Victoria Dock is a large excavated harbour basin located off Footscray Road and

Docklands Highway Docklands Highway is an urban highway stretching 12 kilometres from Brooklyn in Melbourne's inner western suburbs to the Docklands precinct, adjacent to the city. This name covers many consecutive streets and is not widely known to most dri ...

, Docklands, in Melbourne. It was constructed between 1887 and 1892, under the supervision of

Melbourne Harbor Trust The Melbourne Harbor Trust was established in 1877 to improve and operate port facilities for the growing city of Melbourne. It was superseded by the Port of Melbourne Authority in 1978 and later by the Port of Melbourne Corporation. Creation ...

engineer Joseph Brady, to modified designs of British engineer

Sir John Coode Sir John Coode (11 November 1816 – 2 March 1892), English civil engineer, known for harbour works. Life He was born at Bodmin on 11 November 1816. He was educated at Bodmin Grammar School and after leaving school entered his father's office ...

It is the oldest and largest surviving single dock in the world. The water basin covers 37.6 hectares (96 acres) and the entrance at the western end is 61 metres wide. It was built to accommodate ships of 9.5m draft, with initially timber wharf sheds and wharfs around the perimeter, supplemented by a piled timber central pier in 1919 extending from the east edge of the dock. At its greatest extent it accommodated 21 berths, although this has been substantially reduced as the land area has been redeveloped for the Docklands commercial and residential towers. The Central Pier, a later addition, retains two sheds but has been reduced to half its size. It was used as a dance venue, events, functions and entertainment until August 2019 when it was declared unsafe. In January 2020 it was shut down indefinitely because it would take "tens of millions of dollars" to rebuild to a safe standard. Portal and semi portal level luffing cranes once served timber and steel framed wharf sheds, all but three of which have been demolished. The oldest, dating from 1913, were along the eastern edge and were purported to have been dismantled for future restoration of the central pier sheds, two of which survive. All the cranes have been removed but crane rails survive on some wharf aprons. In the 1950s the dock handled over two million tons of cargo annually, increasing to 20 million revenue tons annually by the mid 1980s. However, increases in container shipping and the move of the one roll-on roll-off berth led to its abandonment for commercial shipping, and subsequent reuse of the area for development. The dock is included on the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR H1720) and National Trust Register and is considered to be of Local, State, National and International significance.

Coode Canal Coode is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Arthur Coode (1876–1940), cricketer * Ed Coode (born 1975), British rower * Jim Coode (1951–1987), Canadian football player * John Coode (Governor of Maryland) John Coode (c. 16 ...

and Victoria Dock received an Engineering Heritage Marker from

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized or ...

as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.

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