Garden Island. Sydney

[CYLLA]

In a thread there was a question on uk ships in Aussie waters around the end of ww11

During that time did many of the uk ships use Garden Island for repairers or for patching up .

I found this image very intresting.

[Batstiger]

Excellent picture Cylla!

Bob.

[astraltrader]

Best pic of King George Vth I have ever seen...

[kookaburra]

That answer is yes. The BPF main units came into Sydney Harbor at various times - the city was the main repair base in the South Pacific, with Vickers Cockatoo Island dockyard and Garden Island used for major repairs to allied ships, Australian, US and British.

In late 1945, early 1946 virtually the entire BPF was in Sydney Harbour - six carriers and two KGV battleships, KGV itself and Anson. They must have come here after the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, and perhaps repatriations from Hong Kong.

There is an interesting fact I'd like to pin down. I once read that hundreds of surplus aircraft were dumped from these ships into the sea outside Sydney Harbour after the end of the war, and, if so, I'm assuming it was from this same visit.

The info and images to follow come from Ross Gillett and Michael Melliar-Phelps's 'A Century of Ships in Sydney Harbour' (Rigby, Aust. 1980).

First image shows HMS Illustrious, 25,500 tons, as the first ship to enter the Captain Cook Graving Dock in March, 1945, three weeks before its official opening.


Same caption says the two KGV battleships, 38,000 tons, were the heaviest ships to have entered the graving dock.

Second and third images show three of the six BPF carriers on the western side of Garden Island at Woolloomooloo, and another at Circular Quay in early 1946.

Finally, Anson in the Harbour in December 1945, again, presumably part of the same fleet visit.

[kc]

I had completely forgotten about this thread. Thanks for revitalising it with a great post kookaburra. (and a belated welcome to the forum :))

Here is a photo from the site which shows Formidable in Captain Cook Dock, Garden Island.

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/images/hmsformidable14.jpg

There are lots more from the personal collection of a sailor from HMS Formidable 1944 - 1946 on the following page on our site. They are in the 'grey' background boxes a little bit down the page.

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/formidable.htm


Of course, we did commission a painting and print run of HMS Anson at Sydney. Here it is, with a link should any visitors wish to purchase a copy :D. I actually noticed we have taken some detail shots of the painting too, so I have included them below.

http://www.directart.co.uk/mall/images/dhm1107.jpg
HMS Anson at Sydney Harbour, July 1945 by Ivan Berryman.

http://www.directart.co.uk/mall/more.php?ProdID=3153

"The King George V class battleship HMS Anson is pictured in Sydney Harbour where she joined the Pacific Fleet in July 1945, viewed across the flight deck of HMS Vengeance, where ten of her Vought F4.U Corsairs are ranged in front of a single folded Fairey Barracuda."

http://www.directart.co.uk/mall/images/dhm1107b.jpg
---------------------------------------------------------

http://www.directart.co.uk/mall/images/dhm1107c.jpg

[kookaburra]

Garden Island today

Thanks for those links, and great images. Here's a few photos of my own that I took in Sydney a couple of weeks ago.


The famous war-time hammerhead crane is still there and heritage listed. I'm not sure if it is still a working installation. I think not. The big finger wharf where the third of the BPF carriers was shown in the background to my earlier post is now converted to condominiums and trendy waterfront cafes.

For those who don't know, since WW11 Garden 'Island' has been a misnomer because it is linked to the foreshores of Potts Point by a causeway that became known as 'The Burma Road.' It was named 'Garden' Island because in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip sent crewmen from the First Fleet flagship HMS Sirius there to plant a ship's vegetable garden, and there are still crewmen's names carved into the sandstone ridges there dating from that period.

