By Lorraine Fildes and Colin Randall
This paper was compiled to mark the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour on 24 March 2025. In addition to highlighting the enormity of the engineering feat which made the dock a reality, the work of the war artists who recorded its construction and the efforts of the thousands of men who laboured tirelessly around the clock for more than four years are highlighted.
Construction of the Captain Cook Graving Dock began in 1940 and was completed in March 1945. It was the largest engineering feat of its day, undertaken under wartime conditions and it was the largest and most complex engineering project in Australia until the construction of Snowy Mountains, Guthega Power station in 1958.
The dock was designed to take the largest naval ships at the time. The statistics and photographic records for the dock construction show the vast scale of the project.
The dock construction statistics include:
- Dredging – 150,000 cu yards of silt
- Rock/clay/sand required – 800,000 cu yards
- Sheet piling – 170,000 feet
- Concrete poured – 330,000 cu yards
- Manpower: 4125 men at peak construction activity
Many people know a Graving Dock is a dry dock. Why Graving Dock? The following note might help:
The Old English word “grave” has its roots in the Germanic language. It is derived from the Proto-Germanic word “graban”, which means “to dig.” The connection to the word “grave” in English makes sense, considering that graves involve digging into the ground. Over time, the term evolved to include meanings related to cleaning or repairing of a ship’s hull, leading to the term “graving dock” for ship maintenance.
The need for a large naval Graving Dock in Australia became crucial during the deteriorating world situation in the 1930s. There was little doubt that Australia’s security would depend upon its commercial sea lanes. This country’s ability to quickly repair naval vessels and return them to sea would play a large part in its ultimate survival.
In 1938 federal cabinet responded to this situation by approving the construction of an Australian Naval Graving Dock. The Australian Government approached the British Admiralty for its assistance. As a result, Sir Leopold Savile KCB, past President of the Institution of Engineers, a senior principal in the British engineering firm Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, was invited to Australia to find the most suitable site.
He was to consider the strategic as well as the engineering aspects of the site. After completing his investigation, Savile concluded the construction of a Graving Dock between Garden Island and the foreshore would best fulfil all the requirements. The proposal was approved by the Australian War Cabinet on 1 May 1940, and the biggest engineering project yet undertaken in Australia was begun.
The dimensions of the new dock were 347.29m long and 45m wide, with an intermediate caisson enabling the dock to be divided into two. Mr. Guthrie Brown was the Chief Engineer responsible for design and construction. Following is an image of the dock plan.
The photo below shows two massive steel and sandstone coffer dams were built and when completed, the area was pumped dry. Further excavation of the harbour floor was undertaken using explosives. The unpaved tops of the coffer dam walls were quickly named by the workers – the one on the western side between the island and Woolloomooloo was known as the Khyber Pass, and the eastern side became the Burma Road.
The photo below shows the dock site completely dewatered. Dredging was carried out by a bucket dredger.
All work on the Graving Dock was conducted on a 24-hour basis and to enable this to take place floodlight towers were erected so that the work – especially the concrete pouring – was continuous even at night.
The Graving Dock became vital after the surrender of Singapore to Japanese Forces on 15th February 1942 and the loss of the dry dock there. Despite the recognition that there was a real threat of a submarine based aerial attack on Sydney the importance of the construction meant that the floodlights had to stay on.
The two reconnaissance flights by submarine-based float planes over Sydney in February 1942 and then in May 1942 were aided by the floodlighting for construction of the dock. The subsequent attacks on Sydney were directly linked to the construction of the dock. However, the importance of the work was such that the floodlighting was not removed.
As the War was now taking place on our shores the Government set up the Allied Works Council in February 1942 to be responsible for carrying out any works required by the Allied Forces in Australia during the Second World War. This included providing any equipment, materials or workmen required to carry out these works.
On 14 April 1942 the Civil Constructional Corps (CCC) was established under the control of the Director-General of Allied Works Mr. W. M. Mehaffey. The CCC was responsible for calling up men, generally aged between 45 and 60, who were not in protected industries or the armed forces – 60,000 of them by the end of 1943. They worked on docks, factories, roads, aerodromes and airstrips, wharves, camps and installations. The CCC provided workers for the Graving Dock.
This dock project involved every type of engineering: engineering in quarrying; maritime works; civil engineering – especially concrete formulation, mass concrete pours and accuracy for caisson slots; mechanical and electrical engineering for the pumps; naval architecture in the design and construction of the caissons to close the dock also the selection of special timber on the caissons to provide the sealing of the dock. The Captain Cook Graving Dock was recognised as a National Engineering Landmark by Engineers Australia 2021. The adjacent plaque can be found near the Captain Cook Graving Dock on Garden Island.
