The tunnels of North Head Fort

If you haven’t already checked out part one of this. I strongly suggest you do! Don’t worry, I will wait while you go and check it out.

These photos were taken during the official tour. It started off by showing us a lot of things that went bang and another thing that looked cool and gave off as much light as a small sun. I don’t really care for bang bangs so I wasn’t paying much attention to this part of the tour.  But I must stay everything was well taken care of and shiny.

After this part we headed over to the bunkers. This time one of the doors was open to show off a small information room. Along the wall was one of the devices used to load the big bang bang.

After some words by our tour guide we headed down into the tunnels.

The first section of the tunnels took us to a fork. We headed left into the room directly under the gun emplacement. These rooms were used to house the shouty part of the guns. Shells were stored near the gun lift, the powder held nervously in the inner room. The entire room was coated in a cork finish to minimize the chance of sparks and unwanted explosions.

After this we headed back to the fork and down the stairs. During the tour and even above ground, the sound of running water echoed through the tunnels. Turns out, that while these tunnels were being dug out a natural spring was discovered. This was then built into the bunkers and used for a water supply.

Once I got to the bottom of the stairs and around the corner, a long narrow tunnel ran hundred of meters off into the distance. It was huge! Along the tunnel was one small ladder leading up into a room. But unfortunately I was not allowed up in there no matter how much I cried.

About midway down the tunnel we came to this small room and intersection. This was the medical bay and had a connecting tunnel the other gun emplacement. Once we had finished we headed down another long tunnel to the engine room.

The engine room contains two large marine generators and an old switchboard. This powered the entire site.

And that was the end of the tour. We headed through the old baffles (used to deaden the force of a blast wave) and then out into the open air.

Tours run every Sunday, four times a day. [Details here].

 

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