Garden Island

Occasional Paper 70: The Ship’s Garden – GARDEN ISLAND

February 11, 2020

By Colin Randall

Colin is a Committee member, volunteer researcher and tour guide of the Naval Historical Society of Australia with a particular interest in the history of Garden Island. He has researched the northern hill, its gardens and tunnels and the Captain Cook Dock. Colin’s previous paper on The Naval Garden on Garden Island, Sydney (Occasional Paper 69) has been published by the Australian Garden History Society.

Introduction

The first records of a ship’s garden were in the first half of the 14^th century by Ibn Batutta, the Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar, who when travelling to China observed “the sailors have their children living on board ship and they cultivate green stuffs, vegetables and ginger in wooden tanks.”

The most reasonable candidates for growing on board were bean sprouts- they grow very fast and are highly nutritious.

It was nearly three centuries before ships coming from the West recognised the ability to grow bean shoots on board ships.

In the 17^th Century, it was Dutch ship’s captains who understood the value of fresh greens for the health of their crews on the long voyages to and from the Far East. For example in 1632 on the ship Grel a garden was laid out that provided horse radish, cresses and scurvy grass.

They literally had gardens, established on the ships, in tubs to grow the required vegetables and in some cases citrus trees. The practice was so pervasive that the Dutch ship owners in 1677 forbid the practice as they became concerned that the root systems of some plant/trees were causing damage to the ships.

As an alternative, the Dutch East Indies company better known by its initials, VOC, established gardens ashore at strategic places along the sea route at St Helena in the South Atlantic, The Cape of Good Hope and on Mauritius. By 1661 over 1000 citrus trees had been planted in the VOC farms and gardens at the Cape.

The vegetables and citrus fruit helped fight the dreaded scurvy that caused the death of so many sailors well into the 19^th century.

The Royal Navy for its part, over a period of nearly 200 years debated the cause of scurvy, the best anti-scourbotics and how they should be administered. In 1757 the work of James Lind clarified the nature, causes and cure of scurvy.

By the end of the 18^th Century the practice of supplying ship’s company with green vegetables and onions along with lime juice being the principal way of combating scurvy.

The practice of on-board ship gardens was not totally abandoned as the example in 1795 aboard the East Indiaman, the “Cirencester” where the captain unable to procure any lime-juice “converted a part of his own apartments into a garden which he managed himself with wonderful success.”

Suffice to say that it became regular practice that if a Royal Navy vessel was to be located at a particular place for any length of time the ship would establish a garden ashore to provide the fresh vegetables so essential to keep the crew healthy.

HMS Sirius, Port Jackson – its ship’s garden

So on 11th February 1788, aboard HMS Sirius in Port Jackson, just 16 days after the establishment of the colony of New South Wales in Sydney Cove, the ship’s log records:-

“Sent an officer and party ashore to the garden island to clear it for a garden for the ship’s company.”

Further references to the establishment of the garden are given by Lieutenant Collins – dated 18^th February 1788 refers to “the island where the people of the Sirius were preparing a garden”

So it was, that on this twin hummocked island east of Sydney Cove, a garden was established for the ship’s company of HMS Sirius.

The saddle between the hummocks appeared ideal for the establishment of a garden.

The early photograph below, taken in 1857, looking south, shows the fairly flat area used for the garden.

This garden would over the next 22 years provide fresh vegetables for a succession of Royal Navy vessels that were stationed in Sydney.

The Royal Navy ships which used the garden included; HMS Sirius, Supply (I), Supply (II), Lady Nelson, Porpoise and Buffalo.

The Captain of HMS Lady Nelson, Lieutenant Grant reasserted the use of the garden as evidenced by the Government and General Order published on 8 January 1801 which reads:-

“Garden Island being appropriated as a garden for the “Lady Nelson”, no person is to land there but with Lieutenant Grant’s permission, or the Governor’s in his absence.”

