a road to Fort Taiaroa https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesnz/37165554492
- Waitangi Commission claim https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Ngai-Tahu/Ngai-Tahu-Deed-of-Settlement-Section-14-Ancillary-claims-21-Nov-1997.pdf
