Some things are actually moving ahead for defence/navy. The new steel piles for the major upgrade to the wharves in the Cairns Marine Precinct are now being unloaded near HMAS Cairns. They're up to 50 metres in length, and no I don't think that they're planning for a huge increase in tidal depth, just a lot of mud to drive through until refusal.

The river frontage will soon sport a very long wharf that includes the navy section, with the plan being multi-customer usage. It'll be interesting to see how it all works in real life but I'm sure the navy will develop a whole new department to deal with this concept, and undoubtedly create another 1-star position for supervision.....

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Chris O'Keefe
R43136
Ex WO Chippy
19th MOBI Intake
July 65 to July 85
HMAS Nirimba X 4 -Penguin-Sydney-Queenborough - Creswell - Moreton - Stalwart - Platypus - Coonawarra Reconstruction Team 76 - Platypus - Hobart - Cerberus - FHQ - Coonawarra.

Anyone can be ordinary. Shipwrights choose to be extraordinary!

The latest fortnightly edition of NAVY News is now available below for your reading pleasure...



Click on the image of 'The Steel Cat' above, or the cover of the current edition below, to access...

Items of interest in this edition include:

...................................... • GHOST SHARK: Stealthy undersea robots to patrol and protect – Page 3

...................................... • SUICIDE ENQUIRY: ADF chiefs make commitment to drive change – Page 4

...................................... • LOCKED AND LOADED: Warramunga’s RPD highlights – Pages 8-9

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Rick Pengilly
WEBMASTER
Ex-CPOMTH3
R42630
13th MOBI Intake
July'62 to July'74
HMAS Nirimba - HMAS Melbourne - HMAS Cerberus - HMAS Tarangau - HMAS Lonsdale - HMAS Tarangau - HMAS Nirimba - HMAS Brisbane

Two comments of the current Navy News:
On page 5 there is an image of the Ghost Shark - the front reminds me of the MKI underwater glider that the clearance divers used to endue. A fibreglass and perspex from with 500lbs of glider to go with it.

On page 10: Mention of the award to former CPO Gavin Stevens. I had the opportunity to work with Gavin (on occasion) over the post Nirimba years and this is the first I have heard of this incident. I understand that clearance divers disappeared and reappeared over that period from the teams and always knew their work effort was not necessarily in a safe environment. He was the most technically astute sailor I have ever met and his level of knowledge across equipment and systems was unbelievable (not just diving related).

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Brian Mackenzie
ex-Shipwright Instructor
Oct '88 to Dec '93 (NIRIMBA) before and beyond