The garden went out of Royal Navy control in 1811 when the new Governor Lieutenant- Colonel Lachlan Macquarie took the island into the Governor’s Domain and used it to raise poultry for the Governor’s table.

Before the coming of the First Fleet.

The Gadigal of the Eora people, knew Garden Island as Booroowang, a fishing place.

The Gadigal had managed their land for over 40,000 years and when the sea levels stabilised around 6000 years ago they managed the land on Booroowang.

While there was no running water on Booroowang the natural sandstone outcrops provides pools and soaks for these resourceful land managers. While there is no record of how the flat area of the garden was used by the aborigines it was no doubt used frequently and for a variety of purposes.

While it is unknown whether yams were cultivated on the flat land, the possibility remains to be established through archaeological investigation using analysis of phytoliths in soil on the site of the original ship’s garden.

It was recorded that the area was relatively clear of growth.

The continued presence and interest by aboriginal people on Booroowang is apparent by the recorded history of them coming to the island.

Below is a painting by Joseph Lycett ca 1817-1818 showing aboriginal people on the northern end of Booroowang.

(from ‘Album of original drawings by Captain James Wallis and Joseph Lycett, ca. 1817-1818, bound with ‘An Historical account of the Colony of New South Wales …’, published London, Rudolph Ackermann, 1821) (Mitchell Library)

Interaction between the Aborigines and the Gardeners

Just one week after the start on the garden, a group of 17 aborigines landed on the island. Sighted from on board HMS Sirius they were seen to take some of the tools. Midshipman Mr Hill ordered marines to fire at their legs with buckshot resulting in the dropping of an axe and a pick but with a spade being removed.

Sirius thereafter posted marines ashore on the island to guard the tools and the garden plot.

Some 15 years later in 1803, a group of men were confronted stealing from the ship’s garden.

An aboriginal man, with the mixed group including convicts was shot dead by a marine guard.

The verdict of the coroner was “Justifiable Homicide”.

Sirius’s Ship Garden

The first planting was of corn and onions.

The crop flourished and was picked in July 1788.

To understand the full range of what was grown we need only to refer to the multitude of records including official documents, ship’s log and diaries by those who were involved in this monumental enterprise of sending 1200 people half way around the world to establish a penal colony.

By July 1788 it was recorded the vegetables planted on Norfolk Island included ’turnips, carrots, lettuces, onions, leaks, parsley, celery, five sorts of cabbages, corn, salad, artichokes and beet´.

While in Sydney Cove in 1788 it was recorded that the Reverend Richard Johnson had growing in his kitchen garden “Indian corn, cabbages, turnips, beet, cucumbers, water melons, pumpkins and peas.”

To know what was grown on Garden Island we need to go to the coroner’s record of 1803 into the shooting death of the aboriginal man on Garden Island.

A group of men had been seen plundering the garden. A marine fired on the group of mainly white men resulting in the killing of the aboriginal man.

The 1803 coronial enquiry recorded that when the other men fled the island they left behind a canoe and small fishing boat that contained “maize, melons etcetera.”

Who were the gardeners and the guards?

We know the names of two seaman gardeners and a marine guard, all three from HMS Sirius. This followed a trial conducted on 26 May 1788.

Marine John Atwell and Seaman James Coventry were tried for assaulting and dangerously wounding another Seaman James McNeal. The assault resulted from being intoxicated and quarrelling, the three having consumed a week’s allowance of spirits in one session. Atwell and Coventry were found guilty and each sentenced to receive 500 lashes. As reported by Surgeon John White they did not receive their full sentences as they were weak, both suffering from scurvy.

When HMS Sirius left to go to Norfolk Island in 1789 the garden was not abandoned. In a letter to his mother dated 19 February 1789 Midshipman Daniel Southwell wrote “having left a man to look after a kind of kitchen garden to the service of HMS Sirius.”

HMS Sirius did not return to Sydney as it was wrecked on Norfolk Island but its crew was eventually repatriated to Sydney.

