page_title: Cockatoo Island (New South Wales)
section_title: Fitzroy Graving Dock
hierarchical_section_title: Cockatoo Island (New South Wales) / Early history / Fitzroy Graving Dock
caption_attribution_description: English: 147. Dry Dock, Cockatoo Island SH 258
context_page_description: Cockatoo Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove River in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia.
  Cockatoo Island is the largest of several islands that were originally heavily timbered sandstone knolls. Originally the Island rose to 18 metres above sea level and was 12.9 hectares but it has been extended to 17.9 hectares and is now cleared of most vegetation. Called Wa-rea-mah by the Indigenous Australians who traditionally inhabited the land prior to European settlement, the island may have been used as a fishing base, although physical evidence of Aboriginal heritage has not been found on the island.
  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.
  Cockatoo Island 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.
context_section_description: The dock was designed by Gother Kerr Mann, the island's Civil Engineer, and built between 1847 and 1857 utilising convict labour. The foundation stone of its ashlar lining was laid on 5 June 1854 by Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy, with the dock being named in his honour. When completed in 1857, the dry dock was 316 feet (96 m) in length and 76 feet (23 m) in breadth, with an entrance 60 feet (18 m) wide. HMS Herald was the first sailing vessel to enter the dock in December 1857. The Fitzroy Dock was lengthened in 1870–1880 to 643 feet (196 m).
caption: Cockatoo Island dry dock in 1872
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