Overview

Planning process in detail

The Comprehensive Plan

Management Plans

Planning Applications

Planning Proposals

Harbour Trust: Planning

Management Plan - Cockatoo Island

• View the Cockatoo plan online

Cockatoo Island is now included on the National and Commonwealth Heritage Lists. Under the EPBC Act the listings impose a number of obligations on the managing agency, including the need to prepare heritage management plans.

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust has now amended the Cockatoo Island Management Plan to comply with the EPBC Act.

The Harbour Trust invites comments on the draft Cockatoo Island Management Plan from interested persons and organisations.

View the plan

The draft plan is on public exhibition from 8 September 2008 to 3 October 2008 and can be viewed online below or in hardcopy during office hours at:

• Harbour Trust Office, Building 28, Best Avenue (off Suakin Drive) Mosman
• Leichhardt Council, 7-15 Wetherill Street, Leichhardt
• Canada Bay Council, 1a Marlborough Street, Drummoyne
• Hunters Hill Council, 22 Alexandra Street, Hunters Hill
• Cockatoo Island (see the Campground Manager at Building 164)

Make a submission

Submissions are invited until 5pm, 3 October 2008 and should be addressed to:

Draft Management Plan Submissions - Cockatoo Island
Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
PO Box 607
Mosman NSW 2088

or by email to consulttrust@harbourtrust.gov.au

All submissions will be treated as public documents

Summary of the Management Plan for Cockatoo Island

Introduction

In August 2003 the Harbour Trust completed a Comprehensive Plan for its seven sites around Sydney Harbour. The plan set out a vision for these sites and included a process for the preparation of more detailed management plans for specific precincts, places or buildings.

The Comprehensive Plan proposed the revitalisation of Cockatoo Island as a landmark harbour attraction with the revival of maritime activities, the interpretation of the rich colonial and industrial heritage, and the creation of parklands and spaces for cultural events.

The Management Plan for Cockatoo Island provides more specific details of what is proposed for the island.

Brief Description & History of the Island

The management plan has been prepared for the whole of Cockatoo Island.

Cockatoo is the largest island in Sydney Harbour and is located at the junction of the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers. Cockatoo Island was originally only 12.9 hectares, however, it has been expanded to 17.9 hectares through extensive cutting and filling.

The island is characterised by a diversity derived from its incremental development over a long period of time. Almost all of the original vegetation has been removed and the current vegetation includes plants growing on the cliff faces and plantings of exotic species in the garden areas. The island accommodates a range of industrial buildings, concrete pads from demolished buildings, cranes, dry docks and maritime related structures.

However, many buildings and wharves were demolished after the closure of the island, and this has resulted in large open areas on the northern and eastern foreshores. Some areas also contain contamination and industrial hazards resulting from over a century of shipbuilding.

Cockatoo Island is recognised as being of rare heritage significance, with its significance deriving from three main periods of occupation; its initial occupation as a convict gaol (1839 – 1869), development as a dock and ship building yard (1847 – 1991); and its institutional use as a girls’ reformatory and industrial school, boys’ training ships the Vernon and Sobraon and as Biloela Gaol (1871 – 1911).

The island has been vacant since 1992 and since that time the remaining buildings and structures have deteriorated.

Figure 13: This photo, taken during the Biloela Gaol period (c.1890s) shows the main walkway along the plateau of the island from the Military Officers’ Quarters (Building 2). It illustrates how the prison precinct was designed to maximise surveillance, with a clear line of sight from the sentry box on the right up to the female gaol precinct in the distance.

Vision for Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island will be revitalised as an active part of Sydney’s cultural life that is open to general public access. While becoming more integrated with the city, the valued characteristics and qualities that make the island distinct from the surrounding urban landscape will be protected.

The island will accommodate a broad range of mutually supportive uses and activities of varying scales aimed at broadening the island’s appeal and ensuring the island’s viability. Maritime and related industry will be re-established, while new uses such as cultural events, studios, workshops for creative industries and visitor accommodation will be introduced. Balancing this activity, there will be a diversity of public open spaces, vantage points and quiet places for reflection.

In keeping with tradition, existing buildings and structures will be adaptively re-used, and heritage sites will be conserved and interpreted as important elements of the island’s attractions. Parkland and vantage points will provide opportunities for people to enjoy the island and the harbour. While the revitalisation of the island will draw from the past phases of its history, a distinctly new phase will be created, characterised by the island’s openness to, and occupation by, the public, to which it has been closed for the last 165 years.

Proposals for the Island

• Conserve and interpret the Commonwealth Heritage values of the island as a historic
  place within Sydney Harbour and to facilitate its interpretation, appreciation and adaptive re-use;
• Provide general public access to the island;
• Facilitate the transport of people and goods to and from the island by providing appropriate
  waterfront infrastructure;
• Revive the island by reintroducing maritime and related industry as well as a range of
  complimentary uses including cultural, entertainment, dining, education, recreation, retail, offices and studios;
• Establish Cockatoo Island as a place of public enjoyment by providing public open space and
  the creation of venues for cultural events; and
• Apply the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development to the revitalisation of the island.

In doing this, it also aims to:

• Provide opportunities for visitors to understand and appreciate the rich and varied history of the island by providing for site interpretation, education and appropriate uses;
• Provide visitor facilities and amenities including safe pedestrian paths, viewing areas, lookouts and access to the convict precinct, the docks, tunnels, cranes and other historic structures;
• Realise the potential for easy access including access for the disabled;
• Enhance views to and from the island;
• Manage flora and fauna remaining on the site and interpret the original harbour landscape;
• Improve the quality of stormwater runoff in order to reverse adverse impacts on the harbour; and
• Apply remediation strategies consistent with the range of proposed land uses while reducing any adverse environmental impact on the harbour.

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Sydney Harbour Federation Trust · PO Box 607 · Mosman NSW 2088 Australia · Tel 02 8969 2100 · Fax 02 8969 2120 · TTY 02 8969 2152

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This page last modified 5 September, 2008

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