Cockatoo Island Has a Long and Illustrious History Dating Back to the Time of First Settlement, Playing a Significant Role in the Development of Sydney and the Nation

SUMMER SEMESTER TOP EDUCATION INSTITUTE 2017

COCKATOO

ISLAND STUDENT FIELD TRIP OUR HISTORY

Cockatoo Island has a long and illustrious history dating back to the time of first settlement, playing a significant role in the development of Sydney and the nation. The following is a brief timeline covering key events.

Pre 1788: Frequented by sulphur-crested cockatoos, the island’s first visitors were most likely the Eora people, the Aboriginal people of Sydney’s coastal region. They called the island Waremah. It would have been a great base to fish from for them, in their bark canoes made from the red gum forests that once covered the island hill.

1839-1850: In 1839 the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps, chose Cockatoo Island as the site of a new penal establishment to alleviate overcrowding on Norfolk Island. Convicts were put to work building prison barracks, a military guardhouse and official residences.

1850-1870: The Fitzroy Dock and a workshop are built by prisoners to service Royal Navy and other ships.

1870-1880: Prisoners relocate to Darlinghurst Gaol and the island is used for an Industrial School for Girls and a reformatory. The ship, Vernon, is anchored nearby to train wayward and orphaned boys.

1880-1900: Shipbuilding and repair activities expand steadily and Sutherland Dock is completed. The island reverts back to a gaol from 1888-1908 due to overcrowding elsewhere.

1900-1930: Cockatoo Island becomes the Commonwealth Naval Dockyard in 1913 and Australia builds its first steel warship on the island.

1930-1945: The island becomes the major shipbuilding and dockyard facility for the South West Pacific in WWII following the fall of Singapore.

1945-1965: Additional buildings are constructed for shipbuilding and repair. The refit of T-Class submarines occurs and the Navy destroyers, HMAS Voyager and HMAS Vampire, are built.

1965-1992: The island’s work includes service and refit of Oberon Class submarines and construction ofHMAS Success. The dockyard closes in 1992, machin- ery is sold off, and about 40 buildings and several wharves are demolished. 2 2001-present: Cockatoo Island lays dormant for a decade until the Sydney Har- bour Federation Trust assumes control of the island and embarks on major restoration works. After extensive remediation works, Cockatoo Island was opened to the public in 2007. The Harbour Trust continues to actively rehabilitate the island.

2010: Cockatoo Island, together with 10 other historic convict sites in Australia, is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

3 CONVICTS

Cockatoo Island was largely undisturbed until 1839 when Governer Gipps chose it for the site of a new penal establishment to alleviate overcrowding on Norfolk Island. Convicts were put to work initially quarrying stone for various projects around the colony. They also built stone prison barracks, a military guardhouse, granary silos, official residences and commenced work in 1847 on the Fitzroy Dock which took ten years to complete, all now part of the island’s heritage.

Escape from Cockatoo Island was rare, not least because few prisoners could swim. Supposedly shark-infested waters around the island also tested the resolve of those bent on escape. But amongst the few that did, Frederick Ward managed it. In 1856 Fred Ward was sentenced to seven years on Cockatoo Island for stealing horses. In September 1863 Mary Bugg, his devoted part-Aboriginal wife, took the risk and swam to the island and left him the tools he needed to break free. Two nights later Ward and his mate Fred Britten made a swim for it. Britten drowned, but Mary was right there on the shore waiting for Fred Ward, along with a fast, white steed, right beside where the Dawn Fraser Pool is now. Fred and Mary got away, and galloped off into the sunrise. As the bushranger Thunderbolt, Ward menaced northern New South Wales until shot by police at Uralla in 1870.

The prisoner’s accommodation was appalling. In 1869 the settlement was closed and the prisoners transferred to Darlinghurst Gaol, which marked the close of the island’s convict period. The prison complex on Cockatoo Island was soon put to other uses; an industrial school for girls and a separate reformatory. In 1888, the girls moved to Parramatta and the old penal settlement reverted to a goal to ease the crowded conditions at Darlinghurst Gaol. When the prison finally closed in 1908, it marked the end of an era.