A personal connection. My own first known forebear in this country was the First Mate of a ship named 'Elizabeth' who died in a pistol duel with the Second Mate on Garden Island on May 26, 1828. It was a fairly determined affair - with pistol's mis-firing they presented three times. My forebear was from Devon.
After a coronial inquest was convened at the Australian Hotel on George Street later that morning, the second Mate and his seconds were charged with murder, but - duelling being tacitly accepted under the old 'Code of Honour' - only a single three months custodial sentence was imposed. The case, being fairly singular, is well recorded in the colonial Supreme Court court records held at the Mitchell Library and Macquarie University Law Library - in fact, in the latter case, it is, or was, on-line. The Judge's summing up was wonderfully pompous and woeful.

Incidentally, just on the subject of Australian forebears, no cheap 'convict' jokes please. Perhaps with the same Celtic temper that got my own forebear killed, I react badly to all kinds of prejudice and careless stupidity.

Here's the pics of Garden Island today. It's the green patch with ships on the far left of the two wider Harbour shots. Garden Island, of course, remains the main East Coast fleet base for the RAN.

Edit: Well, I may as well come clean. Here's the link to the duel court case - but please don't mention my family name directly on-line. I have fairly strong reasons regarding some research affairs to wish that not to happen on personal interests.

http://www.law.mq.edu.au/scnsw/Cases1827-28/html/r_v_atkin__chalmers_and_milton.htm

[herakles]

Good onya mate! That's one hellofan interesting story about your ancestor. I can well imagine the judge being pompous.

The only thing you forgot about Garden Island is how it was decked out to protect us all from the Russian menace in the mid 19th C - that never eventuated.

[kookaburra]

Good onya mate! That's one hellofan interesting story about your ancestor. I can well imagine the judge being pompous.

The only thing you forgot about Garden Island is how it was decked out to protect us all from the Russian menace in the mid 19th C - that never eventuated.

Yes Herakles (HERK, as I see you called), from earliest colonial times Sydney Harbour has been decked out with defences.

When the First Fleet moved from their first anchorage in Port Jackson at what became Watson's Bay just inside South Head (this was after the Botany Bay landings) and moved down to Sydney Cove a few days later, they left a
squad there at the Harbour entrance with a signal system down to the Fleet to alert them of any approach by the French.

In time there were 41 gun emplacements around the Harbour, the number increasing dramatically, as you say, during the great Russian Scare of the mid-1880s.

It was then, from memory, also that the fortress was built on Bare Island off La Perouse, at the entry to Botany Bay - second picture attachment(for those not familiar, in a coastal stretch of 30 miles or so there are three great harbours in the Sydney Region: Botany Bay, Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) and Broken Bay, each with a river flowing into them, the Georges River, Parramatta River and the Hawksebury.

The guns from the First Fleet flagship HMS Sirius were
placed on Garden Island in the year 1800 (first picture attachment).

One of the very reasons that the foreshores of Sydney Harbour have been preserved so beautifully is that since those early colonial times vast tracts of them have been held as military land. There are scores of military facilities around the Harbour, many now redundant, and in the period of the last Howard Government a program was undertaken to dispose of many - but, fortunately for posterity, it has been done very judiciously, and almost no foreshore bushland lost.

Again for those not familiar, the five fingers of the Harbour are marked by scores of small coves surrounded by bushland, usually with a small beach and a park at the head of each, with winding streets, houses and apartment blocks well above them. Just as an example, one lovely place to walk down to for breakfast now is the old Naval ammunitioning depot and wharves at Chowder Bay, on the Lower North Shore. What were once military premises are now artists studios and community facilities. There's a diving school and cafes down by the wharves where the risky business of ammunitioning warships was once undertaken.

Finally, I'm of the opinion (and I'm from Melbourne) that Garden Island must be one of the most spectacular settings of any fleet base in the world (that said, I've never seen Gibraltar or the Grand Harbour at Malta).


To give you an idea of Garden Island' s setting, anyway, I've included a couple of long shots from the East - you can see Garden Island over little Shark Island in the middle distance - it's the place where the hammerhead crane stands, although there are no ships presently moored at the East-side wharves.

