Victoria and her cannon
GEELONG, like many other regional Victorian centres, had a penchant for artillery pieces in the early 1900s.
The entrance to Eastern Park was guarded by a pair of cannon that sat either side of the statue of Queen Victoria.
The statue had been shifted there from Market Square in 1912 to make way for the Solomons Building.
There was also a pair of captured German guns guarding the foreshore in Transvaal Square, which had been installed in about 1920.
The Transvaal Square guns were still in place until the 1960s before they were sold for scrap.
Geelong West had been the first Geelong municipality to embrace guns in the form of former naval guns that were installed above the foreshore at Western Beach.
Geelong West council had been notified in February 1898 a gun had been installed on a hill at Western Beach, which was part of the municipality of Geelong West.
The hill in Western Beach became known as Cannon Hill, and the borough may have received one other gun for the site after the Defence Department advised the council later in 1898 that another two guns had become available.
Geelong West was said to have received one gun from the battleship a sailing ship that had arrived in 1867 to guard the entrance to Hobsons Bay. The became a training ship after the arrival of the monitor HMVS in 1871.
Apart from its own armament, the had carried other guns bought for the Colony of Victoria.
Unfortunately, naval guns had the disadvantage of having wooden undercarriages that deteriorated and they were removed in 1929, the year Geelong West became a city.
It is unclear when the Eastern Park guns were removed.
Fort Queenscliff has retained a number of guns from its early days, including a disappearing gun. Contact: peterjohnbegg@gmail.com