For around 60 years Fort Lytton guarded the Brisbane River from river attack. Construction of the fort commenced in 1880 to protect the fledgling city of Brisbane. The Fort is a classical nineteenth century design, consisting of concrete re-enforced bunkers concealed beneath grassy embankments, all behind a deep moat. [Actually, for what it is worth, it looks a lot like Fort Mc Henry in Baltimore, an eighteenth century fort, so things did not change much in a hundred years!] The original fort design included four gun pits, however in the 1890's the fort defences were expanded to include an additional two pits, into which the original 64 pounders of the fort were moved. Until federation, the Fort was the main defence instillation of Queensland, and the volunteer defence force held annual encampments at the fort. Historical groups now often re-enact these encampments. By World War Two, the Fort was becoming increasingly out-dated, and took on a role as a secondary defensive position, with installations on the bay islands replacing it as a primary defensive position. During World War Two modifications were carried out to the fort which included the installation of a modern Twin 6 Pounder. After World War Two, the Fort fell into disuse, and was eventually acquired by Ampol when they constructed their Lytton oil refinery. Fortunately the Fort was not destroyed by the oil refinery, who handed back the land to the State government for preservation in 1988. Check it Out Yourself ! Fort Lytton is open seven days a week, and admission is only $4.40 for Adults and $2.20 for concession holders, which I think is quite reasonable ! Although it is open seven days a week, if you come on any day but Sunday be prepared to do the tour alone - Sundays tours are run. Also, if you come on a Sunday they run films and let you in the museum. BUT... if you go on a weekday like I did, you will almost certainly be guaranteed to have the place to your self. The day I went, no one else was there in the nearly 2 hours I was there. Oh, one more tip... Karen got real hungry that day, and thought there might be food out there. There is not, but they do have picnic areas, so you can bring your own. Join me on an interactive tour of Fort Lytton.... There are three ways to navigate around this site. You can click on the map and be sent to different areas, you can use the Jump To button to select particular areas (this is at the bottom of each page) or if you are adventurous, and wanna bit of fun, just try clicking of different parts of different pictures and see what happens (check the status bar).....

Interactive map of Fort Lytton This map is based on the "Self guiding walk" map, a Queensland Department of Environment and Hertiage publication available free at Fort Lytton.