A group of Brisbane residents is making an 11th hour attempt to save an historic World War II dry dock from development by one of the state's biggest construction companies.
Architectural historian and owner of historic research service The House Detective Marianne Taylor has submitted a request to Brisbane City Council to add Morningside's Cairncross naval graving dry dock to its heritage register.
Ms Taylor also wants to nominate it to be added to the Queensland Heritage Register.
Lendlease owns the site at 405 Thynne Road, which was built to service and repair navy ships and submarines during WWII.
An application has been lodged with BCC to fill in the site but a Lendlease spokesperson said it would "continue to work with relevant stakeholders on a number of potential options for the site".
Finished in 1942, the 130-metre dry dock was built in 22 months, requiring thousands of workers on the job to carve out the sandstone river bed 24 hours a day, six days a week.
A dry dock is a piece of infrastructure that allows vessels to be floated into a compartment and then can be sealed and water drained from it.
During and immediately after the war, about 100 Australian, US and British vessels were serviced at the facility.
According to the Australian Navy website, Brisbane "proved highly suitable" for the US Navy because of its "well established port facilities and a dry dock capable of handling most US submarines then in service".
It was also out of range of Japanese aircraft based in New Guinea.
'Important example' of engineering work
Ms Taylor said the site was a rare example of "surviving evidence of a WWII engineering project which was specifically and strategically located in Brisbane".
"Its history is strongly connected to other military and naval facilities along this stretch of the Brisbane River, including at Colmslie and Bulimba," she said.
"Cairncross dock is the only surviving dry dock in Brisbane, and possibly Queensland, built specifically for use during the Second World War and constructed using dry dock methods in use at that time.
"Cairncross Dock is an important example of the work of engineer C. M. Calder of the Main Roads Commission and survives as an important and uncommon monument to mid-20th century naval engineering practice."
Brisbane council's City Planning and Suburban Renewal Committee chairman Adam Allan said the council took "the protection of heritage in our city seriously".
"The heritage overlay in our City Plan is regularly updated to add new places if they are of heritage significance," he said.
"Council is currently considering the information provided by members of the public earlier this month as well as other sources.
"This will determine if the Cairncross dry dock is able to be supported as a local heritage place."
A Department of Environment and Science spokesperson said the dock had never been entered in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Places were entered in the register as a result of nominations made by the community, which were then decided by the Queensland Heritage Council.
Dock could be used for education
The situation has caught the attention of Gold Coast-based activist Nikki Archer who is protesting the demolition of the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade at Burleigh Heads.
She said governments had known of the Morningside dock's cultural heritage significance for years but did nothing about it.
"When we've seen firsthand their claims they can't do anything at the last minute, like Cafe D'Bar and Linden House in Toowong, it means we have a department tasked with heritage preservation but seemingly incapable of getting involved either proactively or reactively — a waste of space almost," she said.
"Queensland's heritage doesn't stand a chance with the current attitudes and enthusiasm, or lack thereof, of the department to get involved and do their job."
Friends of the Heritage Movement's Peter Lawler said the Cairncross dry dock was a site no-one ever thought would be developed, so "nobody did anything about it".
"It is the second largest dry dock in Australia and was crucial to the Americans' defence in the Pacific," he said.
"Basically if it hadn't have been there, they would have had to operate out of Sydney which would have added travel time on and could have jeopardised our safety.
"It was integral to the expansion of the Americans' ability to fight in World War II."
Ms Taylor said the concept of filling in the dry dock was "a weird one" and would be "ridiculously expensive".
She said the site should be preserved and fitted with interpretative and informative signage to educate visitors and residents about its significance to Brisbane.
"It's a real tricky one, ideally the government would have stepped in before this," Ms Taylor said.
She said while there had been an attempt recently to apply to add the site to the Queensland Heritage Register, it had been knocked back due to lack of information.
