Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2014
Edit Blog Post
Thursday 13th February, 2014. Cockatoo Island, Watson's Bay, Bondi Beach and Walk, Sydney, NSW, Australia
After breakfast we caught the bus to Circular Quay where we caught a ferry to Cockatoo Island. Cockatoo Island, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on an island located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, in Sydney Harbour. At 17.9 hectares (44 acres) it is the largest of several islands that were, in their original state, heavily timbered sandstone knolls. Cockatoo Island rose to 18 metres (59 ft) above sea level and is now cleared of most vegetation. Called Wa-rea-mah by the Indigenous Australians who traditionally inhabited the land prior to European settlement.
Between 1839 and 1869, Cockatoo Island operated as a convict penal establishment, primarily as a place of secondary punishment for convicts who had re-offended in the colonies (a place for the really bad boys!). It was also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards, operating between 1857 and 1991. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts. Cockatoo Island contains the nation's most extensive and varied record of shipbuilding. Although some large workshops, slipways, wharves, residences and other buildings remain, major buildings were
demolished after Cockatoo Island closed as a dockyard in 1991.
The Harbour Trust opened a camp ground on the island in 2008. The camp ground attracts some 20,000 campers a year and is a popular spot for watching Sydney's renowned New Year's Eve fireworks. Entrance was free but M paid the $5 for an audio tour. This allowed us to follow a structured route around the island taking in the most significant buildings. The first thing that arrested our attention were the Boom Benders. These structures are the remains of a 1920 hyraulically powered plate bending machine. The machine was use to shape plates as part of the ship building process. They were sold as scrap when the shipyard closed but the new owner couldn't move them (too difficult & expensive) - so they are still here for us to see. The audio guide explained that in 1839 it was chosen as the site of a new penal establishment by the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps. Between 1839 and 1869 the island was used as a convict prison. Initially, prisoners were transferred to Cockatoo Island from Norfolk Island, and were employed constructing their
barracks and rock-cut silos for storing the colony's grain supply. By 1842, approximately 140 tonnes (140 long tons; 150 short tons) of grain were stored on the island. After a protest by local bakers, the storage of grain here was forbidden by a state law. Apparently it interferred with the natural supply and demand and kept the prices of bread too low!
We continued the tour and learned that later, quarrying on the island provided stone for construction projects around Sydney, including the seawall for Circular Quay. Between 1847 and 1857, convicts were used to dig the Fitzroy Dock, Australia’s first dry dock, on the island. An estimated 1.5 million cubic feet (42,000 m3) of rock was excavated with 480,000 cubic feet (14,000 m3) forming the dock itself. In 2009, an archeological dig on the island uncovered convict era punishment cells under the cookhouse. These cells give a valuable insight into the conditions convicts lived under on the island (not nice at all!). We heard the story of one prisoner on Cockatoo Island - the Australian bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt, who escaped in 1863 to begin the crime spree which made him famous. It is alleged that his wife had
swum across to the island with tools to effect his escape, following which they both swam back to the mainland. There is no significant evidence to support this claim.
In 1864 the island was split between the NSW Department of Prisons and the Public Works Department, which expanded the
dockyard around the foreshores. In 1869 the convicts were relocated to Darlinghurst Gaol and the prison complex became an Industrial School for Girls and also a Reformatory. There were some lovely stories on the audio about the girls escaping down to the beach only to be brought back so they could escape again immediately.
The tour finished with the docks areas. The Fitzroy Graving Dock, Sutherland Dock and the Dry Dock. Shipbuilding began on Cockatoo Island in 1870. In 1913, Cockatoo Island was transferred to the Commonwealth Government to become the Naval Dockyard of the Royal Australian Navy. Over a period of several years prior to the First World War five slipways were either upgraded or constructed in the island, with Numbers 1 and 2 still retained by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. The torpedo boat destroyer HMAS Warrego was the first naval ship launched at Cockatoo Island, after
being built in the United Kingdom, disassembled, then sent to the Australian shipyard for reassembly. During World War I, the dockyard built, repaired and refitted many ships. At its peak during the war, some 4,000 men were employed on the island.
During World War II, Cockatoo Island was the main ship repair facility in the south-west Pacific. Some 250 ships were converted or repaired on the island. The Cunard liners RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth were converted into troopships by Cockatoo Island staff. In the eight months between August 1942 and March 1943, Cockatoo repaired four cruisers of the United States Navy: USS Chicago, USS Chester, USS Portland, and USS New Orleans. Many ships of the Royal Australian Navy were repaired. The cruiser HMAS Hobart suffered torpedo damage in the New Hebrides and limped into Sydney in August 1943 for major repairs and modernisation.
After the war, shipbuilding continued on the island. Orders were placed for two Battle-class and four Daring-class destroyers, the building to be shared by Cockatoo Island and Williamstown dockyards. In the 1950s, the Government approved the construction of six River-class anti-submarine frigates, again shared between the two dockyards. Cockatoo Island also modernised
and refitted many naval vessels. In 1962, Cockatoo Island won the tender to construct MS Empress of Australia, which on completion in 1965 was the largest roll-on roll-off cargo passenger ship in the world. In 1963, the island won the contract to build the escort maintenance ship HMAS Stalwart. In 1979, Cockatoo began construction of HMAS Success, the largest naval vessel built in Australia. From 1971 to 1991, Cockatoo completed 14 major refits of Australia's Oberon-class submarines and many mid-cycle and intermediate dockings.
We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay where we caught another ferry to Watson's Bay which the lovely Rach had introduced us to. We went for some Doyles Fish & Chips and a glass of wine before going to the Watson's Bay lookout which looks out over the ocean towards the Gap which had caused many shipwrecks before the South Head Lighhouse was built. Sailors used to mistake "The Gap" for the entrance to Sydney Harbour and end up on the rocks. Then we caught a bus to Bondi Beach. We walked along the beach where there were some magnificent murals of dogs and a memorial to the victims of the Bali bombing in 2002
(there is no way this is grafiti - it is Art with a capital A!!). We took some snaps of the murals and the beach.
Next we decided to walk the coastal walk towards Cogee. It was absolutely stunning. We walked the path until we came to Tamarama Beach which was "Sydney's Playground". We continued on to the next bay where we caught a bus to Bondi Junction and then to Central and a third bus back to Rozelle. A goo but tiring day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0557s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb