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Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock

Location South Wharf Road, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006 - Property No B2895 File Number B2895 Level State

[1/1] B2895 Duke & Orr's Dry Dock

Statement of Significance

The former Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock is of historical significance at a State Level as one of the few surviving relics of a once extensive ship building and repair industry that extended along the Yarra banks in South Melbourne for 3 miles (4.8km) below the Yarra Falls or Queen Street Bridge. At the time of its closure in August 1975, Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock was the oldest and longest operating privately-owned dry dock in Victoria, having been in almost continuous operation for one hundred years.
Duke's & Orr's Dry Dock is also of technological (Scientific) significance at a State level as the last timber-walled dry dock to operate anywhere in Australia and because of its unique locally-built steam pumping plant. This plant included the oldest known surviving installation of Victorian-built underfired multi-tubular boilers in the metropolitan area and the only extant pair of Victorian-built tandem compound vertical steam pumping engines.
Associated timber, corrugated iron and fibro-cement buildings which once formed part of the dock complex, although of only local architectural significance in their own right, provide an important and authentic aspect of the dock's context, contributing visual reminders of the way the precinct looked during its heyday of the 1900s-1940s. Likewise, the cobbled bluestone laneways that form Tyne Street and Phayer Street provide a significant contributing historic aspect of the precinct.
See also: Polly Woodside B2775 & South Wharf Cargo Sheds 4-9 B1313