Harbour Trust: The
Sites
HMAS Platypus: About the Site
| Facts in Brief |
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| Site Brochure |
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the site brochure
(PDF, 373kb  )
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Location Map
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The former submarine
base, HMAS Platypus, is located on High Street in Neutral Bay. |
 Natural
Features of the Area
HMAS Platypus is a waterfront property on the
southwestern side of Neutral Bay.
Prior to the entry of industry to the area, the peninsula between Careening
Cove and Neutral Bay had wooded slopes and foreshores.
A gasworks, a workshop for servicing torpedoes, and a base for Australia’s
submarines have left an industrial site that is excavated out of the sandstone
and spread over several levels.
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History of the site
Pre-1788
The Cammeraygal and Wallumedegal people inhabited the
North Shore of Sydney, camping in sandstone caves and overhangs, and fishing
in the harbour waters.
1788-1830s
"Neutral Bay" was so named after Governor Arthur Phillip issued
a directive that foreign ships entering the harbour should anchor in a
'neutral' place.
In 1828 Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General, creates a Town Plan
for the North Shore of Sydney.
1830s-1860s
In 1830 whaling allotments were granted in the Neutral Bay area but it
wasn’t until the 1860s that the first permanent resident, Captain
Josiah Miller, established a farm and cottage on the foreshore. From there,
he sold fresh supplies to ships docked in Sydney Harbour.
By this time, the local Aboriginal people were only occasional visitors
to the area.
 1870s-1930s
In the inner city, coal gas was being used to light the streets. The
North Shore Gas Company purchased land fronting Neutral Bay in 1876 to
build the first gasworks north of the harbour.
Coal was delivered here by ship and transported around the site using
a system of trolleys and overhead tramways. The coal was then burnt in
‘retorts’ to manufacture gas.
For the next 50 years, gasworks operated on the site, growing at several
stages to meet Sydney’s increasing demand.
In 1882 the site was significantly modified when the foreshore was extended
by excavating into the sandstone cliffs behind. This created space for
the retort houses and gas holding tanks required to manufacture and store
large quantities of gas.
Many new buildings were added to the waterfront and upper clifftop level
between 1886 and 1888. These included a boiler house, Smith’s shop,
condensers, purifiers and a residence.
In 1890 additional property to the south of the site was purchased, and
a new access road was built from High Street in Neutral Bay through a
cutting to the waterfront.
Continued demand led to a new gasworks being established on a much larger
site at Oyster Cove, Waverton in 1917. It gradually replaced the Neutral
Bay gasworks which ceased manufacturing in the 1930s but continued to
store and supply gas manufactured at Oyster Cove until the 1980s.
1942-1963
In 1942 the waterfront area was resumed for the Royal Australian Navy’s
Torpedo Maintenance Establishment (RANTME). Its workshops serviced Australian,
US and British navies operating in the Pacific during World War II. Most
of the old waterfront gasworks buildings were soon demolished and removed.
After the war ended, the torpedo workshops continued to support the British
Navy’s submarine fleet that was based at HMAS Penguin in Mosman
and the Australian Navy’s destroyer fleet.
1964-1999
In 1964 the Australian Government decided to establish its own submarine
fleet that would be based at Neutral Bay. Buildings on the site’s
waterfront were adapted and a new wharf that would be suitable for berthing
submarines was built. HMAS Platypus was officially commissioned in 1967
and became the base for six Royal Australian Navy submarines and many
visiting submarines.
While the submarines operated from the waterfront, the Navy’s torpedo
workshops occupied the south of the site, and the gasworks on the upper
level stored and supplied gas locally.
Natural gas soon began to replace coal gas and the Oyster Cove gasworks
closed down. By the 1980s much of the equipment and machinery at the Neutral
Bay site had been removed and the upper level was sold for the ‘Iora’
residential development.
In 1999 HMAS Platypus and the torpedo workshops closed down when the
Commonwealth decided to relocate its submarine base to HMAS Stirling in
Western Australia.
2005
For the next six years, the Neutral Bay site lay idle while numerous
proposals were debated for its future. In July 2005 the Australian Government
transferred HMAS Platypus to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
Click here to read about
the handover ceremony and open day.
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Access Information
HMAS Platypus is currently closed to public access while the Harbour
Trust develops a management plan for the site and conducts assessments
of the ground contamination and buildings on the site.
Click here to find out what
projects and activities are being carried out on the site.
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