Mort's Dock

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Workers at Mort's Dock lay the keel plate for a new vessel shortly after HMAS Deloraine was launched in 1941

Mort's Dock is a former dry dock, slipway and shipyard in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. It was the first dry dock in Australia,^[1] opening for business in 1855 and closing more than a century later in 1959.

[edit] Sydney's first dry dock

Mort's Dock was the brainchild of industrialist Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and former steamship captain T.S. Rountree (or Rowntree). Steam ships had first appeared in Sydney Harbour in 1853 but no repair or maintenance facilities existed to cater for the new vessels. In 1854 Mort and Rountree purchased an area of land at Waterview Bay on the northern side of the Balmain peninsula and excavated a dry dock measuring 123 metres by 15 metres.

The dock opened in March 1855,^[2] a year before the Royal Navy dock at Cockatoo Island. The first vessel serviced at the new Mort's Dock was the SS Hunter, a coastal mail steamer running between Sydney and Newcastle.

[edit] Growth of general engineering

Despite being the only commercial repair facility for steamers, the dock was not as profitable as expected and by 1861 Mort and Rountree had leased the majority of the surrounding land for cargo storage, minor engineering and an iron and brass foundry. In 1867 Mort's Dock became principally an engineering facility including the construction of steam locomotives, ship machinery, mining equipment and steel pipe for the Sydney Water Board. The Mort's Dock and Engineering Company was formed in 1872^[2], but Thomas Mort himself withdrew from active participation immediately afterward, and management devolved to his dock manager James Franki. Ship construction and repairs continued at the dry dock and immediate surrounds, and in 1901 the company opened a second dry dock and slipway at Woolwich to cater for demand for commercial vessels and ferries.

[edit] Naval contracts and modern era

The outbreak of World War II proved to be a boom time for Mort's Dock. The 1920's and 1930's had seen a decline in the Royal Australian Navy with few vessels constructed and older ships sold off or scrapped. Japan's entry into the War led to a sudden demand for coastal protection and increased offensive power in the Pacific. Over the course of 1940 to 1945 Mort's Dock was commissioned to produce 14 corvettes and a small fleet of frigates and minesweepers including the HMAS Lithgow^[3] and the HMAS Burnie.^[4] By the end of the war Mort's Dock was second only to the Cockatoo Island dockyard in the number of naval vessels produced.^{[citation needed]}

Shipbuilding once again declined in the post-war period, and revenue from engineering leases also faded as firms relocated to cheaper land in western Sydney. Mort's Dock closed in 1958, and Mort's Dock and Engineering Company went into liquidation in 1959 and ceased trading completely in 1968.^[5] The derelict Mort's Dock site was levelled and converted into a container storage terminal for ships berthing at Glebe Island and White Bay. In 1989 the container terminal was closed and the site transformed into a waterfront park.^[6] The remaining features of Mort's Dock were listed on the NSW Heritage Register in the same year.^[6] The filled-in dry dock is commemorated in the name of the adjacent Dry Dock Hotel, which stands opposite the former location of the gates to the original Mort's Dock site.

[edit] References