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Location
Located at Paga Hill / Monga Point. Overlooks Basilisk Passage, Fairfax Harbor and Port Moresby town. One of the Port Moresby
Gun Batteries.
Construction
Construction began in 1939. Two 6" Mark XI Guns (former Naval guns) were installed, and work
continued in the supporting infrastructure. Also installed were two 6-Pr 10 CWT [ 'D. E. Lights'].
Paga Battery
With the start of Japanese
air raids against Port Moresby in February 1942, the concrete gun mounts were still drying, forcing the gunners to wait
until mid-February before the battery went into action. It never fired at surface targets.
Decommissioned in 1946, and the guns removed.
Additional defenses were added to Paga Hill, including a radio station an transmitter. The 67th Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battery (HQ). Ofshore was the anti-submarine net guarding Fairfax Harbor. Defenses were improvised under the direction of the 19th Fortress Company, Australian Engineer.
Radar Set RS 412
A US Army Radar RS 412 was emplaced at the top of the hill. It provided coverage
over 104 miles around the Port Moresby area, less over the Owen Stanley
Mountains.
Today
The concrete of the batteries and bunkers still remain today. The structures
at Paga Hill have to some extent been filled in with dirt and other
debris.
Graffiti
is to
be found
widely here and
some of the
structures are in use as dwellings by villagers or for storage.
The service tunnel that runs from the top of Paga Hill, forward
to the gun
structures is sealed.
Mike Boyd recalls in 1964-66:
"When I first started working in the Commonwealth Public Service, I was working with the Public Works Department and lived in Paga Point in 1964-66. I fact I used to park the car on top of the upper gun emplacement. The lower gun was about 30-40 yards away and a little lower down the hill. They would have been 2 or 3 hundred feet up and right on the crown of the hill at the point. About 100 yards or so must have been a control centre, as the timers called it the 'radio town'. There was a 8 inch gun emplacement further down the hill, to the right of these two emplacements. The star pickets and even some of the wire were still in place and there were no trees."
In the mid 1990s a property developer
seemingly acquired the land title to Paga Hill, and was all set to develop
it for high value real estate. However for the past ten years nothing
more has been heard of this proposal, It is not clear whether title
was ever granted. The area was also declared a conservation reserve
and zoned as open space.
References
The 'Letter' Batteries for
dates and information related to this battery. John Douglas' The
Coastal Gun Batteries of Port Moresby - Then & Now
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Last Updated
March 6, 2009
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