And finally one of historic little Fort Denison, with its sandstone Martello Tower, just out from the Opera House. Apart from the first two these photos are my own.

Hope you enjoy these few scenes with naval connections - and we'll get back to ships.

[John Odom]

That was a great story, Kookaburra!

[herakles]

Of course it's true that Sinney Harbour is about the most magnificent of any. It's depth alone ensures its success with navies. You got a pic of those huge US carriers in there?

There's no doubt in my mind that it was the ace card making Sinney the top city. Port Phillip Bay hardly qualifies with its single channel and mud flats.

(Port Phillip Bay was until recent times, dry land. The sea broke in through the heads flooding it. The navigable channel is actually the Yarra River making its way to the sea at the Heads.)

[battlestar]

G'Day All

I seem to recall USS Enterprise (CVN-65) anchored in Athol Bay in the 1960's? Wasn't USS Independence (CV-62) the first to dock at Garden Island in 1992? I know USN carriers anchored in the harbour.

Ian

[kookaburra]

Sorry to leave your question unanswered. I'm not sure. Meantime, a nice overview of Garden Island in the late 1950s.

Clockwise from the hammerhead crane are Melbourne, Quickmatch, Vampire (outboard) Anzac, Warrego (outboard), and Sydney, and small support craft on the Eastern side.


Second pic is Daring class destroyer HMAS Duchess in the Captain Cook Graving Dock.


Third picture is smaller but nonetheless interesting. Taken in 1967, caption says it shows a total of 16 naval craft at the Island or moored nearby - representing one of the largest concentrations of Commonwealth naval craft in port since since the end of WW11.

At Garden Island are carrier Melbourne, tug Wattle, an oil fuel light next to HMS Leander, then HMNZS Taranaki, HMS Arethusa, and HMAS Hobart.
In the foreground HMS Cleopatra, HMAS Derwent, and HMAS Vendetta.


HMAS Sydney with oiler HMAS Supply are in mid-harbour, another oiler, and destroyers Tobruk and Arunta are at the Reserve Fleet moorings in Athol Bight. Okay that's not 16 - I left out 2 light craft.


The pics are from Ross Gillett and Michael Melliar-Phelps's 'A Century of Ships in Sydney Harbour, Rigby 1980.

[spruso]

Hi Kookaburra,
Would you be able to post a large copy of the photo of HMS Anson at Sydney 1945 from post #4? I am very interested in the dress flags.
Thanks,
Cheers
Bruce

[kookaburra]

Hi Kookaburra,
Would you be able to post a large copy of the photo of HMS Anson at Sydney 1945 from post #4? I am very interested in the dress flags.
Thanks,
Cheers
Bruce

Bruce I don't think I'm going to be able to help with this. It's an image scanned from a photo published small in the Gillett, Melliar-Phelps book mentioned above, and not very sharp in definition in the first place.

I'm going to fiddle with re-sizing on my host site, but I'm not very good at that - and I'm pretty sure it will lose whatever clarity it has. I'll PM you if I get no result.



Meantime, a couple of photos of Garden Island when it really was an Island (that is, before it was joined to Potts Point by the causeway known as 'The Burma Road' during World War 11).

The overview is 1927. Ships are, bottom right, masted boy's training vessel Tingara. Top left is HMAS Penguin (ex-Encounter), and clockwise from there HMAS Moresby, two flower class sloops, a Town class cruiser and destroyer Anzac outboard.

The second image is Garden Island in the 1930s with quite a cluster of warships at and around her.


A shot of one of the BPF Indomitable Class carriers at Garden Island in 1944, with other BPF units.

HMS Anson entering the Captain Cook dry dock (again as big as I could scan of small published shot) in late 1945-46.

And two of the six BPF Carriers at Garden Island in Dec 1945-Jan 1946.

