Fort Ballance

Fort Ballance stands on Point Gordon on the Miramar Peninsula and combines concrete structures, gun emplacements, and barracks integrated into the rocky hillside. The buildings were designed to fit the natural landscape, making the position difficult to spot from the water.

New Zealand's government built the fort in 1885 during rising tensions with Russia, seeking to move away from reliance on British military support. The project marked a turning point when the colony developed its own defense strategy for the Pacific region.

The site is named after George Ballance, a colonial defense minister, reflecting how New Zealand took responsibility for its own coastal protection during that era. Walking around the gun positions and barracks reveals how locals wanted to defend Wellington Harbor from distant threats.

You can explore the fort's grounds and examine the coastal defense structures, with information panels explaining the military history at each position. The terrain is uneven with stairs and paths, so wear good footwear and allow time to walk between the different gun positions and buildings.

The site holds the last surviving seesaw searchlight emplacement from 1891, a rare machine that ran on steam power. This mechanism reveals the clever engineering techniques that operators used to spot ships approaching Wellington Harbor.