Cockatoo Island Mess Hall

Cockatoo Island became a jail in 1839, following advice by New South Wales Governor George Gipps to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies that convicts would be sent to the island after the closure of the Norfolk Island convict establishment. The convict buildings (see also Prison Barracks Precinct, Convict Barracks Block, Military Guard Room and Biloela House) was built over several years, the buildings beginning to be occupied from October 1841. Quarrying of grain silos (at the Underground Grain Silos and Biloela House) was one of the early convict activities. In order to service Royal Navy ships, the Fitzroy Dock was built on the island and completed in 1857. Cockatoo became the major government dockyard in Australia.^[1]

In 1869 prisoners were transferred from the island to Darlinghurst, and the prison buildings became an industrial school for girls and a reformatory from 1871. The dockyard area was now separated from this institutional area on the top of the island by a fence. Following the departure of the females in 1888, prisoners were again sent to the island, and the jail function continued until about 1909. Meanwhile, the dockyard function expanded, and the Sutherland Dock was built in 1890. The NSW Public Works Department declared Cockatoo the state dockyard.^[1]

In 1913 Cockatoo became the Commonwealth Dockyard, and the island, both through ship-building and servicing, played an important role both in the development of the Royal Australian Navy and during the First World War. The former prison buildings were now used for office purposes. From 1933 the dockyard was leased from the Commonwealth by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co Ltd and the island played a very significant role during the Second World War. After the war the dockyard (now known as Vickers) continued, and submarine facilities were introduced. The dockyard closed in 1992, and there was some demolition. Sale of the island was proposed. The island is now vested in the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.^[1]

The mess hall was built after Gother Kerr Mann was appointed engineer on the island (Commanding Royal Engineer Colonel George Barney had designed the earlier buildings). Construction took place between about 1847 and 1851. The mess hall was built west of the convict barracks and, with walling to the southwest and northwest, completed the enclosed nature of the convict precinct. Following the industrial school and later prison period, and after the Commonwealth took over, the mess hall was altered for office purposes and the windows were enlarged. The building though is generally intact.^[1]

The mess hall and the other convict-era buildings form the only remaining imperial-funded (as opposed to colonial) convict public works complex in New South Wales and form one of the most complete groups of convict structures in Australia.^[1]