Fort Queenscliff, Military museum and coastal fort in Queenscliff, Australia

Fort Queenscliff is a two-story red brick structure with a dark stone base course and a flat, crenellated roofline, standing on Shortland's Bluff above the entrance to Port Phillip. Its corner has a projecting cylindrical turret on a stone corbel, and the facades are pierced by narrow windows with stone lintels and sills, the lower ones recessed with angled brick sides.

An open battery was built on Shortland's Bluff in 1860 to defend the entrance to Port Phillip. The fort was largely redeveloped in the late 1870s and 1880s and became headquarters for the chain of forts around Port Phillip Heads, manned continuously as a coastal defence from 1883 to 1946. In 1946 it passed to the Army Command and Staff College, and in 2001 to the Soldier Career Management Agency.

Queenscliff was proclaimed a town on 23 June 1853, and the fort takes its name from that settlement, not from a colonial administrator. The museum, established in 1982, holds an indoor display and archival centre for historical research. The Historic Military Precinct Open Day is held each November.

Access to the fort is only by guided tour, which operate on specific days throughout the week. Wear sturdy shoes as the grounds are uneven and include steep sections, especially on the outer walls and ramparts.

The order to fire the first Allied shot of World War I came from Fort Queenscliff, not from the gun at Fort Nepean that actually fired across the bow of the German freighter Pfalz. The same gun, rebarrelled, fired the first Allied shot of World War II.