Cockatoo Island Aerial view
Photograph: Supplied

Cockatoo Island

This heritage-listed island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour – and it's a great day trip
  • Things to do
  • Sydney
Winnie Stubbs
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Time Out says

The largest island in Sydney's harbour and set at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, Cockatoo Island is 18 hectares in size and named for the presence of sulphur-crested cockatoos. Before 1839, when a prison was built to house convicts from Norfolk Island, it was covered with red gums and was almost certainly an Aboriginal fishing spot.

The convicts eventually relocated to Darlinghurst Gaol and the island had a brief stint hosting an industrial school for girls and a naval training ship for boys (but due to ‘unseemly and unscheduled meetings' the girls moved to Parramatta). However, the island was mostly used for shipbuilding and repairs; its several docks serviced the Royal Navy during WWII and was the construction site of Australia's first steel warship. The island's maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992, and Cockatoo Island only opened to the public in 2007.

Today, the island is run by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and remains commercial free, although there are talks of reintroducing boat building on a smaller scale. The trust run different types of tours – visitors can opt for a self-guided audio tour ($6 per person) or on-demand guided tour (60 or 90 mins; $16). Those who want to stay on a bit longer also have options – there are camp sites, glamping packages, apartments or heritage holiday houses.

Learn more about staying the night at Cockatoo Island here.

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Details

Address
Cockatoo Island
Sydney Harbour
Sydney
2000

What’s on

Fear Island

Winter is setting in in the Harbour City, and things are getting chilling in more ways than one. As a former penal centre, Cockatoo Island is one of Sydney’s most spooky sites at the best of times, and this winter they’ll be amping up the chill factor, with the launch of two immersive ‘Tunnels of Terror’ and a heap of other spooky experiences. It’s all kicking off on Friday, June 13 (the spookiest date of them all), with ‘Fear Island’ taking over Cockatoo Island all weekend long – here’s what to expect. From Friday through Sunday, Sydney’s brutalist industrial island will play host to spooky food stalls, a pumping bar serving up blood-bag cocktails (delicious) and a team of scare actors bringing the spooky stories of the island to life. There will also be makeup artists on site to get you looking scary, dance classes teaching Micheal Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ dance and an outdoor cinema screening scary movies under the stars.But the main event is taking place in the long, dark tunnels that run through the centre of the island. Dubbed the Tunnels of Terror, the two concrete tunnels that run through the island will be transformed into terrifying immersive scary experiences. Details on what to expect from the Tunnels of Terror are thin on the ground, but if you ask us, the names say it all. First up, ‘The Haunted’: we’re pretty sure we can do the maths on what that one might look like. The second tunnel experience, The Asylum, is named after one of Cockatoo Island’s former...
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