Biloela House

Biloela House is a house at the centre of a heritage-listed historic precinct on Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.

Cockatoo Island became a prison in 1839, following advice by NSW Governor George Gipps to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies that convicts would be sent to the island after the closure of the Norfolk Island convict establishment. The Prison Barracks Precinct was built over several years. Quarrying of grain silos (see also Underground Grain Silos) was one of the early convict tasks. In order to service Royal Navy ships, the Fitzroy Dock was built on the island and completed in 1857. Cockatoo became the major government dockyard in Australia. In 1869 prisoners were transferred from the island to Darlinghurst, and the prison buildings became an industrial school for girls and a reformatory from 1871. At this time the name of the island became Biloela. The dockyard area was now separated from this institutional area on the top of the island by a fence. Following the departure of the females in 1888, prisoners were again sent to the island, and the jail function continued until about 1909. Meanwhile, the dockyard function expanded, and the Sutherland Dock was built in 1890. The New South Wales Public Works Department declared Cockatoo the state dockyard. After Federation, in 1913 Cockatoo became the Commonwealth Dockyard, and the island, both through ship-building and servicing, played an important role both in the development of the Royal Australian Navy and during the First World War. The former prison buildings were now used for offices and other purposes. From 1933 the dockyard was leased from the Australian Government by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co Ltd and the island played a very significant role during the Second World War. After the war the dockyard (now known as Vickers) continued, and submarine facilities were introduced. The dockyard closed in 1992, and some demolition took place. Sale of the island was proposed. The island is now vested in the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. There are four elements to this precinct: Biloela House, a modest cottage adjacent, Clerk of Petty Sessions Cottage, and some of the island's grain silos. Biloela House was built c.1841 as a superintendent's residence and it was designed by Colonel George Barney, the Commanding Royal Engineer who played a notable engineering role in New State Wales during the period. The building was soon enlarged. Again in 1859-60 extensions were erected to accommodate the new Engineer in Chief and Superintendent, Gother Kerr Mann. During the period of the girls school, the residence was occupied by the new registrar of the Sydney water police who stayed until 1896. By 1898 the house had become two barrack quarters for the unmarried male and female jail warders. With the Commonwealth takeover in 1913, the northern quarters became the shipyard manager's home and the southern became offices. Little historical information is available for the small cottage adjacent to Biloela House. Clerk of Petty Sessions Cottage was built prior to 1845 and was also designed by the Commanding Royal Engineer. Extensions were soon added and the building's orientation changed. In the early 1890s extensive changes were made and the building was also re-roofed; the building today is basically the 1890s plan. It has always been a residence. By 1892 it was the foreman shipwright's house and then, upgraded, the dock master's residence. The main buildings in the group, along with the Prison Barracks Precinct, form the only imperial-funded (as opposed to colonial-funded) convict public works complex in NSW. Due to the uncertain grain supplies available in the earl

Monument data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).