Share
Clip description
This clip consists of two newsreel segments cut together, the first showing Prime Minister Robert Menzies enthusiastically addressing the crowd at the Keel Laying of the River Clarence, a cargo steamer, on 19 July 1941. This is followed by a montage of shipbuilding and dockyard work, filmed sometime between 1939 and 1941.
Curator’s notes
The period preceding and during the Second World War was very active for Cockatoo Island dockyard. At that time the Commonwealth was leasing the dockyard to the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co Pty Ltd. There were numerous vessels constructed for the Royal Australian Navy and a range of other shipbuilding and engineering work carried out.