In 2010 Cockatoo Island, together with 10 other historic convict sites in Australia, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

4 5 REFORM SCHOOL

Globally, the nineteenth century saw rapid change and social upheaval. These changes also affected the young colonies of Australia. The cities of New South Wales were fast growing and with that came the problems associated with urban life such as poverty and overcrowding. In addition many men had left for the Victorian Gold Rush, leaving their families behind and without support.

By the mid-nineteenth century there was a serious problem with orphaned children and juvenile delinquents who roamed Sydney in street gangs. In 1866 the legislative assembly of New South Wales brought two acts to pass to attempt to deal with these problems: An Act to establish Juvenile Reformatories and an Act for the relief of Destitute Children (The Industrial Schools Act) it was followed by the Reformatory Schools Act in 1869.

Newcastle Industrial School for Girls was one institution set up to deal with wayward girls. It was renowned for terrible conditions, an inconvenient location and frequent rioting. In 1871 the girls from Newcastle were moved to Cockatoo Island to live in the prison that had been vacated in 1869. In an attempt to provide psychological distance from the notorious prison years the institution was renamed Biloela, an Aboriginal word for Black Cockatoo.

The institution was split into two parts: the Biloela Public Industrial School for Girls and The Biloela Reformatory. The reformatory was for girls who had broken the law while the industrial school was intended to operate more like an orphanage. However, these girls mixed together which meant that girls who had been neglected or orphaned were housed with petty criminals; all of them living in the dire conditions of the convict cells.

In 1871 a school ship for boys, The Vernon, was docked off the Island. The ship housed neglected boys and was intended to teach them nautical skills. Although both run from the Island the two institutions had different management and vastly different ideologies. The school ship was run under strict standards by benevolent and thorough masters who had faith in the possibility of reform, the boys learnt nautical skills such as vegetable gardening, compass, lead line, sail drill, reefing and rowing as well as such as shoe-making and school lessons. Yet girls were treated as hopeless cases, trained for domestic service jobs and were left without occupation or amusement and sometimes in squalid conditions.

6 7 Parramatta Wharf (Currently being upgraded)

Cockatoo Island BBQ Northern Apron Park North Campground

Northern Eastern Stair Apron

Slipways Historic Residence Tunnel Precinct a Dog-Leg Tunnel Ship Design Precinct Tunnel Convict Precinct Industrial Precinct Southern Tunnel Stair Dog-Leg Powerhouse Tunnel Area Sutherland Dock Fitzroy Dock TICKETS Docks Precinct

Camber Wharf Rivercat Service Ferry to Woolwich, to Rydalmere Greenwich, Birchgrove, Balmain Legend and Circular Quay

S ET CK TI Lookout BBQ BBQs Visitor Centre Ferry Tickets PLEASE NOTE: Did you know we Café Emergency Tennis Court Conference Centre Cockatoo Island is a former are self-funded? Assembly Point industrial site. There are occasional Donations to the Harbour Toilets Stairs Kayak Area Accommodation unmarked and uneven surfaces, voids, trip hazards, cliffs and steep Trust go directly towards Accessible Toilets Tunnel Basketball Court Campground drops. There are also a number preserving and enhancing of construction activities and the our heritage sites across Camber Wharf Access Through Tunnels Parramatta Wharf (Sydney Ferries) Chess (Currently being upgraded) presence of vehicles. To ensure you Sydney Harbour. Drinking Fountain Lockers Shipyard Stories at enjoy your visit, please mind your Biloela House Cockatoo Island Convict Site part of step, wear appropriate footwear, Vending Machine Picnic Area Dog Leg Tunnel Cinema keep a close watch on any children with you and take care at all times. Trail to Visitor Centre UNESCO World-heritage- Restoration Workshop listed buildings 8 Parramatta Wharf (Currently being upgraded)

