Inspecting an Australian made ship at Newcastle, 1925

The Walsh Island Dockyard and Engineering Works was established in 1913 at Walsh Island on the Hunter River and by the early 1920s was the centre of Newcastle’s shipbuilding and engineering industry. Over 2500 workers built 47 vessels of various types as well as pipes, buses, bridges, weapons, munitions and railway stock. The dockyard was abandoned in 1933 during the Depression and finally dismantled. This newsreel clip from 1925 shows then NSW State Premier John ‘Jack’ Lang (also nicknamed, ‘The Big Fella’) and other politicians attending the launch of an Australian pilot vessel from Walsh Island.