That giant of heavy lifters – the Garden Island hammerhead crane – towers over even the mighty liner Queen Mary 2 but nobody really wants it! Standing more than 60 metres high, the Colossus of Garden Island now has no obvious use and probably cannot even be used, but it has become a discussion point among many people, some of whom may not have even seen it used. 
  The giant hammerhead crane, one of only a few such cranes still standing world wide, is a throwback to the days of Industrial Archaeology when many industrial items were very big and very powerful indeed and few heavy lifters were bigger and more powerful than this one. 
  On its trials the big crane strained its steel sinews and lifted more than 300 tons (more in tonnes)! The writer regularly watched during the 1950s and 1960s when it lifted small naval ships out of the water and placed them gently on the dockside for repair work but that was not the purpose of the colossus. 
  When the big crane was designed by UK company Sir William Arrol and Co most naval vessels were fitted with heavy boilers and anything bigger than a destroyer also carried large turrets and guns of often incredible mass. 

  The big crane was intended to complement the great naval dockyard which was created out of almost nothing when the area of water between Garden Island and Potts Point became the Captain Cook Dock with its associated working areas. Its purpose was to help refit and repair ships damaged in the great Pacific Ocean battles that were expected. 
  While the Royal Australian Navy had, at best, ships of modest size, the great dock and the massive crane were intended to support the large ships of the Royal Navy and perhaps, those even larger, of the United States Navy, in the world-wide war that was obviously coming – ready or not! 
  The cruisers of the Royal and Royal Australian Navies had turrets that could weigh as much as 100 tonnes. The battleships of the Royal Navy had turrets that came in at more than 1200 tonnes each. 

  In each of these great armoured turrets were gun barrels, that together with their breech mechanism, might weigh as much as 100 tonnes – per barrel! The barrels fired heavy armour piercing shells out to as much as 30 kilometres and the weight of the shell and the explosive forces that sent it on its way created wear patterns that meant that a heavy barrel might have to be changed after every 500- 700 shots. And that was a job for the big crane. 
  An almost identical ‘sister’ to the Garden Island crane was completed at the Singapore dockyard in 1939 and was then destroyed early in 1942 to make sure the Japanese invaders could not use it. ‘Our’ crane was built from 1944 and was completed in a somewhat leisurely manner by 1951. It no longer had a cataclysmic war to service but the RAN found plenty of use for it from 1951 for about 30 years. 
  On a ground base of 15m2 the crane carries a cantilever jib that has a radius of 83m. That horizontal part at the top, the jib, is about 20m longer than a Manly ferry! It was very useful for reaching out over the flightdeck of RAN carriers and placing loads onto the lifts that went down to the hangar deck. These of course were light loads but much needed. At various times during the 1980s the great crane was used for unusual or interesting loads. One such was unloading the famous British steam locomotive Flying Scotsman from the ship that brought it to Australia. Such jobs became few and far between and I believe the crane’s last lift was in 1988. 
  Various bright ideas have been suggested as a use for the now-redundant crane. One worthy chap envisaged – wait for it – a revolving restaurant. What the RAN and the dockyard management might think of this is open to consideration. Presumably the potential restaurateur did not plan to take over maintenance of the structure. 
  It is maintenance that will be the second largest problem to concern the crane. The steel crane is much like the Harbour Bridge. It needs constant work and since 1988 it has little more than cosmetic attention. Without maintenance, it will, eventually become dangerous. 
  The biggest problem will be demolition. In Singapore, with the Japanese Army just up the road, demolition was quick and easy. A similar method used at Garden Island is liable to cause some comment and perhaps even law suits from the ‘A’ listers that surround the area. Bringing it down bit by bit will cost many millions and may, in fact, be impossible as all the floating cranes of any capacity that served Port Jackson have been allowed to disappear without replacement. 

What to do?

  The NSW Heritage Office has the crane classified as worth heritage listing, see http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au for details. A similar classification did not save the great floating crane Titan in the early 1990s. 
  The NSW National Trust has nominated the hammerhead crane in its National 2007 Heritage and Risk List, noting that similar cranes in Scotland have been given official national heritage protection. The Trust claims that it is one of the top 10 heritage sites in Australia that are at serious risk. 
  Having been involved in the saving and retention of heritage items for more than 30 years this writer is sympathetic to retention of many such items, pausing only to note that all these things involve cost and continuing outlay for an indeterminate time. 
  When one considers the politician-encouraged and developer-inspired demolition of the commercial port of Port Jackson over the last 20 years, it seems likely that the giant crane may be removed, perhaps after someone produces a survey which describes in detail the increasing risks of leaving it standing. Because of the potential costs involved, I feel the great crane may be with us for a decade or so as another generation of politicians find more interesting things to consider – but the decision must be made, someday.

*Graeme Andrews’ The Watermen of Sydney can be had from Boat Books, ABC books and all good book stores. Mail order enquiries may be made to Stannard Marine at 02 9418 3711.