Cairncross Dockyard

Last updated March 17, 2019

The Cairncross Dockyard was a shipyard located in Morningside, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It included one of Australia's largest graving docks with an 8.5 metre deep water access, capable of taking Panamax vessels of up to 85,000 dwt, up to 263 metres long x 33.5 metres wide. It is second in size only to the Royal Australian Navy's Captain Cook Graving Dock in Sydney.^[1]

Morningside is a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of the CBD, and borders Cannon Hill, Norman Park, and Hawthorne.

City of Brisbane Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The City of Brisbane is a local government area that has jurisdiction over the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Brisbane is located in the county of Stanley and is the largest city followed by Ipswich with bounds in part of the county. Unlike LGAs in the other mainland state capitals, which are generally responsible only for the central business districts and inner neighbourhoods of those cities, the City of Brisbane administers a significant portion of the Brisbane metropolitan area, serving almost half of the population of the Brisbane Greater Capital City Statistical Area. As such, it has a larger population than any other local government area in Australia. The City of Brisbane was the first Australian LGA to reach a population of more than one million. Its population is roughly equivalent to the populations of Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory combined. In 2016–2017, the council administers a budget of over $3 billion, by far the largest budget of any LGA in Australia.

Queensland is the second-largest and third-most populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. To its north is the Torres Strait, with Papua New Guinea located less than 200 km across it from the mainland. The state is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 square kilometres (715,309 sq mi).

Construction of the dockyard began in 1944, and its graving dock opened in 1944. The dockyard closed in 2014, and the land on which it stands is to be sold for residential and commercial redevelopment.

History

The bombing of Darwin in February 1942 during World War II created an urgent need to increase Australia's capacity to service large naval and merchant ships. The South Brisbane dockyards (built in the 1880s) were too small to accommodate many modern ships plus the construction of the Story Bridge impacted on the access to that dockyard. A larger dockyard downstream of the Story Bridge and an area near Thynne Road, Morningside on the Hamilton Reach was chosen.^[2] Although the name was to be the Brisbane Graving Dock, the site of the dockyards was on top of the riverside feature, the Cairncross Rocks, and so it acquired the name Cairncross. Cairncross Rocks in turn were named after one of Brisbane's pioneer businessmen Willam Cairncross who built Colmslie House in Bulimba.^[2]^[3]

The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Story Bridge bridge in Queensland, Australia

The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia.

The Queensland Government commenced a project to construct what became the Cairncross Dockyard in August 1942. The Commonwealth Government provided funding for the project shortly afterwards, and it became one of the Allied Works Council's highest-priority projects.^[4] The total cost of the dockyard was £1,070,470, of which the Commonwealth Government contributed £425,000 and the Queensland Government the remainder.^[5]

The Allied Works Council was an organisation set up to oversee and organise military construction works in Australia during World War II.

Construction of the Brisbane Graving Dock commenced in September 1942 with workers and equipment redeployed from the Somerset Dam project.^[2] The project was led by the Queensland Government's Main Roads Commission and Department of Harbours and Marine Works on behalf of the Allied Works Council. A total of 800 workers were employed on the site, with the workforce being organised into three eight hour shifts to accelerate construction.^[4]

The Somerset Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam with a gated spillway across the Stanley River in Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset Dam in the Somerset Region in South East Queensland. The main purpose of the dam is the supply of potable water for the Brisbane, Gold Coast and Logan City regions. Additionally, the dam provides for flood mitigation, recreation and for the generation of hydroelectricity. The impounded reservoir is called Lake Somerset.

The Department of Main Roads was a department of the Government of Queensland responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state's major roads. It was merged with Queensland Transport to form the Department of Transport and Main Roads in April 2009. The Minister for Local Government and Main Roads was responsible for the department; Warren Pitt was the last person in this portfolio. The department's head office was at 477 Boundary Street in Spring Hill, Brisbane

The first ship entered the dockyard on 22 June 1944.^[2] The official history of Australia in World War II states that while the dockyard was "constructed at a remarkable rate", by the time it was ready the peak demand for ship repair facilities had passed.^[6] Nevertheless, by 31 May 1946 the graving dock had been used by 128 ships, including the British aircraft carriers HMS Slinger and Unicorn as well as large numbers of other warships and merchant vessels.^[4] The opening of the Cairncross Dockyard led to a decline in use of the smaller South Brisbane Dry Dock, which eventually closed in 1972 and became part of a museum.^[7]

An official history is a work of history which is sponsored, authorised or endorsed by its subject. The term is most commonly used for histories which are produced for a government. The term also applies to commissions from non-state bodies as company histories, i.e. histories of commercial companies. An official biography is often known as an authorized biography.

