Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053:schedule:5:p17
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053
Segment Type: schedule
Provision Reference: sch 5 (pt 17/42)
Character Range: 531659–534494

and Engineering Establishments of Port Jackson:p5).
With closure of the prison, departure of the school ship and increased international shipping, the shipbuilding, ship repair and engineering activities expanded rapidly and dockyard facilities spread over the whole island. The dockyard at Cockatoo Island was the only one in Australian which was big enough to accommodate (after modification) the flagship of the new Australian Navy, the battle cruiser HMAS Australia. The preoccupation with keeping the Royal Navy engaged with the Colonies port facilities would continue into the new century.
Return to a gaol 1888-1909
Overcrowding elsewhere in the colony forced the return of prisoners to Cockatoo Island on 8 June 1888 (Kerr: 1984:11). 'Biloela gaol' was a temporary establishment to hold habitual petty offenders, vagrants and prostitutes. Although considered 'unsuitable' and 'temporary' they were to remain in penal use for a further 20 years (Kerr: 1984:26). Men were accommodated in convict barracks and females housed in buildings in the lumber yard. By 1889, Biloela housed 85 male and 106 female prisoners, with approximately two thirds in some form of employment. By 1896 Biloela could claim to be the oldest establishment reformatory in Australasia, with 560 prisoners.
Following Federation in 1901 the name returned back to and has since remained Cockatoo Island (Parker: 1977:5). The male prison section was closed in 1906 and prisoners were transferred to the new Long Bay Gaol. In 1909 female prisoners were similarly relocated to Long Bay. NSS Sobraon was relocated in 1911 by the Commonwealth Government for use as a naval training ship and the boys were moved to a boy's farm at Gosford (Parker: 1977:5).
Between 1904 and 1908 extensions were made to the shops and yard plant, new slipways were built, and cranes and other machinery were acquired. The formation of the Australian Navy (the RAN from 1911) opened the way for local construction of warships. The first RAN warship built at Cockatoo Island was the destroyer HMAS Warrego, completed in 1912. Warrego was built in pieces in Scotland and re-assembled in Sydney.
Commonwealth-owned Dockyard
In 1913, the Commonwealth Government purchased Cockatoo Island for the building of major naval vessels as well as for ship repair (Balint et al: 1982:47). It was the first Naval Dockyard for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and continued to support and build and service ships for the Navy for some 80 years through two World wars, Korea and Vietnam. In 1928, the Commonwealth Shipping Act 1923 stated that 'where possible, all repairs, construction etc. of Commonwealth vessels to be at Cockatoo Island' (Balint et al: 1982:49). The first steel warship to be wholly built in Australia, HMAS Huon, was completed on the island in 1916. Cockatoo dockyard also built