[kookaburra]

Hi Kookaburra,
Would you be able to post a large copy of the photo of HMS Anson at Sydney 1945 from post #4? I am very interested in the dress flags.
Thanks,
Cheers
Bruce

Bruce, does this help you, although I am assuming you would have it (it's online off the HMS Anson Association
website in the U.K.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/Bronteboy/hmsansonsydney11.jpg


Unfortunately I'm not able to capture an enlarged copy of that original pic you asked about on my host website - I can enlarge it alright, but have not managed to save the enlarged image permanently.

Can you not copy the pic to your computer and use the zoom facility if you wish to study the flags? Maybe you aremore technically capable at enlarging pics than I am. Anyway here is the suite of Anson in Sydney (1945-46) pics again. Good luck with your efforts.

[spruso]

Hi Kookaburra,
Thanks for trying. I;ve had problems myself with small images. There's just too much loss of clarity when you try to enlarge them if the small one is not very sharp. That's a nice photo of Anson that you posted. Haven't seen that one before.

I think the originals are probably in the Ships Books at the RAN Photographic Section at Garden Island, Sydney. They hold books on all RAN and visiting ships with some terrific photos. Some years ago I looked through them and they would print a copy for you very cheaply.

Unfortunately the person now in charge is less than cooperative and seems to regard the collection as his own private domain. Pity, becuse these books are a photographic goldmine.

Anyhow
Cheers
Bruce

[kookaburra]

Two interesting images: (1) the wave piercing catamaran HMAS Jervis Bay, acquired in 1999 specifically as a fast transport for the operations into Dili during the East Timor crisis, and only kept in R.A.,N. service for two years - a big disappointment for the Tasmanian builders, as the CAT performed well, and they hoped for further orders. The USN conducted tests with them, I think, and there was talk of up to six orders, but I've forgotten what the outcome was. I rather think it didn't come off in the end - in fact I'm sure we would have heard much more of it had they done so.


The ships were designed and built as fast ferries for the Bass Strait crossing between Melbourne and Devonport, Tasmania, but I think rough seas in that stormy Strait caused too many service cancellations.

(2) HMAS Melbourne enters the Captain Cook dock.

[Dreadnought]

I thought this thread deserved bringing back to life. Forgive me if I repeat information already imparted.

Garden Island, located at Potts Point in Sydney Harbour has a long association with the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy.

As mentioned in post #6 by Kookaburra, Captain Arthur Philip in HMS Sirius led the first fleet to arrive in Sydney Heads in January 1778. Soon after arrival, he went off in search of fresh water, and ended up anchoring in Sydney Cove further up the coast. The log of Sirius carried the following entry for the 11th February … “Sent an Officer and party ashore to the Garden Island to clear it for a garden for the ship’s company”

The garden was situated between the hummocks on the island and were first planted with crops of onions and corn. Who planted them is unknown, but it was probably a combination of sailors and convicts. By 1788 a government farm had been established there with nine acres of corn. The Island continued as a vegetable garden and farm until around 1810.

The Island boasts the oldest graffiti by white men in Australia, consisting of the initials ‘FM’, ‘IR’ and ‘WB’ carved into the rock, along with the year 1788 beneath. ‘FM’ is believed to be Frederick Meredith from the Sirius, who later became a police constable.

In 1856 the NSW Government suggested that the Island be given over to use by the Royal Navy as a Naval Base and in 1858 the Admiralty approved funding to render the Island available for ship repairs. In the 1880’s a rigging building, sail loft, barracks, stores, and sick bay were built.

On the 10th of July 1911 the Naval Forces of the Commonwealth of Australia were granted the title of the Royal Australian Navy, and on July 1st 1913 all naval establishments in the Australia Station were handed over to the RAN by the Admiralty. These facilities included Garden Island and the buildings that had been erected by the Government of NSW in the years before federation.

In 1923 the NSW Government claimed the island as its property, and after lengthy litigation lasting seven years, the High Court and the Privy Council ruled that the NSW claim as valid. However, with the outbreak of WW II in 1939. the Commonwealth Government resumed the island under wartime powers and in 1945 purchased it from NSW for the sum of £638,000.

