Linda was able to take the day off from work on her birthday, so we decided to pay a visit to Cockatoo Island.
It’s the biggest island in Sydney Harbour, but at 18 hectares it’s not exactly huge. It was named by the early white settlers after the large colonies of sulphur-crested cockatoos found on the island.
- Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of one of Australia’s biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857. The island’s maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992.
Today Cockatoo Island retains many remnants of its past. Its prison buildings have been nominated for World Heritage listing, along with other convict sites around Australia. Large workshops, slipways, wharves, residences and other buildings retain the texture of the island’s industrial past.
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