During her years as a coal hulk, the Polly Woodside was dry docked numerous times at the Duke’s & Orr’s Dry Dock. In 1978, the Victorian Government allocated it as an appropriate permanent home for the ship.

The Dry Dock is one of the few surviving relics of a once extensive shipbuilding and repair industry that stretched along the south bank of the Yarra River for 5 kilometres, ending below the Queen Street Bridge.

The Dry Dock was built in 1875 and was reconstructed in 1901 with a new pump house, plant and machinery.

The dock, gates, machinery and pump house are largely intact, although the basin of the dock has been partially filled and reduced in length. The dock is now approximately 107m long, 24m wide and 7m deep.

Its location is a reminder of the once close proximity between the CBD and its port facilities - a proximity that was interrupted by changed cargo handling methods and larger ships.

At the time of its closure in August 1975, it was the oldest and longest operating privately-owned dry dock in Victoria, having been in almost continuous operation for 100 years.

Duke and Orr's Dry Dock also has a unique steam plant. The steam plant includes the oldest known surviving installation of Victorian-built, under fired tubular boilers in the metropolitan area, and the only existant pair of Victorian-built tandem compound vertical steam pumping engines.