Bart Bear's Blog

When Cockatoo Island dockyard closed in the early 1990s, most of the machinery and instruments were sold and removed. Some of the really big machinery that ordinary industry didn't want are still there. This huge lathe is slowly rusting away in one of the big workshops. How big is it? Well, it could handle the complete propeller shaft from a battleship. You can get an idea of the size by comparing it to the size of the small bears in the inset image. Scruffy and I are about 17cm from head to tail (not that either of us have much in the way of a tail) and, as you can see, that is not much bigger than the length of one of the bolts that are lying there, and smaller than the diameter of the wheel in the foreground. I would love to have seen this huge machine in action. Maybe someday it will find a new home.

Labels: New South Wales, Sydney