Fremantle Slipways

To enable the maintenance of the ship hulls and the underwater surfaces of a wide variety of marine plant, it is necessary to either locate the ship in a dock that can be dewatered or on a slipway or ship lifter to raise the ship up out of the water.

The very first boat construction in Western Australia occurred on the Perth Foreshore and with gravity assisting, launching into the water down timber slides was a relatively simple exercise. These early boats due to their shallow draft could also be maintained by beaching them on convenient tidal flats.

With the arrival of dredges for the construction of Fremantle Harbour in 1895, it was recognised that a slipway would be required for their maintenance. Western Australia's first slipway of 600 tons capacity was constructed on Rouse Head near the start of North Mole.

With the opening of Fremantle Harbour and the considerable increase in shipping, an early issue was the provision of dock to provide and alternative to facilities in Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. A 1912 paper by W. H. Shields that discusses the engineering options available at that time titled Early History of the Fremantle Graving Dock was published in the Western Australian Institution of Engineers Proceedings, Volume III, No. 1.

In the 1940's a slipway of 2,000 tons capacity was constructed on Arthur's Head near the start of South Mole. There are two papers available on Fremantle Slipway as follows:

Sherriff, Jacqui Fremantle South Slipway: A vital World War II defence facility, Fremantle History Society; and
Young, J. S., Design and Construction of a 2000 Ton Slipway, The Institution of Engineers, Australia, The Journal, Vol. 17, 1945, p. 221 223.