Captain Cook Graving Dock

 

The construction of the dock was the second largest engineering project in Australia – larger than the Harbour Bridge. The Snowy Scheme was the largest. Ships were growing in size and the Sutherland dock at Cockatoo Island could not accommodate them. In 1938 the nearest large dock was the Royal Naval Base at Singapore – two weeks sailing away.

 

After investigating 16 sites around Australia, Garden Island was selected. The construction required the reclamation of 30 acres of land which resulted in Garden Island being joined to the mainland at Pott’s Point. The dock is 358 m long and can be divided into two sections. An enormous amount of infrastructure was needed to support the operation of the dock and work on the ships.

 

Come along and learn how a dock operates and how the dock was built during the war when equipment was very limited.

Noel Phelan's first career was as a science and mathematics teacher. He then moved into IT with IBM where he spent 25 years in various technical and management positions.  He has been a volunteer guide at the Maritime Museum for several years and enjoys showing visitors over HMAS Vampire, HMAS Advance, HMAS Onslow and First Lady. Noel is also the team leader for the museum speakers.

 

The meeting will be held at Piato Restaurant 123 Blues Point Road, McMahons Point at 7:00 am for 7:15 a.m. start. We finish promptly at 8:30 a.m.  At about 7:30 a.m., Noel will talk for about 30 minutes, followed by questions and breakfast is served during the talk.

 

Note - This meeting will be conducted within Covid19 social distancing guidelines. Hence, attendance will be limited, so please advise Ken Preshaw if you plan to attend by email kpreshaw@gmail.com or phone 0411 109 158.  The meeting will also be available via Zoom.

 

If you wish to attend via Zoom, here are the Zoom meeting ID details:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86425834827?pwd=TGZ0UW9adWUrY3RreDM0ZDl0M0Uxdz09
Meeting ID: 864 2583 4827  Passcode: 005128