page_title: Mort's Dock
section_title: Naval contracts and modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Mort's Dock / History / Naval contracts and modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: Mort Bay Park Balmain, site of Morts Dock &amp; Engineering Company
context_page_description: Mort's Dock is a former dry dock, slipway, and shipyard in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. It was the first dry dock in Australia, opening for business in 1855 and closing more than a century later in 1959. The site is now parkland. The surviving remnants were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 14 January 2011.
context_section_description: The outbreak of World War II proved to be a boom time for Mort's Dock. The 1920s and 1930s had seen a decline in the Royal Australian Navy with few vessels constructed and older ships sold off or scrapped. Japan's entry into the war led to a sudden demand for coastal protection and increased offensive power in the Pacific Ocean. Between 1940 and 1945, Mort's Dock constructed fourteen of the sixty Bathurst-class corvettes built in Australia during the war, as well as four of the twelve River-class frigates. By the end of the war Mort's Dock was second only to the Cockatoo Island dockyard in the number of naval vessels produced.
  Shipbuilding once again declined in the post-war period, and revenue from engineering leases fell as firms relocated to cheaper land in western Sydney. The dock's death knell was the introduction of container shipping in the 1960s. Mort's Dock closed in 1958, Mort's Dock and Engineering Company went into liquidation in 1959 and ceased trading completely in 1968. The site was purchased by ANL in 1960. The derelict Mort's Dock site was levelled and converted into a container storage terminal for ships berthing at Glebe Island and White Bay in 1965; its buildings were demolished and the dock filled in for new wharves to create its newest container facility. The backfill preserved the dry dock and other in situ remains providing a high archaeological potential and fabric integrity.
  Controversy raged over redeveloping the site. The NSW Government proposal for a large public housing development was vigorously opposed by resident groups who wanted it landscaped as open space. Groups such as the Balmain Association had formed in 1965, reflecting a changing mood concerning urbanisation and loss of heritage. In 1986, in what it claimed to be a compromise, the Department of Planning and the Environment announced 211 Housing Commission flats would be built, with plans for parkland and a harbour-side promenade. The park was developed in stages (one: 1985; two: 1986-9), while the container terminal closed in 1989. The remaining features of Mort's Dock were received heritage protection in the same year. The filled-in dry dock is commemorated in the name of the adjacent Dry Dock Hotel, which stands opposite the former location of the gates to the original Mort's Dock site.
caption: Mort Bay Park Balmain, site of Morts Dock & Engineering Company
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