A Head For Slights

Sun Herald

Sunday December 17, 2006

Simon Webster

The Brits built a fort on Middle Head, but no one had the decency to invade.

WHEN I signed up for a tour of the tiger cages, I assumed I was going to be shown the real reason people play the pokies all hours of day and night at Balmain Leagues Club - because they've been locked in and told they can't leave until all their money's gone.

The occasional party pie or mini sausage roll would be slipped between the bars for sustenance. Hunger strikers would be force-fed liquidised pork crackling. Short releases would be allowed on compassionate grounds - say, a trip to the TAB counter in the case of a big race at Flemington or a visit to the front desk to renew membership. Anyone who complained would be taken to Leichhardt Oval to watch the Tigers play Souths - a cruel and inhuman punishment.

The truth, however, was even more sinister. Out at Middle Head, right under the noses of the fine burghers of sleepy Mosman (and they do make a good burgher in Mosman), Australian troops were being tortured - by Australian troops.

The army Military Intelligence Unit (whose officers were known as the oxymorons) used the underground cages in the 1960s to train troops for the possibility of capture in Vietnam.

Soldiers would be kidnapped, locked in a cell not big enough to lie down or stand up in, kept awake with loud music and the incessant running of sticks against the corrugated iron walls of the cell, dragged out and interrogated and forced to suffer God knows what other indignities in a bid to toughen them up.

Thankfully, Australians no longer torture Australians in the name of war. The Americans do it for us.

The dank bunker that houses the tiger cages sits beneath fortifications built to protect Sydney from attack. The British decided to build them after they woke up one morning in 1839 to find that American warships had entered the harbour undetected.

"By jove, we must do something," said the Brits. "And quickly." Sure enough, a mere 30-odd years later, they started building fortifications on Middle Head - with cannons that were outdated cast-offs from the British Army. They never had to fire a shot in anger, which was probably a blessing as the cannonballs could have ended up anywhere.

What's left of the fortifications can be toured with a National Parks and Wildlife Service guide and involves the torchlit exploration of tunnels that are, like the tiger cage bunker, otherwise locked. No tours take place in winter due to the presence in the tunnels of the protected, hibernating bentwing bat. It's a close relation of the straightwing bat, but with a dodgy radar.

Gun emplacements are perused, mysterious wall fixings debated and views admired - the sight of Manly and the Heads would have been some compensation for the troops who stood by useless cannons year in, year out, trying not to feel slighted by the fact that no one seemed to find Sydney worth attacking.

A swim would have been just the ticket after a hard day staring at the horizon. No army-issue board shorts? No worries.

Nearby Balmoral might be off limits, but just down a couple of dirt tracks are nudist beaches Obelisk (gay) and Cobblers (just happy). After all, the good burghers of Mosman need somewhere to let it all hang out.

TRIP NOTES

? National Parks tours of the Middle Head forts take place on the fourth Sunday of the month from October to May. Tours start at 10.30am and go for two hours. $13.20 adults, $9.90 concessions, $36.30 families.

? Phone (02) 9247 5033. See www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au.

swebster@fairfax.com.au

© 2006 Sun Herald

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