The author of Defending Middle Head – A Short History, Kevin O’Brien was a classmate, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, of Australia’s former Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, CVO, MC. Sir Peter wrote the foreword to Kevin’s book. Kevin had a distinguished military career himself but as readers of his book will know, he always had at the top of his mind what he was defending and why.
Brigadier Kevin O’Brien, CSC (RL) served in the Australian Army for 33 years, including operational service in Vietnam, and with the British Army in England and Germany. He was an Instructor at the School of Artillery Sydney, North Head.
While based at the Australian Army’s Headquarters Training Command at Georges Heights, Middle Head, Mosman NSW, he rewrote the doctrine for Land and Warfare in Australia and developed new Military History programs.
His grasp of the technicalities and power of artillery to protect and to destroy is underpinned by a deep knowledge and understanding of military history and the social and cultural importance of military heritage. Australia’s military heritage has a fundamental connection with territory and Country, in wartime and peacetime. Kevin instigated the new Australian Memorial Parks at Fromelles and Le Hamel in France and wrote visitor guides for them. They opened in 1998; in the same year he was appointed to the Interim Board of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust in anticipation of the 10 Terminal Regiment, the last operational unit to occupy Middle Head, vacating the site in 1999.
Almost a quarter of a century later Kevin, in retirement on Queensland’s Gold Coast, continues his defence of the natural, indigenous, and military heritage of Middle Head with Defending Middle Head – A Short History, a concise, clearly written and beautifully illustrated book. It is probably best described as immersive because of the way it provides such personal, interesting and informative insights into everything that was and is at Middle Head, and why it matters.
Kevin’s book looks forward and back at Middle Head’s history and heritage assets through the eyes of an artillery instructor and a strategist used to straddling the fence between military and political power. The community and country he has served so dutifully are always at the forefront of his thinking. As Peter Cosgrove says in his Foreword to Defending Middle Head – A Short History.
“Kevin was a talented distance runner both at the College (Royal Military College, Duntroon) and thereafter and that zeal and that instinct flowed into his life, not least his professional fascination for the military and its place in history – he is a sort of ‘Mr Perpetual Motion’, indefatigable, cheerful and consistent with this Royal Artillery background, he has a forensic, analytical mind.”
Heritage is a living thing and Middle Head with its sandstone cliffs, caves, beaches and bushland overlooking Sydney Harbour across to North Head, South Head and the open seas of the South Pacific Ocean remains anchored in Indigenous and geological history from time immemorial. The view from the 1801 convict built fort brings the sighting of the First Fleet by First Australians – Gai-mariagal people and first contact, palpably close. Layer upon layer of Middle Head’s military occupation changed and adjusted over time in response to real and perceived threats of attack and invasion never actually resulted in shots being fired in anger. The greatest losses and defeat were experienced by the Australian Aboriginal people whose counter attacks to defend their property rights were repelled by gunfire and the smallpox virus epidemic before being expunged by the Privy Council of England Terra Nullius decision in 1889.
Kevin O’Brien reveals Middle Head’s layers of natural, indigenous and military history and heritage with energy and pride in the capacity of Australia’s military to adapt, evolve and expand its infrastructure, stretching from 1801 to 1998 when the Australian Department of Defence gazetted Middle Head for sale to housing property developers. What is sorely missing on Middle Head today in 2021, and ripe with opportunity, is for one of those significant heritage buildings to be repurposed and dedicated, designed and curated to be a dynamic Natural, Indigenous, Military (NIM) Heritage Centre for all to come and see, learn from and enjoy.
Defending Middle Head – A Short History is indeed a short history but written from an informed position in an engaging style it concentrates the story of Middle Head while highlighting the importance and value of what has been preserved, conserved and protected, including green and open space under constant surveillance by property developers, aged care, leisure, hospitality, entertainment and tourism entrepreneurs, exclusive use sporting and other recreational groups, who view this unique and iconic heritage site, belonging to all Australians, as ‘spare land’.
Middle Head has had many close calls and while ever the colonial mindset of the people in power in Sydney continues it will always be under threat. The account in Defending Middle Head – A Short History of the appropriation of ‘spare land’ for an exclusive use golf course on Middle Head is instructive. The unsolicited proposal was instigated by Mosman Municipal Council Alderman Peter Burrows who was Mayor of Mosman and President of the Mosman Golf Club by the time the golf course opened in 1924 with a 21 year lease and peppercorn rent of £200 annually (approximately $15K – $20K in 2021 based on Consumer Price Index). Membership was by application, limited to 150 members and Mosman residents only. Public access to the foreshore and public beaches via the golf course was promised but a gate was installed and guarded.
At every point in his book Kevin O’Brien unearths the stories behind landscapes, buildings and artefacts, for all Australians and international visitors, researchers, writers, poets, filmmakers, photographers, students, sailors, swimmers and divers to experience and be stimulated by.
From the outer Sydney Harbour defence artillery batteries in the 1800s to hospital accommodation for wounded soldiers returning from the Middle East and Europe in World War 1, to the completion of HMAS Penguin naval base in 1942, the School of Military Engineering (fortress and anti-aircraft) including sections specialising in camouflage and the operation of searchlights, and Signal Camp operated by women from the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) during World War 2, to the post-war Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) whose first commandant was then army colonel and later infamous Australian Governor General Sir John Kerr, to the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) School (1951 - 1984), the Army Intelligence Centre, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) which included one of Australia’s most courageous and highly decorated soldiers, Ray ‘Simmo’ Simpson VC, DCM, and 10 Terminal Regiment, Royal Australian Transport Corps (RACT).
Owned by and open to the public every day of year, Middle Head is an amazing place full of fantastic stories brought to life by Brigadier Kevin O’Brien in his book Defending Middle Head – A Short History. The historic parade ground in Headland Park, Georges Heights, Middle Head, has become the venue of one of Australia’s most moving ANZAC Day dawn services. Overlooking Sydney Harbour with Kookaburras opening proceedings and Rainbow Lorikeets providing spectacular fly-pasts, it is quintessentially Australian. “Lest We Forget.”
Reviewed by Michael Mangold
For more information please email Kevin O’Brien – kevinob@bigpond.com