Six Inch Guns, Horsburgh Island

The guns are located at Possession Point on the south-east corner of Horsburgh Island. There are two guns, one on a steel base which has partially collapsed onto the beach. The other gun is approximately 50 metres (164 ft) inland. The barrel of the gun is detached and partially buried on the beach. There are stone and coral walls that extend into the lagoon.^[1]

The guns may be associated with World War II gun installations on Christmas Island.^[1]

In 1996, the guns were heavily rusted and parts were missing. The front gun has been undermined and the inland gun barrel has been separated.^[1]

In 2000 it was reported that due to the coastline having eroded so substantially, the barrel of the gun has been washed off into the sand further and the base now rests entirely on the beach rather than on the higher grassed lands as it once did. Several other bits of the gun are now lying exposed on the coral. All are heavily corroded. The gun mount in the grass area is also heavily corroded.^[1]

The Six Inch Guns, c. 1941, demonstrate the Cocos (Keeling) Islands' important strategic location in the Indian Ocean during World War II. World War II ended the relative isolation of the Islands and the military presence led to Australian and international scrutiny of the Clunies Ross family's paternalistic administration of the Cocos Malay people. This scrutiny was a catalyst for the Australian Government to assume control of the Islands in 1951.^[1]

The Six Inch Guns are surviving evidence of the armed forces occupation and impact of World War II on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and are the only remnant of the period when the Ceylonese Army was stationed on Horsburgh Island.^[1]

• Allom Lovell Marquis Kyle (1996). Cocos Keeling Islands Heritage Study.
• Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects Pty Ltd (1996). Cocos (Keeling) Islands Heritage Study. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
• Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects Pty Ltd (1994). Lot 14 Home Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
• Bunce, P. (1988). The Cocos (Keeling Islands) Australian Atolls in the Indian Ocean.
• Nairn, B. (1986). "no title (1891-1939)". In Searle, G. (ed.). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Six Inch Guns, entry number 105222 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 15 May 2019.