Weathered dockyard sheds, rusted cranes and two empty dry docks cover a harbour island reached only by ferry.
What Cockatoo Island looks like
Cockatoo Island sits alone in the middle of Sydney Harbour, with no roads and no bridge. A ferry from Circular Quay is the only way on or off, so every truck and piece of equipment arrives by boat.
Two dry docks, and , cut into the sandstone along the eastern side. Both stand empty today and are large enough for ocean going ships. Rows of rusted steel cranes stand along their walls, seventeen of them across the old dockyard, some still mounted on their rails.
The and the sheds around it are corrugated iron over steel frames, tall enough inside for an overhead crane to run the length of the floor. Paint peels off the steel columns, and pieces of old machinery are still bolted to the bare concrete floors. Near the eastern sheds, is a long single volume workshop under the same kind of corrugated roof.
Tunnels cut straight through the sandstone and connect different parts of the island. Some are lined with steel arches and overhead strip lights, and others are braced with timber posts and beams instead.
On the higher ground above the dockyard, a cluster of sandstone buildings dates from the 1840s, a single storey barracks block built around a courtyard and a two storey mess hall under a corrugated iron gabled roof. The Military Officers' Quarters sits nearby, a one and two storey masonry building with verandahs along both floors. stands apart from both the dockyard sheds and the convict buildings, on its own patch of grass.
Shot in Cockatoo Island
Unbroken and the 2009 Wolverine prequel both shot inside the island's disused dockyard sheds rather than building a set elsewhere. Each production used the real scale and age of the sheds to stand in for somewhere else on screen entirely.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2009
The Engineers' and Blacksmiths' Shop
Played William Stryker's weapons facility
William Stryker's weapons facility was built inside the island's own dockyard buildings rather than a set built from scratch, which saved the production from digitally extending a smaller space. This pin marks the Engineers' and Blacksmiths' Shop, one of the large surviving sheds in the same dockyard precinct the sources describe only in general terms.
Unbroken, 2014
The dockyard sheds
Played a Japanese prisoner of war camp, the Second World War
The production dressed the island's disused dockyard sheds as a Japanese prisoner of war camp for the film's Coal sequences. Sources name the buildings only as the dockyard's existing sheds rather than one in particular, so this pin marks the Turbine Shop, the largest of the sheds still standing in the same precinct.
Chatham's historic dockyard sheds cover slipways and workshops at the same scale as Cockatoo Island's own dry docks and cranes, with brick and steel sheds standing empty the way Cockatoo Island's do. Both sites still have the covered slipways and dockside cranes of a working naval yard, with no ship in either dock. Chatham's slipways run under permanent roofs rather than open sky, so a wide shot needs careful framing to avoid showing the covering structure. Try searching historic dockyard sheds now.
Bermuda's Royal Naval Dockyard is also an island site reached by boat, with a disused dry dock, a dockside crane and heavy stone storehouses standing empty since the navy left. The scale of the dock and the boat only access match Cockatoo Island closely. Bermuda's dockyard buildings are painted pale limestone rather than Cockatoo Island's bare sandstone and corrugated iron, so a close colour match needs grading. Try searching disused dry dock crane now.
Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has the same kind of abandoned dry docks, rusted gantry cranes and corrugated metal sheds along its waterline. It sits on the mainland rather than an island, with heavier fencing and warning signage than Cockatoo Island's. San Francisco Bay's skyline sits behind most wide shots there. A tight frame on the sheds keeps the city out of view. Try searching abandoned naval shipyard now.
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