HARRY'S AND FORT SCRATCHLEY

On Saturday, March 6, we decided to go to Newcastle for one of Harry's famous meat pies. Scott and I both tried the meat pies but the true Aussie, Juliet, had a chili hot dog! Go figure! The pies are absolutely fantastic at Harry's and very affordable.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels is a moveable food van with a hung awning, similar to those found at fairs. The name Cafe de Wheels came about because of the requirement of the City Council that mobile food caravans had to move a min. of 12 inches each day.

The original Harry's is located in Sydney and is considered an icon in the local area and gained fame as a tourist attraction. A visit to the caravan became a must for visiting celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich.

Harry's specializes in the same basic food today as was popular back in the 1940s, such as meat pies and mushy peas. During the 1970s Harry's introduced the hot dog, mostly to appease the American sailors.

For my TV reality friends, Harry's was featured in the second season of the reality show The Amazing Race in 2002. The challenge was for a Fast Forward and the racers who chose to do the Fast Forward had to eat pies.

FORT SCRATCHLEY

After lunch, we headed to Fort Scratchley, a historic site in Newcastle. Fort Scratchley is situated atop flagstaff hill. It also holds the location where coal was discovered in the late 1700s. Plans for a complete fort were not made until after 1870, when alarm of an attack by Russia began spreading throughout Newcastle due to the increased hostility between England and Russia. the fort was finally finished in 1882 but no longer were the Russians the threat, as the Japanese became the new enemy.

Fort Scratchley was one of a number of defence sites around Newcastle that performed an important role in defending Newcastle and its port. Fort Scratchley Battery had two 6-inch guns for "close defence", a battery operation post and was the control point for the harbour's main searchlights. The fort consisted of three 9-inch Rifle Muzzle Loader guns and a battery of four 80 pdr cannons. In 1889, three BL 6-inch and one 8-inch BL disappearing guns were installed at the fort. Two 6-inch Mark VII BL guns replaced the disappearing guns in 1911 and were responsible for returning fire on the I-21 Japanese submarine that shelled Newcastle in 1942.

The disappearing guns were very interesting. They were propelled by water and air pressure which rotated the gun from the bottom of the tunnel up to the top of the hill. After firing, the kickback retracted the gun back down and it was repressurized. All within approximately 1 minute.

















We took the 1-hour tunnel tour which took us beneath the shield of concrete and earth into a network of gun chambers, magazines and passage ways. The guns at Fort Scratchley were decommissioned in 1962 and the fort closed in 1972.