Kissing Point Fortification is a heritage-listed fortification at 38–40 Howitt Street, North Ward, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Peter Scratchley and Major Edward Druitt and built from 1891 by A McMillan (Govt Foreman of Works c1890) and then from 1939 to 1941. It is also known as Jezzine Barracks. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2010.
It is now the home of the Army Museum of North Queensland.
History The fortification at Kissing Point occupies part of a rocky headland separating Cleveland Bay and Rowes Bay at the northern end of The Strand in Townsville; while the Jezzine Barracks complex extends approximately ten hectares to its south-west. The former was built in 1891 as a two-gun battery and part of the coastal defence scheme being established to protect the colony of Queensland and its ports from naval bombardment, installations of which started at Fort Lytton (1880–1882) in Brisbane and extended to Green Hill Fort on Thursday Island (1891–92). Both during and after the war the adjacent barracks complex grew up over the large site where the battery's garrison buildings were located and where regular training and annual encampments of northern military forces had been conducted since 1889, most particularly those of the Kennedy Regiment formed in Townsville in 1886. The entire former military site, encompassing the barracks and the fortification, is delimited by Cook, Isley, Mitchell and Howitt Streets to the west and south, and enclosed by a semi-circle of sea cliffs and littoral land to the north and east; however the heritage boundary encompasses only those parts of Queensland heritage significance, namely the fortification structures and earthworks, five P1 huts put in place during World War II, and the parade ground at the site's formal entrance. The military presence on this headland has persisted over a period of just more than 125 years to 2007 when it was officially closed as an active army site; although the 31st Royal Queensland Regiment precinct, established as the Army Museum of North Queensland, and Jezzine House, are still owned by the Australian Government. The remainder of the site has been gifted to the Townsville City Council as Trustees.
Prior to the 1860s, defence of the Australian colonies had been solely the responsibility of the British government, Britain considering that its navy would provide the first line of defence in any threat to her colonial empire. An investigation into colonial military expenditure in 1862 resulted in Britain demanding that the Australian colonies, by then self-governing, contribute toward the costs of maintaining Imperial garrisons on colonial soil, and encouraged them to provide for their own military infrastructure. Queensland, which had separated from New South Wales in December 1859, could not afford to contribute to this scheme immediately so Imperial troops were gradually withdrawn, the last leaving in 1870.
By the 1870s the Australian colonies were developing rapidly and concerns were renewed about potential threats from colonial powers such as Russia and France - the latter having annexed New Caledonia in 1873 - as well as about American privateers seeking gold. A series of incidents involving Russia and Britain added to the fears aroused during the Crimean War of 1853–1856. One such "scare" in 1876 motivated the colonial governments of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to jointly invite British Royal Engineers Colonel Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois and Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley, to inspect existing defence installations and make recommendations as to how they might be improved. Jervois had been Inspector General of Fortifications and Secretary to the United Kingdom Defence Committee and had superintended the construction of its defences during the 1860s. Scratchley's particular expertise was in the design and construction of deterrent coastal fortresses and he would have a profound influence on colonial Australian defence matters; his advice causing a number of fortified installations to be constructed along the coastline of Australia, including Fort Lytton at the mouth of the Brisbane River (1880–81), Fort Scratchley in Newcastle (1882), Bare Island Fort on Botany Bay (1885), Fort Queenscliff and the system of defences for Port Phillip Bay in Victoria (1860–1891), and Fort Glanville in South Australia (1882).
Jervois and Scratchley arrived in Queensland in early August 1877 and had presented their report to the government by the end of the month. In it they identified the most likely threats to the new colony to be maritime bombardment, raids or extortion. They recommended that the mainland colonies develop their sea power in concert with a series of coastal defences. These defences were the standard means of defending ports and harbours following Britain's rise as a naval power, relieving the navy of its defensive functions and affording it greater scope for offensive attacks. Despite being physically closer to the source of most threats, Queensland, with its sparse population and limited resources, was not considered to be greatly at risk and Townsville of little strategic importance. The report did recommend that Brisbane, as the capital and principal port of Queensland, be defended with the construction of a fort at Lytton.