During the War Garden Island naval base underwent considerable expansion, including the construction of the Captain Cook Graving Dock – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, involving the reclamation of 33 acres of sea bed between Potts Point and the southern shore of Garden Island.. It was built as a matter of wartime emergency, and work proceeded in shifts, round the clock employing between 3000 and 4000 workers for four years. One of the principal features of the plan for the dry dock was the that effectively joined the island to the shore. It opened in early 1945.

The Royal Australian Navy had a tunnel system under Potts Point, containing a power station, offices, air raid shelters and a command centre. There were other tunnels which seemed to head further under the Kings Cross area.

Some of the tunnels, which are perfectly straight, were built to be able move guns from one side of the island to the other. There are also old tunnels used to transport ammunition, and under and around the Captain Cook Dock there is a whole range of tunnels associated with the dock itself and rooms housing such things as pumping valves etc.

In the late 1960's there were apparently still some old tables in the rooms in the tunnels and papers stuck on the walls in places. There were also what looked like some old sound powered phones.

Since WW II management of the naval base has been centralised through the Navy and the whole of Garden Island has been deemed a defence site and operated under Commonwealth Government jurisdiction. Thales Australia (formerly ADI Limited) commenced operations in 1989 when the Commonwealth Government formed ADI as a company with a number of existing defence production establishments, including Garden Island.

Garden Island is one of two primary Navy repair and refit locations in Australia (the other being south of Perth) and is of strategic significance in both berthing and maintaining the Navy Fleet and associated regional defence activities.

Various pictures showing the development of the Island from the 1920’s through the 1940’ to 2007.

Picture of the anchor of HMS Sirius in Macquarie Place, Sydney (2009) after having been salvaged from it's wreck off Norfolk Island. Laid in place here in 1907.

Picture showing the carvings by the crew of Sirius.


I believe all pictures are in the public domain.

[steve roberts]

Hi Clive.Fascinating post and pictures.Sounds quite a remarkable place.I bet there is a rumour of hauntings associaten with it....Many Regards Steve.

[Jackaroo]

When is an island not an island..... Garden Island Sydney ;)

[Dreadnought]

Amongst the buildings built in the 1880’s, referred to in the previous post #18, was the RiggingBuilding. Built in 1887. In 1902 it was converted and established as the Christian Chapel of the RAN. The two storey building is the oldest on GardenIsland, and the original loft floor remains. The main chapel is on the second floor and the pulpit is shaped like the bow of a boat.

But most interesting, are the stained glass memorial windows, some of which are pictured below. Not having had the privilege of visiting Garden Island, let alone the Chapel, I am not quite sure of all of the ships that are celebrated, or whether these are all of the windows there. I believe of those ships represented are:

HMSA Melbourne (carrier)
HMAS Sydney
HMAS Shropshire
HMAS Canberra

HMAS Pioneer
HMAS Encounter
HMAS Psyche
HMAS Fantome
HMAS Protector
HMAS Una

HMAS Melbourne (cruiser)
HMAS Brisbane

HMAS Yarra
HMAS Parramatta
HMAS Warrego
HMAS Huon
HMAS Swan
HMAS Torrens

HMAS Australia

HMAS Voyager
HMAS Vampire
HMAS Stuart
HMAS Vendetta
HMAS Waterhen

HMAS Quickmatch
HMAS Quiberon
HMAS Arunta
HMAS Warramunga
HMAS Bataan

HMAS Nestor
HMAS Nizam
HMAS Napier
HMAS Nepal

Submarine HMAS AE1
Submarine HMAS AE2

Looks like a wonderful place.


Photographs from various sources, all believed to be in the public domain. The last pic is a montage I have made up of small pictures I could only find. Perhaps someone has some bigger and better shots. Fabulous windows.

[kookaburra]

Thanks for those, and the 1944 construction shots of the Captain Cook dock were particularly interesting with the ships in the background. I'd seen similar, but not those particular ones before, and not as good.