Convicts were also assigned to work alongside the seaman in the garden. The most notable being a 24 year old Jamaican servant, John Caesar who was sentenced to 7 years transportation for stealing the considerable sum of 12 pounds. In June 1789 he was put to work on Garden Island in irons as a result of his troublesome behaviour. Subsequently he was released from his irons, but he then absconded in a canoe having stolen a musket. His is a story of escape, recapture, imprisonment on Norfolk Island, return to Sydney Cove, a small land grant but eventually, a return to theft and robbery.

“Black” Caesar, as he was known, became notorious as the first bushranger. On 15^th February 1796 he was shot and killed by a settler near present day Strathfield who claimed the five gallons of rum for his capture.

Water for the gardens

There was no permanent water on the island. The garden footprint was 145 feet (44.2m) by 160 feet (48.8m). There are no records of the digging of a well and no apparent evidence of a well.

However, with the presence of the two sandstone hills, it is possible that with some drainage works, run-off could be directed into a well, while with additional seepage into the well, sufficient water could be collected to maintain the garden.

The 1851 survey plan of Garden Island however does show two water tanks on the eastern side of the flat area used for the garden.

Stand-alone ship’s garden, no longer needed

With the departure of HMS Buffalo from Sydney in 1807 the need for a stand-alone ship’s garden was greatly diminished.

Any ship requiring vegetables could easily acquire them from the many Sydney market gardens.

Exact location of the garden

In the middle of what had been the gardens an Observation Spot as part of the Admiralty’s Longitude Studies was established by means of a stone cairn that was marked on the 1851 map.

The location was given as latitude 33 degrees 51 minutes and 45 seconds South and longitude 10 hours 10 minutes and 5 seconds East (152 degrees 31 minutes and 15 seconds East) noting a deviation of 62 degrees 41 minutes South and variation of 10 degrees 10 minutes East.

What happened to the garden?

This is quite clear. It was incorporated, in part, into a lawn tennis court circa 1871. Possibly the first lawn tennis court in Sydney.

See map below showing Lawn Tennis Ground.

Where is the garden today?

As best as can be identified it is located in the square behind the Clock Tower Building.

Ca 1900 map

Heritage Tours of Garden Island

Garden Island became part of Australia’s naval history just 16 days after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, firstly as a ships’ garden. Its naval use further developed into a naval depot near the end of the 19^th century and ceased to be an island in 1945.

Many of the buildings are now over 100 years old, each having its own history, but rarely seen by the public unless through a Naval Historical Society tour. Each tour visits the buildings and details of their history are provided by tour guides. Tours start with a video briefing into the Island’s history. Small groups accompanied by a knowledgeable guide then explore the Island.

To undertake a tour contact the tour co-ordinator by E-mail tours@navyhistory.org.au or by phone (02) 9359 2243 office hours are Tuesday & Thursday.

References:

Torck, Matthew. Maritime Travel and the Question of Provision and Scurvy in a Chinese connection. East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine No. 23 ( 2005)

Frame, TR. The Garden Island. Australian Naval Institute 1990

Rivett, Norman. Our First Gardeners. Naval Historical Review, September 2016

Burnby, J and Bierman, A. The incidence of scurvy at sea and its Treatment. Revue d”Histoire de La Pharmacie. 1996, No. 313 99 339-346

Occasional Paper 69: The Naval Garden on Garden Island, Sydney

December 17, 2019

December 2019

By Colin Randall

Colin is a volunteer researcher with the Naval Historical Society of Australia and a tour guide for its heritage tours of the Hill. He lived in Residence ‘C’ on Garden Island while attending high school and university, and has an intimate knowledge of the Naval Garden, as it was essentially his playground and backyard from 1961 until 1970. His father was ex Royal Navy, ex Royal Australian Navy and worked for the Department of the Navy in planning ship refits. Colin’s grandfather was on the Australia Station on HMS Pegasus and HMS Powerful based at Garden Island from 1908 until 1910.

This story was first published by the Australian Garden History Society in the Australian Garden History Journal, October 2019.

The historic naval base at Garden Island Naval Precinct in Sydney Harbour was listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List and NSW State Heritage Register in 2004. The naval garden on Garden Island has been shaped by the development of Australia’s major naval base, the activities of the Royal Navy on the Australia Station, the opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia and the creation and activities of the Royal Australian Navy.

Garden Island and nearby Potts Point are high points above sea level of the drowned river valley that now forms Sydney Harbour, which was itself formed between 10,000 and 6500 years ago as sea levels rose following the last glaciation. In 1788 the sandstone island was vegetated with low coastal heath and woodland. The island had hummocks at its north (24 metres high) and south (20 m) ends, with a lower flat area between them.

An Early Garden

Garden Island was the site of one of the first gardens planted by the First Fleet in 1788 and provided onions and corn for the crew of HMS Sirius. The area chosen for the garden was the flat land between the island’s northern and southern hills.

For nearly 20 years it was the site for ships’ gardens, supplying a series of Royal Navy ships. The lack of a permanent water supply was always a limiting factor in the success of the gardens. The northern end of the island had a battery established in 1796 to protect Sydney from potential attack by French warships. Governor Macquarie in 1806 brought Garden Island into his Domain and the island was used as a place for raising of chickens for the Governor’s table.

Alexander Harris, a visitor to Sydney in the 1840s, described Pinchgut Island and neighbouring Garden Island to the southeast as ‘two small scrub clad piles of hoary stones, each standing solitary amidst the whistling winds of the Stream’.

Uncertain Water

Throughout the early and mid-1800s Garden Island became a popular picnic site for Sydney siders. The lack of water and facilities, however, limited its appeal, with everything having to be brought with the picnickers.

With the decision in the 1865 to create a naval base for Royal
Navy ships on the Australian Station (the Australian region’s seat of command for the British Navy), the island was taken back from the control of NSW and ship’s boat repair facilities were constructed.

The lack of a permanent water supply to the Island remained an issue, with water supply coming from rainwater capture and delivery by barge. However there was sufficient water for a lawn tennis court to be laid down in 1880 in part of the area originally used by the ship’s garden. The sport of tennis was first introduced to Australia around 1875 and Royal Navy and Marine officers were keen exponents.

Occupation

The major transformation of Garden Island followed the levelling of the southern hill and included the erection of barracks for Royal Marines and sailors. Cottages built in 1885 for the supervisors of the construction were then turned over for use by naval staff. With the construction of the new barracks on the site of the original tennis court, a new tennis court was constructed on the northern hill

The tennis courts were built adjacent to rock carving with the initials of a survey party and the date 1788. Until the building of this new tennis court in 1885 the Hill was representative of the native vegetation on what were the sandstone outcrops.

The water supply problem for the island was solved in 1889 when NSW Harbours and Rivers Department laid a water main under the harbour from Potts Point to the southern end of the island. Water was then reticulated around the island through a 15 inch main.

Additional works on the Hill for pathways and levelling in the late 1880s discovered the two cannons that had been installed in 1796 and abandoned. A 6 pounder and 4 pounder, reportedly from HMS Sirius, were refurbished and placed on their appropriate gun carriages and reinstalled looking towards Fort Denison.

Garden Island (lower) and Pinchgut Island in Sydney Harbour, ca 1818, by Edward Charles Close (formerly attributed to Sophia Campbell). National Library of Australia.

By 1896 the Hill not only had paths leading to the tennis court from the residences but a ‘rustic summer house’ adjacent to the flagstaff on the peak of the Hill. Paths also led to the harbour swimming pool at the north end of the island.

Royal Visit Plantings

On 9 May 1901 the Duke of Cornwall opened the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia in Melbourne. Later that month he travelled with the Duchess of Cornwall to Sydney. On 30 May 1901 in Sydney Harbour he undertook a formal inspection of ships of the Australia Station as well as the naval depot on Garden Island. The Duke and Governor-General Lord Hopetoun (Australia’s inaugural Governor-General) travelled from Admiralty House at Kirribilli by steam launch, and inspected a guard of honour in front of the Garden Island barracks.

