Hardworking volunteers have brought history to life at the Breakwater Battery Museum in Port Kembla for decades. Now they’ve been told to get out. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
A treasure trove of Wollongong’s military history will be lost forever if NSW Ports goes through with plans to evict an Illawarra institution.
Port Kembla is currently home to one of the few museums where visitors can see and touch original World War I and World War II uniforms, binoculars and trench art.
Breakwater Battery Museum volunteers have been told their lease will not be renewed, and they must be out by 31 October – an impossible task, given the quantity of inventory they have to move and store.
There’s a room filled with to-scale models of trenches, alongside a room decked out like a Vietnam army camp and another resembling the jungle in Papua New Guinea.
The museum boasts half a dozen paintings by the Royal Australian Navy’s official wartime artist, bits of a fighter plane that crashed west of Dapto, 72 guns of incredible age, an original WWI field telephone, and a Japanese field telephone – complete with a battery that proudly reads “Made in Australia”.
The building was built in 1939 and was once the World War II headquarters and command post for the Breakwater Battery fort complex.
On a more personal note, it is home to hundreds of photos of servicemen and women from the Illawarra, and local honour rolls from both World Wars.
Museum secretary Terry Bugg is dedicated to learning the story of every soldier whose name or image is inside the museum’s walls.
“I can tell you almost all of them – not just where they came from and where they served, but whether they came back, who they married, if they had any kids,” he said.
“There’s just one photograph – it was taken at the showgrounds around 1910 – that I’m not sure who the boys in it are.”
The boys wearing slouch hats in the photo look like children, although none of them would be alive today.
Terry said it was one of the things schoolchildren responded to when they came on tours of the museum.
“They see that and they realise that the soldiers weren’t the old men they see on Anzac Day, they were kids not much bigger than them,” he said.
“They learn how it would have felt by being here, and they ask some of the most sensible questions I’ve ever heard.”
The museum has been run by a group of volunteers since about 1986. The building was empty and the NSW Government Port Authority was happy for it to be put to good use.
The collection grew from a few hundred items to more than 5000 donated by people across the world – a favourite of Terry’s is a series of photos showing a young man’s career from a baby-faced member of the English Navy, to service in the Mediterranean, Africa and finally Port Kembla, Australia.
Over the years volunteers maintained the building and the collection, caring for leather that would otherwise break down, and cleaning relics such as old cartridges to reveal intricately carved trench art, made by soldiers in their downtime for loved ones back home.
The building changed hands and in 2018 the museum was asked to sign a lease for a nominal sum.
“When it became NSW Ports you could tell the attitude had changed,” Terry said.
“The lease was pretty standard, we abided by all the rules and maintain the lights and water and things. We spent thousands having the inside of the building painted.
“We had to close during COVID and Ports agreed to pay our electricity bill until we reopened and were financial – then they wouldn’t let us open.”
They estimate appropriate housing for the guns alone would cost in excess of $10,000.
Terry said NSW Ports told the museum they could not open because the building – an original watchtower from 1938 – wasn’t up to code for 2024.
He understands some of the issues include the width of doorways and the height of ceilings. The building is made of brick and cement render.
Under the Wollongong City Council’s Local Environment Plan it is listed as a heritage site, and the site is also heritage listed under the NSW State Environmental Planning Policy.
When Region Illawarra contacted the local and state governments, both referred the issue to the other.
It’s left the volunteer team confused about what NSW Port’s plans for the building might be, and who is responsible for the heritage status and requirements of the site.
A spokesperson for NSW Ports said they would “explore ways in which the use of the building can be enhanced”.
“Investment in the Breakwater Battery Museum building will be required in order to achieve such an outcome. We would welcome suggestions to inform our considerations,” the spokesperson said.
“Promoting and preserving the region’s maritime and military history is important and will continue through our custodianship of the Heritage Park and historic items contained therein.”
Terry and the other volunteers aren’t sure what NSW Ports mean by “enhanced”, or how they intend to preserve the region’s maritime and military history by dumping the biggest collection of it that exists.
They’re devastated at the potential loss.
“There was no opportunity to negotiate; we tried, but you either don’t get an answer or they just railroad you,” he said.
“We never wanted NSW Ports to cough up millions to fix the building or anything. We were happy to take our time, get grants and build it up.
“We had a young man shot to death out the front of the building. I can’t believe his memory doesn’t mean something.
“I just get irritated – it’ll come Anzac Day and all our MPs and councillors will stand around waving the flag. Here they have the opportunity to do something to honour these people and they run away.”
The museum volunteers have invited local MPs, NSW Ports and NSW Heritage to meet with them for a discussion, to no avail.
“We never got a reply from anyone except Gareth Ward, and he’s not even our member,” Terry said.
“This building belongs to the people of NSW; I don’t care if NSW Ports have a lease on God himself, it belongs to the people of NSW.
“I’d like them to let us have a museum that pays our respects to the men and women who served our country.”
He encouraged anyone who wanted to help save the museum to contact Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe, or Member for Wollongong Paul Scully.
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