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Before the European settlement, Cockatoo Island was covered in a spread of rocks and trees. The Wangal people would have lived off the land, collecting shellfish and fishing. They would have used the trees for protection and shelter and bark to build canoes to fish and travel the harbour. The arrival of the European settlement saw the land become stripped and the development of sandstone houses and buildings go up. Food sources were planted around the island, however food was scarce and rice and wheat was often imported. However, the climate in Sydney would often expire the grains, which lead to a development in technology; the construction of the grain silos. The construction was difficult. Convicts would chisel away at the sandstone using a chisel. Jobs around the island included excavating, quarrying and turning out blocks, plug and feathering, cutting up and sizing stone, lime burning, stone cutting, masonry, stone breaking, brick making, sawyers, carpenters, plasterers and painters. A change of era saw the construction of the Fitzroy Docks. Superintendent Gother Kerr Mann developed the ingenious idea to use electrical charges as gun powder to blow up the rock to make clearing. Convicts were provided with two rations per day which would often consist of  porridge, meat and bread. The rations were small in size and if they were sick the doctor would allow them only 1/2 a pound of vegetables (Cockatoo Island, n.d). If convicts could not afford dinner, they provided with cold water. Convicts could often work for a small amount of money. Jobs available were gatemen, messengers, overseers, laborers, light hand cart pushers, mechanics, book binders, hospital attendants, cooks, wardsmen, servants, gardeners, sweepers, signal staff, barbers and constables. The turn of the 21st century saw the remediation of the island, stripping it from an industrial wasteland, protecting it and developing it into the vibrant cultural hub we see today. The island is protected under heritage listings as the remnants from an extensive past are evident today.

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Frederick Wordsworth Ward aka Captain Thunderbolt

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Frederick Wordsworth Ward aka Captain Thunderbolt

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Fred was functionality illiterate, unable to read or write. He learnt bush skills and was working from the tender age of eleven. Fred worked as a station hang, drover and horse breaker. In 1856, some 45 horses were stolen from the cattle station he was working out and witnesses saw him and two other companions riding the horses to Windsor. He was found guilty at Sydney Supreme Court and was sentenced to ten years of hard labour on Cockatoo Island (Baxter, 2011). Fred was released early on tickets-of-leave, only serving four years of his sentence. He then met and married Mary Ann Bugg, whom quickly fell pregnant and he took her to live with her family for the baby’s birth. After leaving her, he was late getting back for his muster and as punishment his ticket-of-leave was revoked, he was served with an additional three years added onto his sentence for riding a stolen horse. The reality Fred faced was dark and so he rebelled from the rules and regulation, declining to go back to work and resulted in being locked in a cell. On the 11th of September 1863, Fred escaped from the island with one other person. He traveled with the identity of Captain Thunderbolt, fleeing police and being shot in the back of the knee until he reunited with his wife. Fred and Mary Ann escaped into the bush with three others where they lived as outlaws, bush ranging until an accomplice was shot and they separated. Some short time later Mary was captured, and Fred continued to live on, bush ranging until he was eventually shot in 1870 by an off-duty policeman.

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Superintendent Charles Ormsby

Charles Ormsby was the superintendant from 1841 to 1857. He was known to be a heavy drinker and have a volatile temper. He took no action to prevent the heavy drinking that was occurring across the island. There are reports that Ormsby would split the prisoners rations into his own personal store and he would frequently take the most able men from the dockyard to do his own personal jobs. Accusations quickly spread that he was using the island for his own personal pleasure and speculation arose that he trained the strongest prisoners for his own financial gain. He became a highly contraversal figure within the community and was dismissed from his role in 1859.

Gother Kerr Mann

Gother Kerr Mann was assigned superintendent in 1847. He was responsible for the design and construction of the all of the Island’s civil and penal construction. He proposed to use electrical charges as gun powder to clear the cliff face for the construction of the Fitzroy Dock had never been seen before. He lived with his family in Greenwich, opposite the island. As opposed to Ormsby’s whose management of convicts was based on a philosophy of punishment, Mann’s style was based on reformation (Cockatoo Island, n.d). He instituted programs of skills training, rehabilitation and incentive schemes based on the work and behavior of the prisoners.

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The Wangal people from the Eora Clan inhabited what we know know as 'Cockatoo Island' for thousands of years before the European settlers arrived. The Wangal clan's territory extended from Darling Harbour to Parramatta on the harbour's southern shore (Fletcher, 2011). The infamous Bennelong is the most celebrated out of this clan.  Although not much is known about what life was like on the island for these people, we do know that the island was once covered in rocks and trees. Being saltwater people, the clan would have fished around the island and used the bark from trees to build canoes.

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Cockatoo Island has an extensive history dating back from the time before the European settlers. The island was once referred to as Wareamah by the Aboriginal people who once coincided there. Once discovered by Sir George Gipps, the island became a penal institution for convicts (Explore Australia, 2012). After the removal of the convicts, the island became a stone quarry manufacturing building supplies to support the growing community. Due to the lack of demand for stone, the site became a girl’s reformatory home and a home for children. The Royal Navy then took over the island and converted it into a naval dockyard.

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Cockatoo Island is located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, in Sydney Harbour (Wikipedia, n.d). The island itself spans over 44 acres.

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Our visit to Cockatoo Island provided us with an experience to observe various buildings from different eras from the past. The oldest building on the island was built by convicts and is made out of large sandstone bricks. With the development into a new era, the establishment of the Fitzroy Dock is made out of large aluminium and steel structures. Progressions into later eras led to the establishment of industrial buildings, made out of brick and fibro materials.