This Gun Fired WW1 and WW2's First Shots for Australia | Tony Robinson's Time Travels

1914 was the beginning of the end of innocence for Australia

There were rumblings of war from the other side of the world. The German Empire's aggressive expansionism was directly threatening the interests and the security of Great Britain

and when Mum was under threat, her young child, Australia, was ready to run to her side

Australia had already offered up its youth for wars in the Sudan

South Africa, even the Boxer Rebellion in China. But this was the big one

Being a valued part of the Commonwealth gave the new nation security

and a sense of place in the world. When war was declared on August 4th, 1914

even while Britain's forces were starting to mobilise, Australia was battle-ready. In fact, the first battleground of World War I

wasn't mainland Europe, but thousands of miles away, here at Point Nepean in Victoria

and Major Bernie Gaynor is going to show me what happened. So who was the first shot fired at

First shot was fired at a German freighter, the SS Fells. Where was it

The Fells was docked in Melbourne, about 80km over there. It had departed at dawn. It was coming up the South Channel

Had war been declared? War had been declared but news that war had been declared had not reached here

War had been declared about two hours previously. Just as it was coming past here, the word came from the headquarters over at Queenscliff

that war had been declared. A young officer, whose name was Veal, directed the guns to fire a warning shot across the

bowels of the fells. And that's what happened. And the guns were up here

This gun fired at around about two and a half hours after war was declared in London and

that is why this gun was the first gun among any of the Allied nations to fire a shot in

World War One. So did the ship stop when the gun was fired

Well not immediately because the Australian pilot on the bridge Captain Robinson Yes immediately telegraphed to the engine full of stern Yeah The German realising with horror what was happening

immediately counter-marted and telegraphed full ahead. And so for a brief period there was a physical tussle

They're wrestling on the bridge. Wrestling on the bridge. Robinson and the Germans. Robinson and the Germans

They were physically fighting. Go forward, go back. Yeah. Stop, surrender. No, I'm not

Until finally, Captain Robinson said, if you don't stop, the next shot will be into the ship

No, that's me. If you don't stop, the next shot will be into the ship. Yeah, well, I'm on here. Yeah

And that's what happened. At that point, the German realised that he could do nothing

He stopped and he surrendered. Sometimes, just sometimes, I can wear my name with pride

the firing of the point nepean gun would mark the start of a worldwide conflict

that would spill blood like no other Between 1914 and 1918, 10 million soldiers would lose their lives

including 60,000 Australians. But sadly, despite all the carnage, the world's superpowers weren't finished with war yet

Two decades later, they were at it again, with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939

And so, too, was the gun emplacement at Point Nepean. I've got an eerie sense of déjà vu

Not only was the first shot of World War I fired from here, but the first Australian shot of World War II was fired from where

The same gun, the same position. How come? That is so eerie

Indeed it was. A very strange turn of events. What happened in World War II was that war had been declared

a whole new series of regulations required of merchant vessels entering Port Phillip

and an Australian coastal vessel was trying to pass through the heads to enter into Port Phillip Bay

Signals were made, it didn't answer them. Boom! A shot was fired

Who by? By this gun, under the direction of Commander Veal. Commander Veal, the same bloke who'd given the order

all those years previously when the shot was fired in the First World War Indeed The vessel didn answer the signals that were made to it So he was just having a pop at some lazy Australian sailors basically He was very very cheesed off with the way the maritime fellows

were not adhering to the new requirements of signalling and answering because of the declaration of war

And he said they need to learn a lesson. And for the next two and a half years

it was the only shot fired in anger on Australian soil. This is Brisbane City Hall, but what I wanted to show you was this

You always want to keep an eye out for one of these when you're on a walk. and down here is the basement of the city hall

and the whole thing is undergoing a mammoth refurb at the moment so these guys in the red day-glo jackets, engineers, architects, that sort of thing

Sorry to burst in on you unannounced, thanks. What intrigues me about this place is that it used to be in the Second World War

the Red Cross Tea Room where young soldiers from out of town

used to come for a bit of cheer and a cup of tea. In the early 1940s, Brisbane, on Queensland's east coast

was just a big country town. But it exploded into life as thousands of Australian and American servicemen

suddenly poured into the area. The troops needed rest and relaxation, and that was where the Red Cross stepped in

Enlisted men at the City Hall tea rooms would be given a welcome pack

And among all the other goodies, there would be a pencil, and I'm going to show you what they used to do with that pencil

Lyriss, would you come with me to the gentleman's toilet? Certainly. Thank you very much

Well, I haven't asked a young lady to do that ever. Well, certainly not since the 1960s, anyway

During the refurb, one of the first things that they had to do was hack all the plaster off the walls

And in this corridor they were doing just that. And this was revealed

A whole wall full of Second World War soldiers autographs So the urinal or the stalls were actually here weren they That right After the men did what they had to do they then took out their pencils and signed their names as young men do all around the world

It must have been the done thing to add your name to the loo wall, but was it just an act

of bravado? Or did leaving something as personal and tangible as a signature actually help the

boys face an uncertain future. Something really rather sweet and tragic about that, isn't there

Oh, there's a lieutenant there. I can't read his name. We think it's Gallon

We've never been able to identify him, which means the highest ranking person on the wall

that we have been able to identify is here, and it's Warrant Officer First Class Cross

What's your favourite? It has to be Mr Scott. Mr Scott is an original rat of Tobruk

Oh, like the desert rats, the guys who fought in the North African desert? In 1941, Australian troops held the strategic port of Tobruk

against a combined German-Italian onslaught that lasted for eight months. The Nazis nicknamed the tenacious defenders as rats

an insult the Aussies ironically embraced. Of the 14,000 Australians who served there, 800 lost their lives for the cause

A lot of these guys must have died during the war, mustn't they

No, they all came back alive. How did you do that? 153 have been identified so far and every single one of them has come back alive

That's really mystic, isn't it? It's wonderful. This is a great piece of history, just a snapshot in time

all these guys going off to war. I really like that. Well, thank you very much for showing me

You're welcome. And also thank you for coming to the lab with me. Thank you

Bye. Bye-bye. It's a beautiful twist of fate that those soldiers' fragile scribblings on the wall

list those who returned from war rather than commemorating the fallen. But then war is full of strange twists and turns