Exploring the natural and secret history of Swan Island

SWAN Island is not only the winter home of the endangered orange-bellied parrot but also a highly sensitive military training facility used by Australia’s special forces and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS).

A new exhibition, Swanning Around: Exploring the History and Heritage of Swan Bay and Swan Island, is now on show at the Queenscliffe Historical Museum.

Located in Swan Bay, Swan Island is a shallow coastal lagoon of more than 30 sqkm between Queenscliff and St Leonards, in the traditional lands of the Wadawurrung.

It has a long military history and was part of the 19th century fortifications to protect the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

Museum associate and local resident Lesley Alway worked with the museum’s researchers for the exhibition and uncovered many fascinating stories, including:

• Alfred Currow, born in Queenscliff in 1874 and also known as Sam, became a fisher and, at 24, enrolled in the Victorian militia based on Swan Island to lay and maintain underwater mines to help protect Port Phillip. A highly competent sailor, in 1900 he joined the crew of the Sunbeam a three-masted schooner owned by Lord Brassey, Victoria’s Governor from 1895-1900, on its journey back to England
• Point Lonsdale resident David Mehagan, now 82, was raised on Swan Island by his grandparents during the 1940s and 1950s. His grandfather, Lieutenant Commander George Saunders, held the most senior position on the island: Officer in Charge of the RAN Mine Depot, and
• On November 30, 1983, an ASIS team that trained on Swan Island raided the Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne during a training exercise. Nobody had informed hotel staff or police beforehand.

Military activities at Swan Island are kept under tight security.

Speaking in federal Parliament in 2006, then-defence minister Dr Brendan Nelson said the island was a “military training area” that “provides a venue for naval training in the use of radar flares, facilities for Army Reserve training and a small demolitions range for Army use” but refused to reveal how many Australian Defence Force or civilian personnel were stationed there or if any federal or state members of Parliament had either visited Swan Island or received classified briefings about the activities there in the previous decade.

“While much of Swan Island today continues as a highly secret Defence facility, both the island and Swan Bay are sites of significant ecological, historical and recreational value,” Ms Alway said.

“Swan Island is also home to the Queenscliff Golf Club and the Queenscliff Cruising Yacht Club.

“Due to its past and more recent history, Swan Island remains an enigma.”

Queenscliffe Historical Museum is at 49-55 Hesse Street, Queenscliff.

For more information, head to historyofqueenscliffe.com