Cockatoo Island: Newsreel Film of Dockyard Activities
Clip 3: Three ships
2 min 53 sec
Taken from the historical footage Cockatoo Island: Newsreel Film of Dockyard Activities (c1939)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Curator’s clip description
This clip consists of three segments of newsreel footage, shot at Cockatoo Island dockyard in Sydney Harbour, showing the launching of three ships during the Second World War.
Curator’s notes
Forty-nine ships were built by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co, the lessee from the Commonwealth of Cockatoo Island dockyard, during the Second World War. These included numerous vessels for the Royal Australian Navy. This clip shows three of the launchings: the HMAS Parramatta, an escort sloop, was launched on 10 June 1939 by Mrs Street, wife of the Minister for the Army in the Menzies Government; the HMAS Warrego, a Grimsby class sloop, was launched on 10 February 1940 by Mrs Pattie Menzies, wife of the Prime Minister; the HMAS Warramunga, an improved tribal class destroyer, was launched on 7 February 1942 by Mrs Forde, wife of the Minister for the Army in the Curtin government.
Adrienne Parr, curator
