Defending Port Phillip Author: Keith Quinton

Hardcover 34 cm x 28 cm (13 x 11 inches) 120 pages
Hardcover 25cm x 20 cm (10 x 8 inches)
Soft cover 25cm x 20 cm (10 x 8 inches)

80 large format historical, digitally enhanced, sepia images (4-colour printing)
30,000 word text & extensive bibliography

A critical examination of the land and sea defences developed by the British Colony of Victoria following its promulgation and separation from New South Wales in 1852. The book details fluctuations between naval and/or military solutions to the ever increasing threat presented by steam powered and armoured warships combined with the development of breech loading guns. The defence of Port Phillip and its principal port, Melbourne, is examined in relation to the international development of steam navies and corresponding advances in powerful coastal fortification.
During most of the 19th Century defence of Australasian colonial ports lay within the realm of British Colonial and eventually Imperial policy as the perceived antagonists to British power varied from decade to decade

Finally, during the late 19th Century there was a concerted Australasian attempt to establish independent control over defence issues while seeking to maintain the presence of Royal Naval warships in order to secure vital international sea lanes and inter-colonial coastal shipping routes.
A number of images are published for the first time and all images in the book have been digitally reworked to original condition.

Available for purchase from Blurb Books (USA)
Internet Ordering Only: (20 page preview online)
Blurb books / Author / Title (Available December 2009)

Port Phillip Forts Author: Keith Quinton

Hardcover 34cm x 28 cm (13 x 11 inches) 142 pages

Over 100 large format images (4-colour printing)
16 maps
8,000 word text

Within a decade of gold being discovered in Victoria, Australia, Melbourne became the Southern Hemisphere's richest city.
At first the new colony established a flotilla of warships, including the revolutionary breastwork monitor HMCS Cerberus, to protect Port Phillip from enemy egress.
However by the late 1870's the advent of electrically discharged sea mines and newly developed rifled and breech loading artillery made land based defences appear to be a financially more viable proposition.
From 1880-1890 an extensive grouping of forts and gun batteries were constructed to protect the shipping channels through the Great Sandbar located inside the entry to Port Phillip Heads. These fortifications personify the principal developments in late 19th Century British coastal fortification.

This book of photographs has an historical introductory explanation of the fortifications and developmental stages and visually records all surviving fortifications and locations (2009) and provides selected details on ordnance and purpose. It will also act as a guide to those who wish to explore the locations open to public access by including site maps and Google Earth location details.

Available for purchase from Blurb Books USA
Internet Ordering Only: (20 page preview online)
Blurb books / Author / Title (Available March 2010)