Visit

Dockyard Ship sculpture to scale resting in the slipway of Australias only convict operated dockyard

Model of a ship - the sculpture, to scale, peacefully resting in the slipway of Australia’s only convict operated dockyards.

Dockyard

Today this area is silent and almost empty. But if you had been here between 1834 and 1848, you would have found the busiest and most productive ship yard in Van Diemen’s Land.

Here, convict labourers crafted hundreds of whaleboats, ship’s’ buoys, brigantines and barques for private and government customers.

One of only three dockyards in the British Empire to have used convict labour to build the yard and the ships, it is also the best preserved.

Plan Your Visit:Plan You Visit:
View Maps
Attractions
Book Now

Local artists Ben Booth and Colin Langridge have created the 25-metre long ship sculpture which sits in one of the Dockyard’s slips, evoking visions of the scale of the ships that were made here.
 
Embedded in the grass are steel outlines of the buildings which stood here—boat sheds, steamers, a sawpit, the overseer’s hut and blacksmith’s shop. As you pass by, the sounds of long-vanished industry surrounds you—the clattering of hammers, sawing, capstans rattling, a mother calling her children to bed.
 
Fences enclose the site of a once-lush garden summoning the memory of food and flowers grown here for the Master Shipwright’s home.
 
The Dockyards is an evocative and fascinating part of the Port Arthur Historic Site, the product of years of archaeological and documentary research, and innovative technology and interpretation.

Dockyard Visitor Guide