First used as a venue in 2008, Cockatoo Island returned as a hugely successful venue in 2010. Attracting more than 157,000 visits, Cockatoo Island eclipsed its 2008 inaugural attendance by 82 per cent. Fifty-six Biennale artists took over the unique urban park, with 120 artworks presented throughout the island's remarkable buildings, industrial spaces and historic houses.

Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour. Located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857. The island's maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992.

Cockatoo Island's prison buildings were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list along with ten other Australian convict sites in July 2010. Large workshops, slipways, wharves and residences retain the texture of the island's industrial past.