Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area
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| Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°50′52″S 151°10′20″E / 33.8477°S 151.1721°E |
| Official name | Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area |
| Type | Listed place (Historic) |
| Designated | 22 June 2004 |
| Reference no. | 105262 |
  Location of Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area in Sydney | |
 Convict Barracks Military Guard Room Mess Hall Sutherland Dock Fitzroy Dock Biloela House Underground Grain Stores Power House | |
Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area is a heritage-listed protected area relating to the former Cockatoo Island Dockyard at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.[1]
Prison Dockyard 1839-64
Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour. It is not known who first called it Cockatoo Island, though it was known as such long before it was called Biloela. This name was given to the island in 1870 by the Reverend William Ridley, a student of an Aboriginal language, in response to a request from the Governor for a suitable name. The island has been subject to five major administrative/occupation phases.[1]
The expansion of settlement 1810-20 under Governor Macquarie led to the construction of places of confinement including Norfolk Island and Macquarie Harbour. Assigned convicts were left under the control of landowners but convicts in government service and secondary offenders in penal settlements were housed in barracks as soon as these could be constructed. In time the settlements on Norfolk Island and in Tasmania were defeated by isolation and the inability of Sydney and Hobart based administrators to exercise adequate control. In 1839 Governor Gipps advised the Secretary of State for the Colonies that he was forming an establishment on Cockatoo Island for Imperial prisoners withdrawn from Norfolk Island. Unlike contemporary New South Wales (NSW) penal establishments which were executed under contract, the work on Cockatoo Island was carried out by the prisoners. Expenses were met from Imperial, not Colonial, funds emphasising the role of the Imperial Government in the establishment of Cockatoo Island. The buildings were constructed to the design of the commanding Royal Engineer, George Barney, responsible for convict and military buildings in NSW. Twelve grain silos were also cut out of the rock in 1839 to store grain, following Gipps' order that the government would make provision for the storage of 10,000 bushels on the island within two years. The year 1839 also saw the expansion of the island's convict jail, Cockatoo Island Prison Barracks Precinct, with the construction of its barracks; U-shaped in plan, the barracks held accommodation for 344 convicts. As transportation ceased in 1840 the prison was used to house an increasing number of colonially sentenced convicts. As the island was surrounded by deep water it was ideal for maritime activities as a British outpost at a time of increasing rivalry between European nations and the United States of America in the Pacific Ocean. In 1846 Governor Gipps reported to the British Government that convicts would be employed in clearing and preparing the island for the construction of a dry dock. Approved in 1847 the colonial government built Fitzroy Dock between 1847-57 with convict labour. The first ship, HM Surveying Brig Herald, docked in 1858. Gother Kerr Mann, one of Australia's foremost nineteenth century engineers, was responsible for the design and construction of Fitzroy Dock, the first begun in the southern hemisphere and contemporary with Mort's Dock at Woolwich. Captain Mann was Engineer in Chief at Cockatoo Island from 1847 and later became Superintendent of Convicts. During this time additions were made to the jail including an ornate mess hall and houses for prison officials including Biloela House for the prison governors. This period was also one of brutality against any unrest from the prisoners leading to a Select Committee of Inquiry chaired by Henry Parkes in 1861. The brutalising conditions of the Island were admitted but no discernible improvements occurred. Up to 500 prisoners were held there but the usual number was about 250. Officers' accommodation was erected in the 1840s-50s including superintendents quarters, clerk of petty sessions, military officers quarters and quarters for the free overseer.[1]
NSW Department of Public Works 1864-1913
During this period the administration of the dockyard and prison split. The land above the escarpment remained in institutional use but, as the docks expanded, the foreshores became dedicated to dockyard use. During the latter part of the nineteenth century Sydney's population increased rapidly producing a poorly educated, dysfunctional, community. Punishment, reform and education became key concerns. Cockatoo Island is associated with this period through the training ship Vernon and the establishment of the Girls Institution and Reformatory from 1871-88. In 1871 the training ship Vernon for boys, an initiative of Henry Parkes, was anchored at the north-east corner of the island with recreation grounds and swimming baths by 1896. Although the young prisoners were kept separate from the dock they worked there on ship building and repairs. From 1861 dock development had occurred with the first stone workshop buildings for metal working, foundry and general activities, drawing and administrative offices. In 1868 Fitzroy Dock was reported to be the third most important dry dock in the country after Mort's Woolwich dock and the Australasian Steam Navigation Company works in Pyrmont. By 1870 a new dock was recommended at Cockatoo Island by Captain Gother Kerr Mann. While this was being debated the male prisoners were transferred to Darlinghurst jail from the island in 1871. During the 1870s the Underground Grain Silos were pressed into service for water storage. In 1869 the Executive Council had approved the transfer of prisoners from Cockatoo to Darlinghurst; the prison buildings subsequently became an Industrial School for Girls and a Reformatory in 1871. However, overcrowding elsewhere forced the return of male prisoners and the barracks were divided between prisoners of both sexes. The