page_title: Challenger Battery
section_title: Background: The Fremantle Fortress prior to World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Challenger Battery / Background: The Fremantle Fortress prior to World War II
caption_attribution_description: BL 9.2 inch Mk X gun of Oliver's Battery, on Rottnest Island, Western Australia
context_page_description: Challenger Battery, also referred to as J Gun Battery, is a heritage-listed battery at Entrance Point, Garden Island, Western Australia. Historically, it has is also been known as Garden Battery, Entrance Battery and, finally, Challenger Battery. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004. It was part of the Coastal defences of Australia during World War II and the Fremantle Fortress, protecting Fremantle Harbour.
context_section_description: During the mid-1930s, the Australian Government upgraded its coastal defence batteries protecting the major ports of the country from enemy attack. In Western Australia, protection of the Fremantle Port was a priority. This was to be achieved by upgrading existing batteries and constructing new ones. At Leighton, Swanbourne, North Mole, Fremantle Harbour, South Beach and Point Peron, the batteries were upgraded. Additionally, new batteries were to be installed on Garden Island and Rottnest Island. 
  These combined coastal defences were referred to as the Fremantle Fortress. Originally, the defence of the port was to be achieved through the placement of 9.2-inch naval guns at Buckland Hill but this was deemed insufficient to protect the port from long range bombardment by cruisers equipped with 8-inch guns. Instead, the 9.2-inch guns were placed on Rottnest Island as part of the Oliver Hill battery, which allowed engagement of enemy ships before they reached a range where they could fire at Fremantle Port, having a range of 28 kilometre. The defence of Fremantle Port was deemed essential to national Australian security during a potential future war.
  Additional batteries, equipped with 6-inch Mk VII naval guns and 6-inch Mk XI naval guns, were installed at Rottnest Island (the Bickley Battery), Arthur Head and Fort Forrest, in North Fremantle. The Fort Forrest guns were moved to Swanbourne in 1935, with Buckland Hill, the future Leighton Battery, not selected at this point because of its proximity to vital other installations. At the start of World War II, both of the batteries at Rottnest Island and the Arthur Head and Swanbourne ones were operational.
caption: 9.2-inch naval gun, Oliver Hill battery, Rottnest island
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