A few pics from the Naval Review at Sydney's Garden Island
Hi all,
I took the family along to Garden Island yesterday to have a squiz at some of the Australian and foreign naval ships. We arrived for our booked 9am session start - and the crowds were huge, even at this time of the morning.
The Australian ships routinely had the longest ques. Not surprising really. But some of the foreign ships were also just visually stunning. The Indian, Japanese and Singapore ships in particular stood out for me from these.
I'd have to say that the happiest ship had to be the Nigerian. Its crew all had ready, happy smiles, so helpful, and not shy, . On one occasion I called out to my son who was wondering off, and the crew all started to call out his name!
I've attached some of the pics I took yesterday. Hungry and tired kids stopped me taking more, so if there are other pics that you might like to share if you visited Garden Island too, please feel welcome to add them to this thread.
Fancy waiting in a queue to go on one of those ships. I spent 27 years on and off the ships of our fleet and never went on one unless I got paid! and even then I would have been in control of places that would be off limits to visitors.
Here is one ship that could not wait for this event:
The 133 metre Perth class Guided Missile Destroyer HMAS Brisbane now resting off Mooloolaba
I used to work as a DiveCon and took dive groups down to see her:
She rests with her bow facing East in 27 metres of water, I have a DVD of her last voyage taken with cameras mounted on deck as she slipped under the waves.
First pic I was lying on the bottom looking up, second pic I was strolling alongside her .....
I remember my first visit to HMAS Brisbane a couple of days after it first arrived from the USA. I started a fire on it.
It was moored in Athol Bay because there was no berth at GID. I went there to set up a 1kw HF transmitter in the emergency wireless office. There were some problems with the automatic aerial tuner ( a long story and many later investigations and reports). I was merrily putting the set through its paces and there was a fire alarm piped. I shut the transmitter down and then followed the fire drill.
Up on deck I saw the problem. The aerial tuner was on fire!
The fire was quickly put out without too much damage other than a partly melted plastic insulator.
Barry
PS I have many stories of unreported minor mishaps on our ships.
Thanks for that Alex , good to see 2 of the ANZAC frigates , 'Te Mana' and 'Stewart' in the shots , I worked for Tenix Shipbuilding thru that 12 yea project , run the piping crew.
Do you realise that there is 10000 intervidual pipe spools on each frigate? , that's a los of systems .
Here are some shots of the 'Lake Class' 55 meter long 350 ton inshore patrol craft we built for the NZ navy after the ANZAC frigate project , we built 4 of these and a great company to work for was Tenix , ( sadly now BAE systems ) .
Another great Aussie sold overseas .
Sea trials were so much fun in these little beauties , good for 32 knots.
Brian.
If i'd known that, we could have put some traps in for you,
( or in your case, extra fire fighting gear )
Andrew
( who helped build big chunks of Melbourne, Newcastle and the Anzac's )
Where abouts. Willdock? I seldom went south of the border and then only on hefty expense accounts like the pollies are having trouble with. I preferred Scotland and Queensland. I did have two twelve week courses at Cerberus and much later a three week course at Simpson. In theory I wasn't allowed to touch the crypto gear without having done the appropriate courses. Rules is rules!
Started in Adelaide, then relocated to Willi, with trips to Newcastle, Whangerei and Hamburg as reqd along the way.
Quite fun playing with big bits of Lego
Great pictures Alex.
I went in on Saturday morning hoping to miss the crowds to take a few shots. Only stayed for an hour as the Quays were "jammers" with people. I ended up being singled out from the crowd and interviewed by Channel 9 news about the event for some reason.
. On one occasion I called out to my son who was wondering off, and the crew all started to call out his name! 
and even then I would have been in control of places that would be off limits to visitors.