The Port Jackson fig planted by the Duke of Cornwall (crowned King George V in June 1911), ca 1910

To mark the occasion of their visit the Duke of
Cornwall and the Governor-General (on behalf of
the Duchess of Cornwall) ceremonially planted
trees at a site on the western side of Garden
Island’s Hill. Joseph Maiden (who was Director of the Botanic Gardens 1896–1924) had selected two trees for their longevity, and supervised the planting. The Duke of Cornwall planted a Port Jackson fig (Ficus rubiginosa) and Lord Hopetoun a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii). These are amongst the 15 trees on Garden Island identified on the City of Sydney Register of Significant Trees.

The royal visit of the Duke of Cornwall to Garden Island would have initiated a tidying up and defining of the paths leading to the site of the tree planting adjacent to the tennis court. White painted rocks were no doubt the order of the day. Photographs taken in about 1910 shows a path on the eastern side of the Hill leading from the residences towards the swimming pool.

Looking to the north from the residences, ca 1910

Interesting Objects

Slit drum in the Garden Island gardens in 2019. NHSA Image

The inclusion of ‘interesting objects’ in the naval garden appears to become part of the tradition. One example is the slit drum from the Solomon Island collected on Mallo Kollo [Malakula] by Commander AHCC Home RN HMS Pegasus 1910 and installed in the garden. The drum was collected during punitive raids by Royal Navy bluejackets following attacks on missionaries.

With the changeover from the Royal Navy to the Royal Australian Navy in 1913, Garden Island came under new management. The six residences housed naval officers and civilians essential for the running of the naval base including general manager, master attendant and chief stores officer.

In September 1914 the Royal Australian Navy took control of Rabaul from the Germans. A trophy of that attack was a chain fence, which was brought back to Garden Island and erected in the garden. The construction of an oil tank in 1917 necessitated a bridge to provide continued access to the garden on the western side.

Garden Island’s figureheads, 1930s. nd Emden Gun Defence image

In the 1920s the island’s general manager erected a naval gun from the German cruiser SMS Emden and two ship’s figureheads as embellishments to the gardens. White painted rocks and boiler bricks were in evidence.

On 15 April 1936 Governor-General Lord Gowrie inspected the Garden Island naval depot and HMAS Moresby andPenguin (ex Platypus), the depot ship. To mark the occasion (commemorated by a brass plaque) he planted an outeniqua yellowwood (Afrocarpus falcatus), a southern African conifer, on the Hill.

In 1941 underground tunnels were excavated with a fan shaft sited adjacent to the tennis court pavilion. The excavation was for the emergency diesel electricity generator. By 1943 the Emden’s gun had gone but the figureheads remained. The use of pipe and wire fencing were utilitarian features of the garden.

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Fuel tank construction in August 1917, just south of the trees planted by Duke of Cornwall and Lord Hopetoun. Defence image

The apprentices of 1985, assembled in front of new stone work and terracing.

Over the next 40 years there were more additions and variations to the stonewalls and garden beds. In particular, in 1985 an expansive stone platform looking out to Fort Denison and the harbour was constructed. This provided a convenient place for photographs with visiting dignitries as well as the annual apprentices photograph. Wooden objects felt the passage of time with the gun carriages needing to be replaced while the slit drum was reduced in height through repairs.

The most striking change in the last 20 years is the growth ofmany self-seeded trees including outeniqua yellowwood (Afrocarpus falcatus)and the reduction in the direct views of the harbour from The Hill. However, the newly installed walkway to the top of the old signal station now provides the best 360 degree view of Sydney and the harbour.

The recent addition of a new individual memorial garden underlines the strong continuing connection many in the Royal Australian Navy still have with the garden on The Hill.

