Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053:body:0:p15
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 36620–39347

as well as Engineer of the Dockyard.
Conditions for the convicts were extremely harsh. Their accommodation was overcrowded and sickness was common. As a result, a Select Committee appointed in 1861 to enquire into public prisons criticised the management of Cockatoo, declaring that the "moral axioms of the present age" had obviously exerted no influence upon its running. Although only a few small changes were made after the Select Committee enquiry, the Island continued to operate as a prison for another eight years. By this time all but one of the prisoners had been sentenced in the colony and in 1869 the Cockatoo Island prison closed and the inmates were moved to Darlinghurst Goal.

Reformatory and Training
Shortly before the closure of the prison the government passed two Acts that aimed to provide care, education and training for neglected and abandoned children and to establish institutions for girls under the age of 16 who would otherwise have been placed in an ordinary prison.
The abandoned prison buildings on Cockatoo Island presented an opportunity to implement these Acts and in 1871 the prison buildings were adapted as an industrial training school and reformatory for girls. The island was also renamed Biloela, a North Queensland Aboriginal word for Cockatoo. This was an attempt to distance the island from the stigma attached to the former prison.
The reformatory was located away from the industrial school in one of the free overseers' cottages (probably Building 9) while the industrial school was accommodated in the former prison barracks and mess hall. A ten-foot high fence was built to separate the reformatory and school from the dockyard.
For the younger girls the industrial school was essentially a boarding school, while the older ones were taught skills to equip them for domestic service once they left the island.
Figure 10: Drawing of Cockatoo Island in 1845
This plan shows the buildings and other developments that were completed during the first 18 years of the island's life as a prison. It was drawn in 1857 and is an update of an earlier survey done in 1845. The blue edge delineates the extent of the island and the reclamations that had taken place at that time. The uncoloured buildings were built prior to 1845 and those coloured red were built between 1845 and 1857. The plan shows four Overseers Quarters, however only three were eventually constructed.
ot  Figure 11: Photograph of young boys from old ship "Vernon"
    In 1871, an old ship, the 'Vernon', was anchored off the northeast corner of the island as a nautical training ship for homeless or orphaned boys. In addition to nautical skills, the boys were taught trades such as tailoring, carpentry, shoe and