Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053:schedule:5:p9
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053
Segment Type: schedule
Provision Reference: sch 5 (pt 9/42)
Character Range: 511256–514370

dockyard has direct associations with the convict era, Australia's naval relationship with its allies (particularly Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and Australia's naval development, especially during the First and Second World Wars. Cockatoo Island's development into Australia's primary shipbuilding facility and Australia's first Naval Dockyard for the RAN (1913-21) further demonstrates its outstanding importance in the course of Australia's history.
Criterion: C Research
There has been considerable archaeological investigation on Cockatoo Island by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. This has indicated that it has significant research potential in terms of enhancing the knowledge of the operation of a convict industrial site and a long running dockyard.
The surviving archaeological elements of now demolished or obscured structures and functions of the dockyard, in particular the remains of docks, equipment, warehouse and industrial buildings and a range of cranes, wharves, slipways and jetties, have potential to illustrate and reveal the materials, construction techniques and technical skills employed in the construction of shipbuilding and dockyard facilities that are no longer available through other sources in Australia. The archaeological resources also have importance in demonstrating changes to maritime and heavy industrial processes and activities in Australia from the mid-nineteenth century.
The dockyard contains the earliest, most extensive and most varied record of shipbuilding, both commercial and naval, in Australia. This is supported by extensive documentary evidence in the National Archives.
Criterion: D Principal characteristics of a class of places
Cockatoo Island represents some of the principal characteristics of Australian convict sites including: hard labour as a means of punishment and deterrence to the British 'criminal class'; use of convict labour for the establishment of the colony through public works; and secondary punishment for re-offending convicts.
Cockatoo Island is of outstanding importance to the nation as a site of severe punishment. The level of severity is expressed through the policy to extend convicts with 'no indulgence beyond the strict Government ration'. The fundamental purpose of Cockatoo Island was to be the worst possible place imaginable and the ultimate deterrent and is a fine example as a symbol of the harsh treatment used to deter the 'criminal class' in Britain. Fitzroy Dock and its associated excavation and buildings are outstanding examples of the use of convict and prisoner labour for public works. The underground silos, remaining evidence from quarrying and the group of convict built structures on the island are also a testament to public works undertaken by the convicts. Although convicts under various sentences ended up at Cockatoo Island, it was established specifically as, and primarily was a place of secondary punishment for re-offending convicts.
Cockatoo Island critically represents the principal characteristics of a dual use convict site, one that both incarcerates