Heritage tours of the Hill at Garden Island

Volunteer guides from the Naval Historical Society of Australia conduct a heritage walking tour of the Hill on one Sunday each month. Some guides are ex-Navy, others – such as Colin – have worked or lived on the island for many years. As well as learning about the island’s fascinating history, there is one of the best 360 degree views of Sydney Harbour from the top of the signal station.

Access to Garden Island is by ferry from Circular Quay, leaving at 9.50 am. The Sunday tour starts at 10.15 am at the Garden Island ferry wharf.

For further information or to book a tour, see https://www.navyhistory.org.au/productcategory/tours/. Tours are limited to 30 people. page5image53150080 page5image53150464

Aerial View of garden Island Circa 1990s_Defence image

Letter: Villers Bretonneux Museum – Garden Island Dockyard crest

September 24, 2018

Dear Editor,

Some years ago when I was serving in the office of the Naval Historical Society a letter was received with a copy of a photograph of a Garden Island Dockyard crest taken at the Villers Bretonneux Museum. The question was how did it get there? We had no idea so the topic lapsed.

Recently a previous General Manager of Garden Island Dockyard, Rear Admiral Nigel Berlyn, contacted me by telephone with a query about the time when we were both on the Island in the mid-1980s. As matter of passing interest I mentioned the above photographic query and the Admiral told me that during his time as General Manager a group of former French naval personnel from the Villers Bretonneux district had visited the Dockyard when he had presented them with a Naval Dockyard crest. Presumably in older age one of this group donated the crest to the museum.

Should the crest still be on display this explanation might be of interest to Australian visitors.

Kind regards

Norman Rivett

By Editor: Have any members who may have recently visited this museum noticed the GID crest?

Garden Island Rangefinding

September 24, 2018

Before the days of radar an array of optical rangefinders was an important feature of nearly all warships. In Royal Naval vessels, including those of the Dominions, these were mostly made by the Glasgow firm of Barr & Stroud and rangefinders fitted in RAN ships were returned to the makers for repairs and calibration. As this was time consuming and expensive a decision was made in the early 1920s to conduct future rangefinder maintenance and repairs locally at Garden Island Dockyard.

It was not until 1925 that a site for a repair shop was selected and built on the northern hill alongside the signal station with access by Hill Road past the dockyard residences. This site presented long and uninterrupted views down harbour.

Tradesmen, including a foreman with required expertise, were recruited in the United Kingdom, most likely poached from Barr & Stroud. As optical work had previously been conducted by the Dockyard on submarine periscopes there was some level of local experience already available. This existing work had been carried out in the electrical workshop near the dominant shear-leg crane.

The largest rangefinder then fitted to capital ships such as the battle-cruiser HMAS Australia was the FX3 which measured 22 feet (6.7 m) in length. To enable these large instruments to be repaired and calibrated a special jig was sent out by Bar & Stroud and fitted along the eastern side of the new hillside repair shop. This enabled the water tower on Dover Heights and other similar landmarks to be used for calibration, with Clark and Shark islands used for closer ranges. In 1930 a two storey addition to the original building was completed, enabling all optical and mechanical instruments in the RAN inventory to be repaired locally.

With the WWII development of radar, optical range-finding became obsolete. The last RAN ships capable of being fitted with rangefinders within their directions systems were the HMA Ships the DDGs Brisbane, Hobart and Perth. However, as weight restrictions to these particular ships were imposed by the incorporation of the Ikara ASW missile system, their rangefinders were not installed. Photographs of these DDGs show that the directors have blanking discs where the rangefinders should have protruded.

This just left the smaller one metre base rangefinders used by ships for navigational purposes. These smaller instruments required much closer targets for calibration which included the top of the staircase on the western side of the Dockyard Chapel and the northern end of the Finger Wharf at Woolloomooloo Bay. For longer ranges the closest of the twin flagstaffs on top of the Harbour Bridge was used.

With the construction of a new Weapons Building (No 79) in 1969 the optical workshop was sited on the top level of this building with a new periscope workshop on the level below.

