Cockatoo Island

A Probus visit by about twenty of us on Monday, gave me the opportunity to 'suss it out' for a future family visit. It was cloudy but warm.  The cruise ship  MSC Poesia was in dock at Circular Quay.

For non Sydney-siders, it is on Sydney harbour itself, along with quite a number of other islands.

We travelled by ferry to Barangaroo then the Island .

I found a map . The island is a trove of industrial naval archaeology , including huge cranes and vast cavernous sheds plus many tunnels and caves.

From  about 1850 many years it had been used as a disembarkation point for prisoners deported from the UK (for stealing the proverbial loaf of bread etc) who were not hanged, then a naval construction dockyard then used in WWII and now a protected  historic monument under control of the Sydney Harbour Trust.

It boasts a couple of cafe/wine bars, chess park, occasional cinema and visitor tours but, most importantly, officers' quarters now turned visitor accommodation.

Even the fixed tent campsite has luxury Queen beds inside them! I inspected the three accommodation buildings and they really are well

renovated in the period style

While there it occured to me that it would also be ideal for a night or two to use the ferries to visit a number of locations around the harbour, particularly during our Sydney Vivid light display time in May/June.