Ben Buckler Gun Battery

Ben Buckler Gun Battery
Ben Buckler, Sydney
Disappearing gun at Ben Buckler Gun Battery
Ben Buckler Gun Battery
Coordinates	33°53′03″S 151°17′04″E / 33.884195°S 151.284410°E / -33.884195; 151.284410
Type	Gun Battery
Site history
Built	1892
Materials	Concrete, Brick

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery is a fortified gun emplacement of the late-Victorian period located in the North Bondi locality of Ben Buckler, Sydney, Australia.

The Ben Buckler Gun Battery was constructed in 1892 as one of a set of three coastal defence fortifications for Sydney Harbour, the other two being Signal Hill Battery at Watsons Bay and the Shark Point Battery in Vaucluse. These fortifications were the last link in Sydney’s outer defence perimeter, which was intended to defend Sydney from bombardment by an enemy vessel standing off the coast. The fortifications built in the 1890s around Sydney's eastern suburbs were the culmination of some twenty years of construction of harbour defense installations that reflected the changing policy of the time to meet new technologies, threats and styles of warfare.

The Ben Buckler Battery is a rare, intact concrete 1890s gun emplacement, which was designed and developed for the new BL 9.2 inch (234 mm) Mk VI breech-loading 'counter bombardment' British Armstrong 'disappearing' gun. The Australian colonies bought 10 of these, three for Sydney, plus an extra barrel, four for Victoria at Fort Nepean and Fort Queenscliff, and two for Adelaide, South Australia, purchased in 1888. The Adelaide guns were never installed at Fort Glenelg and the British government bought them back in 1915. The barrel of the gun that had been installed at Signal Hill Battery survives and was on public display at the Royal Australian Artillery Museum at North Fort, North Head before the museum closed in 2010.