This did not last long: with the further construction of a new Integrated Weapons Workshop along the western side of the Captain Cook Dock in 1987 the limited work on rangefinders continued here until the closure of the Optical and Periscope workshop in 2010. So ended 85 years of local technical support by Garden Island Dockyard for the maintenance of optical instruments.

Rangefinder taken from WWI battleship HMS Revenge Imperial War Museum

Ready to Serve

June 24, 2018

Norman (Norm) Rivett is one of the longest serving members of the Garden Island fraternity and now aged 93, after a total of sixty-three years spent at the Island, is finally hanging up some well-worn boots. Norm hails from the harsh northeast of England – a Geordie born and bred. He served his apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at Parsons, the world renowned builder of steam turbines, and later joined the merchant navy serving as a ship’s engineer with the Ellerman Lines. Not wasting time, Norm passed the demanding examinations for Chief Engineer in steam and motor ships.

During a call at Sydney a friend introduced Norm to Patricia (Pat). Two years later Norm married Pat and settled here. In 1956 he took on a temporary job in the machine shop at Garden Island Dockyard. Norm never left the dockyard, eventually becoming a Senior Technical Officer before retiring in 1986. Well before this, in 1970 Norm became an inaugural member of the Garden Island Historical Society, later renamed the Naval Historical Society (NHS).

On his so-called retirement the then General Manager, Rear Admiral Nigel Berlyn, asked Norm if he could assist in looking after the dockyard’s historical collection – the forerunner of the Naval Heritage Collection. So Norm stayed and we at the NHS and the Navy at large owe much to this hard working, dedicated and humble man. Pat having passed away, Norm now lives with his daughter Louise. It is with sadness that we say farewell to Norm and Louise and wish them every happiness for the future – but just in case he has a change of heart we can always find a place at Garden Island.

It is with the greatest of pleasure that we publish Norm’s swansong, an aptly titled article Ready to Serve.

No discussion or accountof the post Second World War history of HMA Naval Dockyard Garden Island would be complete without acknowledging the role played by the Garden Island Social and Sporting Club (GIS&SC) in creating a sense of esprit de corps. The GIS&SC was founded in 1945, it is not recorded who conceived the idea but it was probably a member of the original committee which had as its first President Mr. Les Robinson.

There had been other clubs on the island previously but these were separate and unrelated to each other. The GIS&SC was entirely self-supporting and totally independent of the Dockyard management with whom relations were always cordial. The patron was usually the Flag Officer East Australian Area and the vice-patrons the Dockyard General Manager and other senior Dockyard or area officers. The committee was elected annually by the members and represented a good cross section of the workforce, with females always included.

The club provided something of interest for everyone and most of the dockyard personnel were either members or supporters of it. Membership was not confined to the dockyard personnel as it also included those in outlying stations. The GIS&SC comprised a number of individual clubs with their own elected office bearers; their activities covered bowls, darts, football, soccer, cricket, basketball, table tennis (but oddly there was no tennis club), swimming and water polo (in the early years there was a swimming pool at the northern end of the Island). Other clubs were ten pin bowling, camera, kennel, rifle and golf clubs and later the Garden Island Historical Society. There were also group activities such as theatre parties, trips to places of interest, sports days, dances in the staff canteen, and the annual Formal Ball.

The highlight of each year was the children’s Christmas Party which involved the whole family and required a great deal of organisation by the Social Committee and their volunteers. Fond memories of these Christmas Parties are still recalled by those who attended either as children or parents, as they did much to unite the workforce, which reached its post war peak at about 3,500 men and women. Tribute must also be paid to the RAN for the services of the Navy Band and on one occasion Lieutenant Tom Fisher, who was on the General Manager’s staff at the time, arrived by helicopter dressed as Father Christmas. Years later, as Commodore Tom Fisher, he returned as General Manager.

