Torpedo Station

The Torpedo Station was established on the south bank of the entrance to the North Arm at the time of the Russian scare of the 1880s which caused the construction of two forts at Largs Bay and Glanville and the purchase of the Colonial gunship “Protector”. A proposed third fort at Glenelg was never completed. The Torpedo Station was closed in 1916. This gun was found in the mud on the bank of the river and recovered by the Port Adelaide Council in 1961. It was relocated to the Birkenhead Naval Reserve in 1961 and with the closure of the navy establishment “HMAS Encounter”in 1994 it was removed to the Tracy Street Council Depot. Ownership was transferred to the Port Adelaide Sub-Sectionof the Naval Association of Australia in 1996 and the gun was re-sited to Cruickshanks Corner, Birkenhead. At a meeting of the Naval Association in 2007 the ownership of the gun was transferred to the Port Adelaide Historical Society and in 2012 their volunteers arranged for the removal and installation of the gun to the grounds of the Austbuilt Maritime Museum. Your interests can often be aroused by the displays and objects that are held in Museums around the world, but unlike those big city organisations where the stories are on a “look but don’t touch” basis, the hundreds of small groups like the Austbuilt Museum and the PAHS offer real contact with our past. So come along and visit, tell your story or ask us your questions and you can become an important part of PRESERVING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE.