The South Brisbane Dry Dock (Queensland Maritime Musuem, Brisbane)

The South Brisbane Dry Dock was designed in 1875 by William Nisbet, chief engineer for the Department of Harbours & Rivers. Construction was undertaken by J & A Overend between 1876 and 1881. It served a major role in Queensland’s shipping industry until its closure in 1972, and is one of the oldest surviving, substantially intact dry docks in Australia. It has operated as part of the Queensland Maritime Museum since 1979.

 

Shipping played a significant role in 19th century Queensland as its primary – and sometimes only – means of trade and communication. Brisbane was declared a port of entry in 1846, a warehousing port in 1849, and in 1850 a Customs House was erected. With the rapid growth of Queensland’s economy in the 30 years following separation, ports were opened in 14 centres along the Queensland coast to service the adjacent hinterland regions. Queensland’s share of the total Australian shipping tonnage climbed from 3% in 1871 to 11% in 1881, in addition to its intercolonial direct trade. Much of this trade came to Brisbane, which had become a much more accessible port after the Upper Flats near the mouth of the river were cleared in 1871, enabling large vessels to access the Town Reach.

 

The busy Brisbane port required a substantial facility for the maintenance, repair and refitting of commercial ships and the Department of Harbours and Rivers’ dredges, barges and other vessels. Minor repairs could be undertaken at the small patent slip at Kangaroo Point, or by upending vessels on the mud flats, but most commercial vessels used the facilities at Sydney, while the Queensland government lacked any maintenance facilities.

 

A site for a graving, or dry dock, was chosen on government-owned land between Stanley Street and the river at South Brisbane. Soundings were taken in the Brisbane River in September 1873, and the site was found to have deep water and solid foundations, suitable for a dock capable of accommodating vessels up to 3000 tons. Civil engineer William D Nisbet, who had been engaged in dock work in England, Scotland and Malta, was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and Rivers in 1875. Newly arrived from England, he drafted plans for a graving dock.

 

Nisbet’s design comprised a 32ft (9.75m) high, 313ft (95m) long dock, with a possible extension to 450ft (137m). It varied from 40-49.5ft (12-15m) wide at the bottom to 60-74ft (18-23m) at the top. A 3ft (1m) thick brick and cement arch formed the base of the dock, inverted in shape to reduce water pressure. The floor, atop this, was lined in stone and timbers to hold keel blocks along the centreline, which would ships in place during repairs. A series of stone altars (steps) lined both sides of the dock, providing support for timber shores to keep ships upright, and bollards on the ground on either side of the dock to help warp ships in and out. Two culvert drains on either side filled the dock, and a suction-well in a 5ft (1.5m) pit adjoining the dock allowed the water to be emptied. A ship would be floated into the dock, a caisson (dock gate) closed across the sill (or cill) at the entrance, and the dock pumped dry. Workers accessed the dock floor via two sets of stairs. Once the vessel was repaired, sluice gates in the dock were opened to allow river water in, the caisson opened and the ship was floated out.

 

The design included allowances for local conditions, with the dock set at an angle to the river, optimising ingress and egress, and the sill set at a height over spring tides, giving the dock protection during floods.

 

Tenders for excavation and masonry work for the dock were called in September 1875. Melbourne contractors Messrs J and A Overend were awarded the contract in January 1876, with work to take place over the following three years. James and Acheson Overend had established their construction business in 1872, and came highly recommended by the Victorian Railways Engineer-in-Chief for their work on the Oven’s River and Beechworth Railways. They moved their plant to Queensland after winning the Dry Dock contract, and successfully tendered for sections of the Southern and Western Railway (Dalby to Chinchilla). The firm went on to construct sections of the Bundaberg to Mount Perry Railway (including the Splitters Creek Railway Bridge in 1878), Southern Railway (Warwick to Stanthorpe, including Cherry Gully Tunnel, also 1878), Bundaberg (Saltwater Creek Railway Bridge, 1894) and Mackay (Mirani Railway Bridge, Pioneer River).

 

The Dry Dock site was excavated in the first eighteen months, with excess material laid on South Brisbane streets. Construction followed. Bricks were made on site or sourced locally. Portland cement, granite and porphyry stone (sourced from Queensland and the southern colonies) were employed on the floor, walls and pit, with sandstone (or freestone) on the altars. Brisbane ironfounders Smellie and Co constructed the iron caisson in 1880-1. Machinery to work the caisson and drain the dock, including centrifugal pumps and boilers, were installed next to the dock in a pump- and boiler-house, with steam escaping through a 46ft (14m) brick chimney. The total cost of the work was £83,849 8s 9d.

 

The barque Doon, which had been damaged in a storm, was the first to utilise the dock on 10 September 1881. Premier Thomas McIlwraith attended the launch of the Doon twelve days later, opening the dock without an official ceremony. The Premier declared that, with £4,000 already spent on repairs to the Doon, ‘the dock would answer the purpose for which it was intended, and… a substantial benefit accrued to the city from having a dock in which repairs to ships could be effected.’ Contemporary newspaper reports described the dock as ‘one of the most important of the public works of the colony’.

 

Rather than a public facility with employed staff, the dock was available for use by private contractors. A sliding scale of charges was set for use of the dock, and punching, drilling and shearing machinery was installed for hire by contractors undertaking repairs at the dock. In 1886 a workshop or machinery shop (partly extant) was built to house the equipment, adjoining the boiler-house. A crane (no longer extant) was also installed. These improvements to the facilities, plus the promise of a 117ft (35.6m) extension, encouraged shipowners to bring their vessels to Brisbane, instead of Sydney, for overhaul work.

 

Further improvements followed. The impending extension was interrupted by the construction of the railway extension. Site works around the Dry Dock, including the creation of an embankment and stone retaining walls, were undertaken in 1884-5. The dry dock was lengthened to 420 feet (121m) in 1886-7, by which time 240 vessels had used the facilities. An office (partly extant) was built for £66 in 1895, replacing one destroyed in floods. Additional cranes were installed, including the only extant crane, a 15 ton hand powered crane supplied by Ransome and Rapier of Ipswich in 1906, and put into use in 1907. The three Cornish boilers powering the dock were replaced by Brisbane firm Evans, Anderson and Phelan in 1906, to plans prepared by chief engineer Alexander Cullen; these boilers remain in situ. Electric motors replaced the pumping engines in 1924.

 

The dock served an essential function as Queensland’s only graving dock until the mid-20th century. It also served an interesting social function after 1902, with swimming carnivals held in the dry dock when not in use by ships. In its first twenty years of operation, an average of 60 vessels a year utilised the dry dock, with a peak of 90 vessels in 1909. Its size and shape limited the vessels it could dock, but it remained a profitable venture for the government until 1925, when patronage declined due to increasing vessel size.

 

Brisbane’s prominence in the South Pacific Campaign during World War II brought a renewed role for the South Brisbane Dry Dock. The HMAS Swan and Katoomba, damaged in the bombing of Darwin, were taken to the South Brisbane Dry Dock for repair in March 1942, inaugurating the dry dock as the Ship Repair Base. Additional facilities were built on the adjacent site (formerly a timberyard). A US Navy submarine base was also established at the dock in April 1942, necessitating additional wharfage and facilities. A new office building (1942), workshop (c1943), and mess and changing facilities (1945) were built on the Sidon Street side of the dry dock to accommodate over 100 arrivals per month. A concrete bomb-proof shelter was constructed over the pump- and boiler-house, engulfing part of the brick chimney. The dock was a vital piece of infrastructure during the war, docking and repairing 298 American, Australian, British and French vessels, before it was returned to the Department of Harbours and Marine in September 1946.

 

In 1944, the substantial Cairncross Dock was opened downstream on the Brisbane River. Capable of repairing larger ships, the Cairncross Dock catered for vessels that South Brisbane had previously been unable to dock. The South Brisbane Dry Dock became primarily a repair shop for Queensland government vessels, but remained viable for small government and commercial vessels for the next three decades.

 

Changes in shipyard practices, the dominance of large bulk carriers, construction of the Captain Cook Bridge and the need for a major rehabilitation of the dock compelled the government to close the South Brisbane Dry Dock in September 1972. Activities, personnel, plant and equipment were moved to an expanded Cairncross Dock, and the machine shop was partly dismantled.

 

In 1971, anticipating the closure of the dry dock, members of Queensland’s World Ship Society formed the Queensland Maritime Museum Association (QMMA), and approached the Queensland Government to suggest the establishment of a museum at the dry dock. QMMA members were concerned that the closure of the dock would result in its demolition, and viewed the dock as an ideal location to house its growing maritime artefact and vessel collection. Ownership of the South Brisbane Dry Dock site and buildings was transferred to the Land Administration Commission in 1973. QMMA established its base on the site in April 1973, and opened the museum to the public in 1979. The site was gazetted as a recreation park and museum in 1976, held in trust by the Brisbane City Council, and leased to QMMA. In 1981, the retired naval frigate HMAS Diamantina was docked in the dry dock, and was joined by the lightship Carpentaria in 1985. The machine shop was rebuilt in 1986, using bow trusses possibly from the original machine shop.

 

In the mid-1980s, sites between Stanley Street and the river were cleared in preparation for Expo 88, removing the last traces of the once-dominant shipping industry in the area. Buildings on the former Ship Repair Base were removed, but after some negotiation the Dry Dock was left intact and became a feature exhibitor, attracting over one million visitors during Expo. Additional buildings and displays were moved onto the site after 1988 as part of the museum. The caisson, which had breached in 1998, was demolished and replaced with a concrete riverwall in 2006. In 2001, the 1945 office was lowered for the construction of the Goodwill pedestrian bridge, which was built over the top of the Sidon Street retaining wall and WWII Dry Dock buildings.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

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