Cockatoo Island tours

Cockatoo Island is packed with things to see and places to discover. Join our tour guides for an enthralling journey into the island's past.

Cockatoo Island Guided Tour
When Sundays 11.15am and 1.15pm
Duration 1.5 hours

Absorb the remarkable convict and maritime history of Sydney Harbour's largest island. Once a convict prison and a dockyard for shipbuilding, today Cockatoo Island features immense industrial workshops, prison barracks, underground grain silos, tunnels and two magnificent docks. This hour and a half hour tour offers an overview of the island's remarkable history, and features some of the best examples of early colonial history to be found in Sydney. A must for anyone who is interested in the history of Sydney and the development of our fascinating maritime past.

The tour involves a lot of walking and includes one medium incline. It will go ahead in wet weather, so bring along appropriate wet weather gear.

On the first and third Sunday of each month, the 1.15pm tour is replaced by a speciality tour (see below).

The Convicts of Cockatoo
When: first Sunday of every month, 1.15pm
Duration: 1.5 hours

Hear tales of characters and villains, convicts and supervisors. Venture where convicts walked, worked and lived. Go back in time and hear the harrowing stories that made up the life of our early convicts in one of Australia's harshest penal settlements. And find out about the only successful escape from Cockatoo, by a man called Fred Ward who became the bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt. See the convict-constructed sandstone barracks and guardhouse, underground grain silos, the Fitzroy dock and the machine shop.

The tour involves a lot of walking and includes one medium incline. It will go ahead in wet weather, so bring along appropriate wet weather gear.

The Ships of Cockatoo
When: third Sunday of every month, 1.15pm
Duration: 1.5 hours

Hear the stories of how tall ships, battleships, ferries and ocean liners were built and repaired on Cockatoo Island for 150 years. See the one-time largest dry dock in the world. Walk through immense industrial workshops, a huge turbine hall, tunnels and an early twentieth-century powerhouse. The tour is for those with a keen interest in the maritime and shipbuilding history of this country. Very few places can compare with Cockatoo's maritime history.

The tour involves a lot of walking and includes one medium incline. It will go ahead in wet weather, so bring along appropriate wet weather gear.

Tour Bookings and Prices

Cost: $18 adult, $14 concession, $60 family (two adults and up to three concessions).

Ferry tickets are additional and must be purchased at the ferry terminal prior to departure.

You can reserve your place by phoning (02) 8969 2100 - Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm - or just turn up on the day and book at the Muster Station (subject to availability).

Note: times and prices are subject to change.

Group Bookings

Group tours can be arranged with a personal guide Monday-Friday. Available for groups of 20 or more.

Bookings are essential: (02) 8969 2100- Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm.

For further information