Over the course of the 19th century the Royal Navy developed facilities around Sydney Harbour, most notably at Garden Island.

[1] Thales Australia has successfully operated at the Garden Island dockyards since the early 1980s and in 2014 signed a further five-year contract with the Department of Defence to provide ongoing dock operations and services, as well as ship repair and maintenance services at Garden Island.

[2] During the 2013 federal election campaign, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed that under a Labor government, the Sydney-based facilities of Fleet Base East would be relocated further north, with options of Queensland and the Northern Territory suggested.

[3][4][5][6] However, by 2017 and following the release of the 2016 Defence White Paper, a A$213 million upgrade of the Garden Island dockyards were proposed.

However, the white paper also stated that they are planning to come up with a long-term solution to space constraints at HMAS Kuttabul.