The Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock today

Recently there has been a $13 million restoration of Polly Woodside's home berth at Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock in Melbourne's riverside precinct, South Wharf.

This project has enabled the Polly Woodside to be periodically dry docked, providing the National Trust of Australia (Vic) with the opportunity to undertake restoration works on the ship's hull. This will ensure Polly survives into the future as a reminder of Melbourne’s maritime history and tourist attraction.

Polly was relocated to a mooring on the nearby Yarra River to conduct work on its 107 metre-long dock, before a temporary dam wall was built and the water pumped out.

A new dock wall, gates and base slab with keel supports for the ship were built prior to the Polly returning to Duke's Dock following the 10-month restoration. The water has now been drained to test the keel supports before the ship is finally refloated.

Work is still underway on the area around the dock to restore the boardwalk and wharf sheds.

This information is from the website of one of the Trust's major partners in the Polly Woodside project, Major Projects Victoria, please click here for more information.

The history of the dock and surrounding area

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 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 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's & 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.