My wife and I went out to Garden Island on a trip back to Sydney in January, but it was a second last ferry for the day and everything - the museum etc - was closing, and we were sort of hurried around to ensure we were back on the wharf to be taken off. Thus, that chapel interior is also very interesting to see - a nautical pulpit, eh?

[Jackaroo]

Amongst the buildings built in the 1880’s, referred to in the previous post #18, was the RiggingBuilding. Built in 1887. In 1902 it was converted and established as the Christian Chapel of the RAN. The two storey building is the oldest on GardenIsland, and the original loft floor remains. The main chapel is on the second floor and the pulpit is shaped like the bow of a boat.

But most interesting, are the stained glass memorial windows, some of which are pictured below. Not having had the privilege of visiting Garden Island, let alone the Chapel, I am not quite sure of all of the ships that are celebrated, or whether these are all of the windows there. I believe of those ships represented are:

HMSA Melbourne (carrier)
HMAS Sydney
HMAS Shropshire
HMAS Canberra

HMAS Pioneer
HMAS Encounter
HMAS Psyche
HMAS Fantome
HMAS Protector
HMAS Una

HMAS Melbourne (cruiser)
HMAS Brisbane

HMAS Yarra
HMAS Parramatta
HMAS Warrego
HMAS Huon
HMAS Swan
HMAS Torrens

HMAS Australia

HMAS Voyager
HMAS Vampire
HMAS Stuart
HMAS Vendetta
HMAS Waterhen

HMAS Quickmatch
HMAS Quiberon
HMAS Arunta
HMAS Warramunga
HMAS Bataan

HMAS Nestor
HMAS Nizam
HMAS Napier
HMAS Nepal

Submarine HMAS AE1
Submarine HMAS AE2

Looks like a wonderful place.


Photographs from various sources, all believed to be in the public domain. The last pic is a montage I have made up of small pictures I could only find. Perhaps someone has some bigger and better shots. Fabulous windows.

I have been in the Chapel at GI a few times...I have heard of a couple of stories of funeral services held there...the sailors carrying the coffin downstairs from the chapel have to hold it at the right angle or the body could shift inside the coffin and upset the balance and crash the whole lot end up at the bottom of the stairs in a heap!..It is a very wonderful place, I think though, that it is not part of the tour, as you cannot enter GI via HMAS Kuttabul only by the ferry from Circular Quay.

[Jackaroo]

Thanks for those, and the 1944 construction shots of the Captain Cook dock were particularly interesting with the ships in the background. I'd seen similar, but not those particular ones before, and not as good.

My wife and I went out to Garden Island on a trip back to Sydney in January, but it was a second last ferry for the day and everything - the museum etc - was closing, and we were sort of hurried around to ensure we were back on the wharf to be taken off. Thus, that chapel interior is also very interesting to see - a nautical pulpit, eh?

Jeff
You will have to be there early am and spend the day...and you will still have not seen it all!

http://www.navy.gov.au/w/images/RANHC_Brochure.pdf

[kookaburra]

[QUOTE=Jackaroo;101040]I have been in the Chapel at GI a few times...I have heard of a couple of stories of funeral services held there...the sailors carrying the coffin downstairs from the chapel have to hold it at the right angle or the body could shift inside the coffin and upset the balance and crash the whole lot end up at the bottom of the stairs in a heap!..It is a very wonderful place, I think though, that it is not part of the tour, as you cannot enter GI via HMAS Kuttabul only by the ferry from Circular Quay.[QUOTE]

Thanks for that info, Jack. Yes, we were late getting there as I initially went to the main gate at Kuttabul to try and get in - I was wanting to visit the Naval Historical Society operation there in the Boatshed building, but - as you say - sent around to the ferry at Circular Quay.

They were quite nice about it though. I was sort of amused by a huge Army special forces type in camouflages passing through the reception area while I was there - fit looking, and just one of the biggest men I've ever seen.

Ah well, I'll know to go straight to the ferry next time.