new dock, approved in 1882, was longer than any existing in the world. This dock, the Sutherland Dock, built by private contractors and free labour, eventually cost £268,000 and was completed in 1890. The tender was awarded to twenty-three year old Australian engineer Lewis Samuel. New workshops were also built with wharfage for repair work. However, during the 1880s prison accommodation continued to deteriorate and the number of prisoners declined to about 100 each, male and female. In 1888 the girls departed and the establishment was again proclaimed a prison. Further additions included a fumigation building, surgeon's consulting rooms and isolation cells were added in 1897 with stone quarried on site. Although the prison was condemned in 1899 by the Public Works Committee it remained in operation. Electricity was installed in 1901, the birth year of the new independent nation, the Federation of Australia. As British control ceased in 1901 the NSW government took over with further building of workshops in corrugated iron on steel frames forming additions to the original stone workshops. The dockyards expanded rapidly. Major new workshops were provided, now largely in brick, along the eastern shore with docking wharves and included an erecting shop, foundry, blacksmith and shipwright shop. In 1903 a Royal Commission was established to look at all aspects of the working of the Government docks and workshops. In 1908 a steel foundry was established on the Island followed by a range of new workshops. By 1905 parts of the men's prison quarters collapsed so that in 1906 they were transferred to shore for the last time and relocated at Long Bay Gaol. The female prison division was similarly closed in 1909; NSS Sobraon, the school ship, was given to the Royal Australian Navy in 1911 and became HMAS Tingira.[1][2]
Commonwealth Dockyard 1913-33
In 1911 the Royal Australian Navy was established and in 1913 the Australian Government bought the island from NSW for £870,000 pounds. Despite the building expansion from 1900 much of the dock and workshops equipment was in poor shape and major expansion and upgrading of equipment was increased. Development occurred on the escarpment above the dockyard. By 1912 a lift had been constructed up the escarpment with most of the structures in the centre of the island demolished and replaced by more efficient structures. The prison buildings were converted into drawing offices and new boiler and turbine shops added. The old power house, containing a steam driven dock pump and consisting of a brick building with columns and arches attached to the facade, was demolished. The new larger power house and chimney built in 1918, which still stands, provided for steam turbine electric generating equipment, electrically driven air compressors, dock-dewatering pumps and hydraulic pumps. The Australian Government had ordered several naval vessels in 1912, including the cruisers HMAS Brisbane and HMAS Adelaide each of 5,600 tonnes and 25,000 shaft horse power (18,650kw) and several destroyers. One of these, HMAS Heron, was handed over in February 1916 to become the first steel warship to be built in Australia. No 1 slipway was lengthened whilst the Brisbane was being built for its launching in 1915 and the floating crane Titan was assembled from British-made sections. Little further development occurred between the wars. As naval activity decreased, commercial shipbuilding grew until the Depression when all activity declined. Under Navy control until 1921 it was then placed under a Board of Control responsible to the Prime Minister's Department soon superseded by the Australian Commonwealth Shipping Board. During the 1920s, in addition to industrial structures, three pairs of houses were erected on the island. In 1928 the Sutherland Dock was enlarged and a decision made to lease the dockyard to private enterprise.[1]
Cockatoo Docks and Engineering 1933-48
In 1933 the island was leased to Cockatoo Dock and Engineering Company Ltd (later Pty Ltd). With the outbreak of World War Two the island became the major ship repair facility in the Western Pacific, following the loss of Singapore. Major repairs and fitting out were undertaken at the docks including work on troop carriers, the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth, RMS Aquitania and RMS Mauretania and major vessels of the Royal Australian Navy and United States Navy. Two tunnels were constructed during the war under the plateau to improve material movement on the island. New buildings were erected throughout this period. The war years, 1939-46, saw the reconstruction of roads and the construction of a new road giving access to the upper part of the island. Six wharves, once covered by five ton and fifteen ton travelling cranes, were available for berthing ships for fitting out or refitting. The maximum depth of water alongside wharves was about 26ft. The Titan, a 150 ton floating crane commissioned in 1917, was another important facility. During the war period it operated almost continuously. It was used for commercial as well as naval work and dealt with numerous lifts of heavy and important equipment in the port. The workshops included the engineering shop, the electrical section, the tool section and the sheet metal section and a well equipped standards room and meteorology section. The yard's own quality control section operated above and beyond the normal navy overseeing staff. In 1947 Vickers UK purchased Cockatoo Dock and Engineering Pty Ltd and established Vickers Cockatoo Docks and Engineering.[1]
Vickers Cockatoo 1948-1992
In 1950 the Australian Commonwealth Shipping Board ceased to function and was replaced by the Cockatoo Island Lease Supervising Committee. The top level of the island had by now drawing offices for each of the hull, engineering and electrical sections, the estimating, planning and costing offices and residences for several of the executive staff of the yard. More recently, two large concrete water towers were constructed on the plateau and several brick and concrete buildings were added to the southern and eastern shores. In December 1992 the original lease expired; the island is still owned by the Commonwealth. Between 1992-93 some forty buildings were demolished. Several other structures are no longer extant.[1]