Cockatoo Island BBQ Northern Apron Park North Campground

Northern Eastern Stair Apron

Camber Wharf Rivercat Service Ferry to Woolwich, to Rydalmere Greenwich, Birchgrove, Balmain Legend and Circular Quay

The maritime history of Cockatoo Island began within a decade of the penal settlement being established. As the volume of shipping in Port Jackson increased, Governor Gipps proposed to his Imperial masters in London the construction of a dry dock for the repair of Royal Navy and other vessels. Work started in 1847 with gunpowder blasting the rock and convicts manually excavating the site. It took ten years to construct Fitzroy Dock, a considerable time but convicts had little incentive to break their backs in the service of authorities.

The Sutherland Dock was built between 1882 and 1890, and for a short time was the largest single graving dock in the world. Shipbuilding began in 1870 and by World War I over 150 dredges, barges and tugs had been built. Slipways were later built south of the Fitzroy Dock and the island’s biggest slipway, Slipway Number 1, was constructed in the Northern Shipyard in 1912. Most of the early shipbuilding activity took place on the slipways located to the east of the Engineers’ and Blacksmiths’ Shop on the Eastern Apron. Cockatoo Island became the Naval Dockyard of the Royal Australian Navy in 1913.

As World War II approached the tempo of activity increased and continued for the duration of the war. Merchant ships and luxury liners were converted to troop transports, stores and hospital ships. Post-war shipbuilding continued at pace, including notably the Daring Battle Class Destroyers HMAS Voyager and HMAS Vampire. In 1962, Cockatoo Island won the tender to construct Empress of Australia, which when completed in 1965, was the largest roll-on roll-off cargo passenger ship in the world. In 1979 the contract was signed for the construction of the last ship to be built at Cockatoo Island. HMAS Success was the largest naval vessel built in Australia and may still be seen in Sydney Harbour from time to time.

10 WORLD WAR II

During World War II, Cockatoo Island was the main ship repair facility in the southwest Pacific. 250 ships were converted or repaired at the island, including the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. In August 1943, the cruiser HMAS Hobart limped into Sydney Harbour and Cockatoo Island for repairs and modernisation after suffering torpedo damage in the New Hebrides. In 1945 HMAS Australia, a veteran of the Battle of the Coral Sea, also steamed home for repairs after suffering kamikaze attacks in the Philippines.

After the war, ships were converted back to commercial service. In the 1960s Cockatoo Island constructed Empress of Australia, the largest roll-on roll-off cargo passenger ship in the world. The mid 1960s also saw international competition and changes to the tendering process affect production. This affected facility maintenance and staff numbers, and by the 1970s shipbuilding on the island was in a state of serious decline. The last ship to be constructed on the island was HMAS Success, the largest naval vessel built in Australia. In its lifetime the yard had over 12,000 dockings, constructed hundreds of vessels and repaired thousands, as well as providing the livelihood and training for countless workers.

11 UNIONISM

Cockatoo Island’s Workforce

Cockatoo Island was transferred to the Commonwealth Government in 1913 to become the naval dockyard of the Royal Australian Navy. During the First World War, some 4000 men were employed on the island and belonged to more than 21 unions for trades such as boilermakers, blacksmiths, ship painters and Dockers, gas fitters and plumbers, electricians, shipwrights, storemen and packers, timber workers and the biggest group of all, ironworkers.

Many workers lived in suburbs close to the island - Balmain, Woolwich, Gladesville and Milsons Point. These working class suburbs were part of the fabric of industrial Sydney west of the bridge. Balmain was the birthplace of the Ship Painters and Dockers Union, formed in 1900 from the ashes of the Balmain Labourers Union. The Waterside Workers Federation was formed in Balmain in 1902 and the suburb was a bastion of the Federated Ironworkers Association.