Twelve days before the official opening of the dock in 1945 it was used for the urgent repair of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. This ship, part of the British Pacific Fleet, was on its way to take part in the final assault on Japan.
Since 1945 the dock has been in continuous use with 2,018 dockings in from March 1945 to December 2019. As well as RAN ships, naval vessels from Britain, France, New Zealand, the United States and Pakistan have used the dock. Many commercial vessels ranging in size from tugs and ferries to cruise ships have also been docked there.
As well as organising all this incredible construction work, in 1943, the Allied Works Council under the directorship of Sir Frank Packer, appointed two artists working with its manpower agency the CCC, to record the activities of the construction workers. The artists were William Dobell and Herbert McClintock who had been conscripted into the CCC and were working as camouflage artists. Both artists were well known and respected as artists. The artworks produced by McClintock and Dobell were later presented by the Allied Works Council (AWC) to the Australian War Memorial.
Herbert McClintock, War Artist
Herbert McClintock (1906-1985) studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1925 to 1927 and then worked as a commercial artist for the Sydney Morning Herald.
During the World War 2 McClintock was rejected for military service on medical grounds and was instead conscripted into the AWC to work as a camouflage artist. In July 1943 he was appointed an official war artist to cover the activities of the CCC. This appointment suited McClintock’s talents as a social realist.
McClintock worked rapidly on the spot, making pen, brush and ink sketches and drawings of the action. Later he worked up complete compositions in his studio in Sydney, often using thick gouache and layers of varnish to add highlights and surface texture. His paintings have a rhythmic repetition of colour and form that suggests cooperation among the workers that was needed to complete their sometimes-daunting tasks. The Sydney Graving Dock paintings show labourers dwarfed by the monumental engineering feats on which they are engaged.
The war years changed McClintock’s attitude towards art. He was no longer committed to a personal exploration. He became a founding member of the Studio of Realist Artists in Sydney (1945), with whom he held frequent group exhibitions. Niagara Lane Galleries (Melbourne) held a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1980. It was acknowledged that there were long periods when McClintock wasn’t engaged in creative arts.
Sir William Dobell, War Artist
(1899–1970) studied at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney from 1924 and in 1929 he won the New South Wales Society of Artists Travelling Art Scholarship, which enabled him to continue his studies in London and travel throughout Europe.
He acquired a mastery of traditional techniques, and he transformed their influences into a highly personal vision of humanity. Dobell was a great draughtsman, and he incorporated these skills into his painting technique.
Dobell returned to Australia in 1939 and started part-time teaching at East Sydney Technical College. In 1941 he was conscripted into the Civil Construction Corps (CCC), working as a camouflage artist. In 1943 he was appointed as an official war artist, to document the efforts of the construction workers. His talents enabled him to produce wonderful works of these workers.
Dobell went on to have an incredibly successful career and was widely recognised for his contribution to artistic culture in Australia. Between 1944 and 1948 he was a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, while in 1965 he was appointed OBE, and knighted the following year.
References:
75 Years Service to the Nation – The Captain Cook Graving Dock, published by Naval Historical Society of Australia, available at, 75 Years Service to the Nation – The Captain Cook Graving Dock.
Norman Rivett and George Hicks, Naval Historical Society of Australia, available at, Captain Cook Graving Dock – Naval Historical Society of Australia.
Garden Island NSW 1940 – Today, Naval Heritage Sites, available at, 1940 – Today – Naval Historical Society of Australia.
Engineering Heritage Australia, Captain Cook Graving Dock, available at, Captain Cook Graving Dock – Engineering Heritage Australia\
Naval Historical Society, video documentary, Captain Cook Graving Dock, available at, Captain Cook Graving Dock – Naval Historical Society of Australia
Lieutenant Brendan Trembath, Department of Defence, Dry dock a national landmark, available at, Dry dock a national landmark
Herbert McClintock, Biography, Australian War Memorial, available at, Herbert McClintock | Australian War Memorial
Herbert McClintock, Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, available at Biography – Herbert McClintock – Australian Dictionary of Biography
William Dobell, Biography, Art Gallery of NSW, available at, William Dobell | Art Gallery of NSW
Works by William Dobell (1130 works), Art Gallery of NSW, available at, Works by William Dobell | Art Gallery of NSW
William Dobell, Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, available at Biography – Sir William Dobell – Australian Dictionary of Biography