removed and the emplacement fitted with a searchlight, along with an engine house to generate electricity. The remaining gun emplacements were renumbered – the Mk VII guns were numbered A1 and B1, and the 6-inch BL guns numbered F1 and H1. 1939–1942 Light anti-aircraft guns were deployed at the fort in 1939. The remaining 6-inch BL guns were removed in 1940. The A1 and B1 emplacements were renumbered F1 and H1 respectively, and fitted with concrete hoods. World Wars The first Australian shots (many sources report the first Allied shots) of both World War I and World War II were fired from Fort Nepean. On 5 August 1914, the German ship SS Pfalz attempted to escape from Port Phillip. Within minutes of being notified that war had been declared, Lieutenant-Colonel Sandford at Fort Queenscliff gave an order to Lieutenant C Morris, the Fire Commander at Fort Nepean, to "stop her or sink her". After the Pfalz ignored signals to halt, the B1 gun fired across her bow. The Pfalz then turned around and the crew was arrested at Portsea. At 1:30 am on 4 September 1939, within hours of war being declared, the A1 gun fired across the bow of a ship which failed to identify itself. The ship then identified as the Australian freighter SS Woniora. These were the only occasions any of the Port Phillip batteries fired in anger. After World War II With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the guns were dismantled and sold for scrap. The barrels of the historic Mk VII guns which fired in anger were retrieved from the Port Wakefield artillery proving ground and a scrap yard at Brooklyn, Victoria in the 1960s and returned to the fort. National Park The area was opened to the public in 1988 upon the formation of the Point Nepean National Park. See also Fort Queenscliff Fort Pearce South Channel Fort Swan Island Pope's Eye Jervois-Scratchley reports Footnotes Citations References Armament Establishment, Detail of Equipment for Forts at Port Phillip Heads, Garrison Service, NAA:B77856, 12094 1882/644A, National Archives of Australia. Drawings and plans of fortress installations — Port Phillip Defences, MP338/2, National Archives of Australia. Point Nepean National Park Fortifications, Conservation Plan, Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands, January 1990. Point Nepean Forts Conservation Management Plan, Parkes Victoria, July 2006. External links 1878 establishments in Australia 1985 disestablishments in Australia Nepean Former military