Improving Conditions

Conditions on Cockatoo Island were difficult and dangerous. Men worked with some of the largest engineering equipment in the country - lathes, band saws, cutting gear, live electricity, molten metal and the possibility of explosions. Asbestos dust was an unknown hazard that permeated the workshops and the ships being built or repaired in the docks and on the slipways. It was through awards that union’s secured protection for workers in dangerous occupations. From 1904 to 2006, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission created awards that set the minimum standards of employment for workers in various industries.

Awards ensured basic entitlements such as rates of pay, minimum and maximum working hours, annual leave, redundancy provisions and penalty rates for overtime, weekend or night work. The union movement agitated for health and safety improvements. Painters and Dockers, for example, suffered lead and arsenic poisoning from paints and noxious fumes. It was years before employers supplied them with oilskins and gumboots to work in the water beneath a ship’s keel. In all trades, generally, protective clothing was minimal. In 1957, the Metal Trades Award stipulated the use of protective equipment for welders: leather aprons and sleeves, leggings, anti-flash goggles, gauntlet gloves, rubber footwear and welder’s shield. 12 The Boilermakers’ Society of Australia commissioned the film unit of the Waterside Workers Union to produce a film on safety for its members on Cockatoo Island. Called Think Twice, it highlighted three main sources of injury - heat, rays and fumes - and illustrated safe and unsafe ways to operate in the workplace.

On Cockatoo Island, getting clean after work was a perennial industrial issue. Showers were not provided, men covered in dust and grease caught the ferry and walked the streets to their homes. Noise was a constant source of irritation and for many workers deafness was the consequence. Between 1974 and 1989, at least 16 Cockatoo Island laggers died of asbestos- related diseases. More have died since. The use of asbestos in Australian workplaces was banned in 2004 as a result of union campaigns.

Strikes and Struggles

In the period following the First World War, strikes were common. The NSW General Strike of 1917 involved some 14 per cent of the state’s workforce. Waterside workers were hit particularly hard by strikes in the post war years. The Depression and consequent high unemployment only exacerbated conditions in a precarious industry. Militancy was one of the few weapons at hand. At Cockatoo Island, struggles over hours, wages, demarcation and safety were closely watched. As a Commonwealth dockyard, improvements at Cockatoo set a precedent for all Commonwealth-run workshops across the country.rs later, he

Apprentices

Cockatoo Island was one of the first dockyards to set up special apprentice schools to train fitters and turners, electricians, boilermakers and joiners. They worked under the instruction of a foreman and were segregated for two years from other tradesmen before continuing training in the main workshops and on ships. At night the apprentices studied their trade at a Technical Institute.

Apprentice numbers peaked in the early 1980’s when there were some 500 apprentices. Cockatoo Island was a training ground for all of New South Wales and a major source of skilled workers across the country.

13 THE END OF AN ERA

From the Second World War until the mid-1960s, the economy boomed and shipbuilding on the island thrived. Unions were strong. However, from the 1960s, the shipbuilding industry was under pressure as the manufacturing sector in Australia declined.

Over the next 20 years, the union movement in the nation responded to the pace of microeconomic reform through award restructuring, enterprise bargaining and the amalgamation of some 300 unions into 20 super unions.

In 1987, the Government announced the closure of Cockatoo Island’s dockyard. The decision was probably inevitable given the downturn in naval shipbuilding on the island and the end of the submarine refit program. In 1989, the island’s workforce went on strike and occupied the site for 14 weeks. The dockyard closed in 1991.

Image from https://www.sydney.com/destinations/sydney/sydney-city/sydney-harbour/attractions/ cockatoo-island 14 21ST BIENNALE OF SYDNEY 16 March - 11 June 2018

The Biennale of Sydney is a non-profit organisation that engages Australian and international audiences with challenging and innovative contemporary art from around the world, promotes cultural exchange and inspires audiences to experi- ence art, themselves and their world in new and creative ways.

Today it ranks as one of the leading international festivals of contemporary art and continues to be recognised for showcasing inspirational and challenging art from Australia and around the world. [https://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au]

15 For more information on Cockatoo Island please visit their website:

http://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/ 16