The ownership of the fort was transferred to the Commonwealth in 1901, but by 1905 was without use as the Port River channels were dredged, providing harbouring in the river, and tactical defence was focussed on Fort Largs. The building housed anywhere between 9 to over one hundred men at times, depending on tasks and training regimes. The entire building was then surrounded with a dry moat and several points used to fend off possible close-up attacks with rifle fire. 'Both can fire over 5000 yards, 6500 yards in the case of the 10 inch guns.'Ī rear wall was then added to the battery to enclose the guns and transform the construction into a securable fort.

The aptly named Military Road linked the sites.Ĭonstructed at first was a lunette battery (semi-circle shaped), armed with four guns, two 10 inch 20-tonnes central guns, and two 6.3 inch 64-pounder flanking guns on each side. One of what was meant to be a three fort defence line, a second fort was built at Taperoo (now part of the Police Academy), with a third planned for Glenelg. 'The colonists were afraid that a raiding squadron might be sent to South Australia to attack our shipping off the Semaphore anchorage,' Russ explained. With fears that the Russians would expand their territory and attack English settlements that were far from the homeland, England ordered the construction to protect its southern colony. As explained by the president of the Fort Glanville Historical Association, Russ Sheldrick, the fort was constructed in the height of the cold war between England and Russia.

Battery icon when firing forts game