Cleveland Bay and its nascent settlement were first declared a port of entry in September 1865, having been privately surveyed the previous year by agents of John Melton Black - the general manager of Robert Towns & Co, one of the largest pastoral interests in the Kennedy District. Towns entered a partnership with Black to provide financial assistance for this venture and early in 1866 the new municipality was named Townsville in honour of his contribution, although he visited only once. Forming the north-western limit of the township, the rocky headland of Kissing Point had been given its name by 1864. In the five years following the establishment of Townsville a series of nearby gold discoveries were made, most notably those at Ravenswood and Charters Towers; the latter becoming the richest goldfield in North Queensland. The Great Northern railway built in the early 1880s to service these fields - a network that spread out to connect other inland centres to the busy port - was to fuel Townsville's growth in size and importance, allowing it to evolve into the northern centre of not only the mining industry but also those of pastoralism and sugar.
Following completion of the 1877 assessment, Scratchley was retained as a consultant by several colonial governments including Queensland. Another war "scare" erupted in 1878 when Russian forces advanced on the capital of Turkey, a British ally, and again galvanised colonial governments in Australia regarding their strategic forward defence. No. 4 Battery, a small detachment of 40 men from the Queensland Volunteer Artillery Brigade was formed in Townsville in June. It was not until January 1881 that Lieutenant-Colonel George Glendower Blaxland, the Commandant of the Queensland defence forces, was able to make his first inspection of this group. He also selected the site for a battery at Kissing Point. As the year progressed a number of Volunteer Independent Rifle Companies were raised at Charters Towers, Townsville and Ravenswood. Scratchley continued to provide progress reports to the Queensland Government, submitting his final memorandum in 1882, which was the first to recommend specific measures for the protection of Townsville, which he had visited. These entailed mounting two available 64-pounder rifled guns on travelling carriages in positions so as to fire seaward, building a small associated magazine and enclosing a site to be selected. It was suggested that a sandbag battery could be constructed upon the outbreak of war.
The defence systems in Queensland were deemed to be lacking in cohesion and discipline, and a necessary reorganisation was soon established under the Queensland Defence Act 1884. It created a small permanent force as well as a partially paid militia force and voluntary infantry units, and set out new orders of battle and establishment. It also divided the colony into two Military Districts - Southern and Northern. On 24 February 1885 No 4 Battery was redesignated as the Townsville Garrison Battery in the Kennedy Division (KD) of the Northern Military Division (NMD). A number of volunteer companies, A through F, were formed in Townsville, Charters Towers and Ravenswood throughout the year. By June, when Queensland Premier Sir Samuel Walker Griffith toured the north and visited Townsville, the 64-pounder guns recommended by Scratchley in 1882 had been mounted at Kissing Point and Magazine Island and were fired. This entailed construction of a timber platform over which the gun carriage could move. The site where the battery was constructed was formally gazetted for Defence Purposes in 1886. Following reorganisation of the colony's regimental divisions, in October of the same year, the 3rd Queensland (Kennedy) Regiment was raised and headquartered in Townsville, subsuming the various Volunteer Independent Rifle Companies listed above. It received its colours in 1887 when its headquarters were shifted to Charters Towers.
The first annual encampment for the north Queensland component of the colony's Defence Force had taken place at Townsville in 1885 at Cluden Park, on the south-eastern outskirts of the settlement. In 1887 drill practice was being conducted at Kissing Point and Magazine Island. As more volunteer units formed these encampments grew larger, necessitating their removal to a larger open space. In 1889 they were moved to the newly gazetted public recreation reserve of known as Norman Park, adjacent to the west of the Kissing Point reserve and leased to the Queensland and later the Australian governments by the Townsville Town Council. Regular encampments were held at Norman Park until the start of World War II. In preparation for these events the salt pan land adjacent to the south of the Kissing Point outcrop and subject to intermittent tidal flooding was drained with a dam and sluice valve. Similar earthwork, including a dam across a creek that flowed into Rowes Bay, was carried out to make the salt pan and mangrove areas along the western half of Norman Park into a suitable training and parade field. It was not until 1909 that the Deed of Grant for Norman Park was purchased for Defence Purposes by the Australian Government.
By the late 1880s attitudes towards colonial defence were changing, as was technology both for weaponry and shipping. Techniques for defence against maritime attack were under constant review. Despite the ongoing debate the colonial government finally agreed to commit to building defences at Kissing Point and Magazine Island that would operate in concert to protect all approaches to the busy harbour.