Events

A Board of Enquiry into the Management of Cockatoo Island, 1858

The report was critical of the Superintendant Charles Ornsby for the use of over 100 prinsoners to build stone walls and maintain a garden on the eastern tip of the island that extended three to four acres.

We think it could never have been contemplated that gardens so extensive should be kept up by convict labour, especially when it is remarked that one gardener only is allowed by the regulations to the Superintendent.

In his defence, Ornsby would claim that the gardens produced up to 40, 000 cabbages a year.

Source

Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. (2004). The Story of Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust: Sydney, ISBN: 097510943X