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Cockatoo Island (rear) and Spectacle Island (front), Sydney Harbour

Cockatoo Island is an island in Sydney Harbour, Sydney, Australia. The island was originally used as a prison and later developed as a shipyard. Many naval ships were built and maintained at Cockatoo Island Dockyard. The shipyard was closed during the 1980s. In late March 2005 the island was re-opened to the public for the Cockatoo Island Festival, after two and a half years of planning.

The island is currently managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust who plan to revitalise the island as a landmark harbour attraction, with commercial maritime activity operating alongside interpretation of the island's heritage.^[1].

From April 2007, the island will be open to the general public with daily ferry services from Circular Quay.

There is no evidence of usage of the island by aboriginal people, although it is likely they visited.^[2]

Between 1839 and 1869 the island was used a convict prison. The initial prisoners were transferred to Cockatoo Island from Norfolk Island, and they were employed constructing rock-cut silos for storing the colony's grain supply. By 1842 approximately 140 tonnes of grain was stored on the island.^[2]

An (in)famous prisoner on Cockatoo Island was the Australian bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt, who notoriously escaped after being incarcerated there to begin the crime spree which made his name. His wife had swum across to the island with tools to effect Thunderbolt's escape, following which they both swam back to the mainland.

Later, quarrying on the island provided stone for a group of penal buildings on the island and for construction projects around Sydney, including the wall for semi-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 of rock was excavated with 480,000 cubic feet forming the dock itself.^[2]

In 1864 the island was split between the NSW Department of Prisons and the Public Works Department who expand the dockyard around the foreshores. In 1869 the convicts were relocated to Darlinghurst Gaol. In 1890 the Sutherland Dock, a dry dock large enough to take ships of 20,000 tonnes, was opened.^[2]

In 1913 Cockatoo Island become the Commonwealth Naval Dockyard, but in 1933 it was leased to the Cockatoo Island Docks & Engineering Company Ltd. During World War II, Cockatoo Island's importance to the Allies was enhanced by the fall of Singapore and its shipyards. No less than 20 ships were built during the war ^[3]. The dockyard continued to work on both naval and commercial vessels until its closure in 1992.^[2]

Significant vessels built or worked over the life of the dockyard include:

• HMAS Huon, a destroyer launched in 1914
• HMAS Brisbane, a light cruiser launched in 1915
• HMAS Adelaide, a light cruiser launched in 1918
• HMAS Albatross, a seaplane tender launched in 1928
• Steam Tug Wattle launched in 1933
• Several Bathurst class corvettes during World War II
• Battle class destroyer HMAS Tobruk was constructed for the Royal Australian Navy at Cockatoo Island Dockyard as ship number 185 and launched on 20 December 1947
• HMAS Vampire, a destroyer launched in 1952 and now at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour
• HMAS Success, the last ship launched from the dockyard in 1984

See main article Cockatoo Island Festival

The audience (during The Waifs' live set) in the Turbine Hall, one of the many buildings converted into stages during the festival.

From March 25 to March 27, 2005, a music and arts festival was held on the refurbished island, utilising abandoned buildings and warehouses as exhibition rooms, concert halls and shopping/food venues. The festival was headlined by local and international musical groups and artists, including:

• Art of Fighting
• Decoder Ring
• Eskimo Joe
• Gomez
• Machine Gun Fellatio
• Pete Murray
• The Wailers
• The Waifs
• Youth Group

The festival drew over 20,000 people and featured over 120 musical acts as well as stand-up comedians, performance artists and more. A dedicated ferry service ran day and night to take ticket holders to and from the island. Due to large amounts of red tape the festival never returned and instead was reborn as The Great Escape in 2006.

1. ^ Sites - Cockatoo : Planning. Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. Retrieved on April 18, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Sites - Cockatoo. Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. Retrieved on April 10, 2006.
3. ^ Cockatoo Island Docks & Engineering Company Ltd (1947). Cockatoo Docks Sydney War Record 1939-1945. 

• Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Sites - Cockatoo Island
• Vintage aerial photograph by Frank Hurley at the National Library of Australia

• Cockatoo Island, New South Wales is at coordinates 33°50′49″S 151°10′16″E / -33.84684, 151.17115Coordinates: 33°50′49″S 151°10′16″E / -33.84684, 151.17115