Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island is located in Sydney Harbour; before white settlement it was frequented by flocks of Sulphur-crested cockatoos. In 1839 the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, chose Cockatoo Island as the site of a new penal establishment to alleviate overcrowding on Norfolk Island. Convicts were put to work building prison barracks, a military guardhouse and official residences. Between 1850 and 1870 a dock and workshops were built by convicts to service Royal Navy ships.

In 1913 it becomes the Commonwealth Naval Dockyard and Australia builds its first steel warship on the island. In functioned as naval dockyard until 1992.

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust now manages the restoration of the island. It was opened to the public in 2007. So there you have it!