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Rippleside Slipway, Workshops, & Pier

Location East end of Liverpool Street,, RIPPLESIDE VIC 3215 - Property No B6976 File Number B6976 Level Regional

[1/1] B6976 Rippleside Slipway

Statement of Significance

The Rippleside Workshops, Slipway, and Pier are of historical, technical and social heritage significance at the Regional level.
Ports are seminal to the European history of Australia, as the first places of settlement, the beachheads for development of the hinterland, and as the focal points of subsequent trade, inter-colonial passenger travel, and international travel until c.1970.
Geelong is Victoria's second largest port, and specialises in the import/export of bulk products, including wheat, oil, fertilisers, timber, woodchips, and alumina; and formerly, wool, frozen meat, coal and some cement products. The Rippleside complex is significant as the last substantial port facility associated with the Geelong Harbor Trust, which was formed in 1905 to develop the infrastructure of the Port of Geelong.
From the inception of the Geelong Harbour Trust in 1905, the Rippleside complex (extending from the site of the present Workshops across Rippleside Park to Bell Parade) was the site of the Trust Workshop. The original port floating plant moored at a jetty on the present site, and the Trust built a workshops and then a slipway at Rippleside (1921). The increasing size of tug and dredge vessels required the building of the present workshops and pier in 1955, followed by the present 1000-ton displacement slipway in 1959, on specially reclaimed land. The present complex represents the final development of the former Geelong Harbour Trust Workshops and is one of few remaining Geelong port infrastructure facilities.
This slipway is of technical significance as the largest and best example of this type of docking facility (as distinct from dry-docks and floating docks) in Victoria, and on the whole South East Coast of Australia between Sydney and Adelaide. The large electric winch for hauling the vessels from the water was built especially for this facility by Vickers Hoskin in Western Australia, and is one of only three such perfectly manufactured slipway winches in Australia.
Adjacent to the site is the former GHT horse paddock, now Rippleside Park, which forms an attractive gateway to The Esplanade and the Geelong foreshore.
Although no longer viable purely for docking large ships due to the infrequency of docking due to dramatic improvements in anti-fouling paints, the site remains a scarce and potentially valuable maritime facility. The site is also of significance as a potential link in the Geelong foreshore which is publiclly accessible from about Limeburners Point to beyong the Rippleside Workshops.
Classified: 07/06/1999