USS Chatham (CVE-32) was built at the Seattle-Tacoma S/Y, Hull #27, Seattle, Washington and transferred to the United Kingdom 11 August 1943 under lend-lease and renamed HMS Slinger (D26). Outfitted by the British as a transport carrier, the ship was mined on 5 February 1944 but returned to service, 17 October. In 1945, she was transferred for service in the Pacific as a fighter carrier and was attached to the 30th Aircraft Carrier Squadron. Following the war, she was returned to United States custody on 27 February 1946 and was sold/converted by Robin Line 21 November 1946 as Robin Mowbray. Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc purchased Robin Line in 1958. She was scrapped in Kaohsiung Taiwan in 1969-1970.

HMS <i>Unicorn</i> (I72) aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier

HMS Unicorn was an aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. She was completed during World War II and provided air cover over the amphibious landing at Salerno, Italy in September 1943. The ship was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean at the end of the year. Unicorn supported the aircraft carriers of the fleet on their operations until the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was formed in November 1944. She was transferred to Australia in early 1945 to support the BPF's operations during Operation Iceberg, the Allied invasion of Okinawa in May. To shorten the time required to replenish the BPF's carriers, the ship was based in the Admiralty Islands and in the Philippine Islands until the Japanese surrender in August. Unicorn was decommissioned and placed in reserve when she returned to the UK in January 1946.

Although owned by the Queensland Government, the Australian Government controlled its use until after World War II. A major refurbishment of the dockyard occurred in the 1970s. However, frequent industrial action at the dockyard caused many large ships to be out of service far longer than needed and large ship owners became reluctant to use the dockyard. This was a major factor in the dockyard being unprofitable, leading to its closure in 1987.^[2]

In August 1995, the dock was re-opened by a private consortion, the Keppel Cairnscross Shipyard Limited, who undertook a major refurbishment. In 2000 it was purchased by Forgacs Groups. However, the dockyard closed again on 4 July 2014, saying there was not enough work as ship owners were deterred from using it due to the high Australian dollar and a reputation for industrial unrest and government over-regulation.^[1]

In April 2016, Forgacs announced that the 14 hectare site with 700m of river frontage would be sold for residential housing, although it would need to rezoned first. Forgacs attributed the sale to their contract to build destroyers coming to an end.^[8]

Related Research Articles

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References

1 2 Wilson, Jim (10 July 2014). "Report, reaction & analysis - Forgacs closes Cairncross shipyard". Lloyd's List Australia. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
1 2 3 4 5 "Cairncross Dock" (PDF). Engineers Australia. 1995. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
↑ "Cairncross Rocks (entry 39169)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 22 January 2015.
1 2 3 Mellor, D.P. (1958). The Role of Science and Industry. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. pp. 471–472. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016.
↑ "Cairncross Dock Cost £1,070,476". The Telegraph . 19 October 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 3 January 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ Butlin, S.J.; Schedvin, C.B. (1977). War Economy, 1942–1945. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. pp. 241–242. ISBN 0-642-99406-4. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015.
↑ "Dry Dock". Queensland Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
↑ Clun, Rachel (27 April 2016). "Huge Brisbane naval dockyard in prime location to be sold". Domain. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.

Coordinates: 27°26′55″S153°04′36″E / 27.4485°S 153.0766°E / -27.4485; 153.0766

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[lla-1] 1 2 Wilson, Jim (10 July 2014). "Report, reaction & analysis - Forgacs closes Cairncross shipyard". Lloyd's List Australia. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[ea-2] 1 2 3 4 5 "Cairncross Dock" (PDF). Engineers Australia. 1995. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[3] "Cairncross Rocks (entry 39169)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[Mellor_471-472-4] 1 2 3 Mellor, D.P. (1958). The Role of Science and Industry. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. pp. 471–472. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016.

[5] "Cairncross Dock Cost £1,070,476". The Telegraph . 19 October 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 3 January 2017– via National Library of Australia.

[6] Butlin, S.J.; Schedvin, C.B. (1977). War Economy, 1942–1945. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. pp. 241–242. ISBN 0-642-99406-4. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015.

[7] "Dry Dock". Queensland Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.

[8] Clun, Rachel (27 April 2016). "Huge Brisbane naval dockyard in prime location to be sold". Domain. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.