Cockatoo island opening hours12/28/2023 Report and recommendations into administration of Cockatoo Islandįollowing complaints about the administration of the Island a Board of Inquiry looked into the management of Cockatoo Island. After responsible government was granted in 1856, the Superintendent reported to the Legislative Council and the Premier. In the early years the dockyard was administered by the prison Superintendent, who reported to the Governor through the Colonial Secretary. Construction of a dry dock began in 1851 and convict labour was used to service visiting vessels of the Royal Navy. Initially the convicts on Cockatoo Island constructed grain silos built from the solid sandstone bedrock on the Island. Convicts recently sentenced in the colony were separated from those who had returned from Norfolk Island, by placing them in separate wards at night. The deep waters surrounding the island made it secure and it was sufficiently close to Sydney for the authorities to maintain a watchful eye. In 1839 owing to orders to discontinue transportation from New South Wales to Norfolk Island, and Lieutenant Governor Franklin's refusal to receive the transportees in Van Diemen's Land, Governor Gipps formed an establishment on Cockatoo Island for the reception of prisoners removed from Norfolk Island. NRS-922 Colonial Secretary's Indexes and Registers, 1826–1900, available in the Reading Room.Index to letters sent re convicts, 1826–May 1855, compiled by Joan Reese and available in the Reading Room.Joan Reese's NSW Colonial Secretary's In Letters Index to convicts and others, 1826–95, available in the Reading Room.Index to the Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788–1825.For Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land see the Guide to Convicts and Convict Administration. The short-lived settlements of Melville Island (Fort Dundas), 1824-1829 Western Port, 1826-1828, and King George's Sound Settlement, 1826-31 were each established for strategic reasons but were reliant on convict labour while in operation. Despite their use a number did escape, some becoming bushrangers Other settlements ![]() The gangs were used to prevent convicts from escaping. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies, p.216). Shaw estimated that in 1836, '8 percent of male convicts in New South Wales were in a chain gang or on Norfolk Island'. He placed large numbers of secondary offenders in the iron'd gangs which he used to construct roads leading from Sydney. 3, p.49).ĭarling believed that many of those sent to these settlements would be more productively employed elsewhere. ![]() ( Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. ![]() 'Considerably fewer than 10 per cent of prisoners transported ever saw the inside of a penal settlement and many who did so were there only for short periods'.
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