In December 1949 the GIS&SC established what was to become a quarterly magazine entitled, unsurprisingly, Garden Island,which reported activities of the various clubs and the dockyard personnel, engagements, marriages, births, retirements and deaths etc. Copies of the magazine were circulated throughout all Sydney establishments for an annual subscription of £2.00, including postage (there was no actual charge made to Dockyard employees). Mr. Lewis (Lew) Lind came to the dockyard in 1966 as Public Relations Officer. A journalist by profession, he soon began to write historical articles for Garden Island, becoming Assistant editor in April 1969 and Editor in April 1970; the following month he founded The Garden Island Historical Society.

Raising funds to sustain these multitudes of activities involved a year round effort by the Social Committee and in addition to the modest annual membership fee of £3.00, on each pay day (wages were paid in cash in those days) there was a sale of chocolate bars and toffees. However the big attraction on pay day was the lottery which was held during the lunch break at the entrance to No. 1 Boiler Shop.

The raffle ticket butts were placed in a revolving barrel, designed and manufactured by the boilermakers, and given a good whirl before one of the female staff was asked to draw the winning number. There was always a large crowd at this event. Despite the rugged nature of their employment the boilermakers were a likeable and sociable group and were always well represented on the GIS&SC Committee and prepared to lend a hand whenever required.

Garden Island Dockyard already had a reputation for long service by its employees where two generations of a family was commonplace and three generations not unusual. The prime example of this was the Hawkins family:

Alfred Charles Hawkins joined the dockyard as a moulder in 1900 and became the dockyard’s first Foreman Moulder in 1904. He retired in 1939 after 39 years service.
Alfred had four brothers, all of whom served in either the dockyard or the RAN, some did both.
Brother Charles served in the RAN during WWI, joined the dockyard in 1918 and retired in 1963 as Foreman Moulder after 45 years service.
Brother Mac served in the RAN and briefly in the dockyard in 1955.
Brother Harold served in the RAN from 1926 until 1945 with a short break in 1936.
Brother Milton served in the dockyard from 1927 until 1932, probably leaving due to lay-offs during the Great Depression when the dockyard lost many good men and the ‘lucky’ retainees worked one week in five, undoubtedly the dockyard’s darkest period.
The two Hawkins brothers were followed by their sister Lynette in 1956 when she joined the dockyard drawing office as a drafting assistant (tracer).The final length of service of these younger Hawkins are still unconfirmed but the period of Roy and Milton’s apprenticeships alone would take the family record of service in the dockyard to the century mark.

With the commencement of WWII and steady employment, long service became the norm; e.g. forty-two years service by Wilfred Hansford, Head Foreman Fitter and Wally Lambert, Head Foreman Boilermaker, forty-five years by Charles Hawkins, BEM, Foreman Moulder, forty-eight years by Douglas Grant, BEM, Project Superintendent and by Jack Ferguson, Superintendent Mechanical Engineer, forty-nine years and ten months by Steven Stout, Electrical and later Purchasing Officer, and the longest by Richard Towns, BEM, Civil Personnel Section, fifty years less one day, as retirement was compulsory on the day prior to a sixty-fifthbirthday.

These are but some of the employees known to me. Sadly not all of Garden Island’s finest lived to reach retirement age, e.g. Walter (Wally) Atkinson, Naval Architect, Gerry Amy, Refit Superintendent, Jack Martin, Head Foreman Boilermaker, Jack Taylor, Head Foreman Fitter and Harry Chadwick, Foreman Fitter Afloat, to name but a few of my acquaintances.

Such lengths of service no longer appear possible under the present circumstances of management and ownership. How many of this generation will be able to claim to have spent the whole of their working lives in the one job and enjoyed it? The late Jack Thompson, Senior Civil Personnel Officer and former naval man, was fascinated by the tendency for long service at the Island and undertook research using personnel files. His conclusion was that staff either came to Garden Island for a lifetime or a Dog Watch and if they left they often returned and went the distance.

Garden Island Dockyard was indeed a special place to have worked and to be ‘Ready to Serve’ there was a privilege enjoyed by many.

Garden Island

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