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PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2023 1:43 am 
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Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:24 am
Posts: 531
City or Town: Schofields
State: NSW
You may want to consider offering these images to the Blacktown Memories site (Blacktown Council Library).

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


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 6:32 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 4:49 pm
Posts: 6
City or Town: Canberra
State: ACT
I haven't sorted out an online photo repository so far but have found another gem. The 24th intake put out a CD with a trove of photos both then and now covering two reunions (2006 and 2008) and a few of back in the day shots of all members of the passing out term.

I can't recall who did all the leg work, Ziggy maybe? but the CD is really a good look / read and well done getting the numbers together. A bit poignant as a number of the attendees are no longer with us.

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Tony Stone, OAM
43620
Cmdr RAN (Rtd)
Jan 68 - Jan 02
24th MOBI Intake Jan 1968
"A Boat person"


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2023 10:43 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 8:09 am
Posts: 4569
City or Town: Lake Munmorah
State: NSW
=; After attending the Biennial End of an Era Commemoration and Rededication Service at Nirimba Education Precinct on Saturday 17th of June (2023) Brian 'Stroppie Chippy' McKenzie and I went
exploring in my car, to see how much my old 'Alma Marta' had changed since the closure back in 1993...

:-k Suffice to say, there is virtually nothing readily recognisable from my days at 'Bonehead College' and although Brian was very useful (and patient,) in pointing out former landmarks, albeit resplendent in
their new livery, I found the whole exercise somewhat disorienting and overwhelming... :omg1:
[-( It would take a full day and copious photos :happy3: to fully review the entire grounds of what's become the Western Sydney University, Nirimba Campus a.k.a. Nirimba Education Precinct, (as impressive
as it is,)
so I decided I'd leave it for another time, and drove out onto the airstrip for a final look back before departing...! :-k

It was there that I was struck by something I COULD relate to, taking me back to many days I spent as a regular M.U.P., stripped to the waist, generously basted in raw cocoanut oil, under a scorching sun, in
what amounted to 'forced child labour' on the construction of the airstrip Parade Ground Grandstand, hewn out of humongous beams stripped from the floor of the main dock at G.I. (or was it Cockatoo..?)

It was in the very early days of its construction, with our job being wielding oxy/ acetylene cutting equipment to burn out the huge rivets (rods, actually,) securing the steel plating covering one complete side
of each of what were probably 12" x 12" x 15' wooden beams, which would ultimately be repurposed to build the solid (and eventually, greatly modified,) grandstand...

Image

The grandstand has long since been demolished, of course, but what little signs remain are the concrete pathways... :down: ...added at some later stage, connecting each bank of the multi-section grandstand...

Image

...but what really tickled me :lol1: was, upon closer inspection of the junction of the concrete paths in the photo above... :up: ...was an actual chunk of the timber used in the construction, which I may actually
have handled sixty years ago...!
:omg1:

Image

The hunk of timber I'm referring to can just be seen directly below the square of raised concrete... :up: ...almost buried into the grass... :yess: Never let it be said I didn't leave my mark at HMAS Nirimba...!

One final observation, here being pointed out by Brian, is the advance of what I believe are ADF service housing on reclaimed, built-up land, just beyond the airstrip, a new suburb called Akuna Vista...

Image

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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


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2023 10:52 pm 
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Posts: 2041
City or Town: Cairns
State: QLD
Thanks Rick, appreciate the photos! :yes:

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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!


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2023 11:58 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:24 am
Posts: 531
City or Town: Schofields
State: NSW
Akuna Vista estate (I think the Defence Housing Authority have a weird sense of humour). The former airfield and the former base are now the new suburb of Nirimba Fields (the Geographical Names Board will not allow names like just "Nirimba" that appear in other states). I think the "Fields" was relating to airfield (well, I would like to think so). The image of me pointing over to the nearest street on the former airfield (taken from standing on the former parade ground in front of the former stands offered) is Bellman Drive. House blocks from 250 sq metres to 325 sq metres, house and land from $990,000 to $1.24 million. You may note that they are higher than the former airfield land. Fill levels have been as much as 10 metres to the wet part of the airfield to around 3 to 4 metres in the image. The predominant population is Indian and Chinese and the local Facebook site for Nirimba Fields is all related to food services, clothing services and any other matter relating to former living conditions some where else (cheapest best mechanic/take my kid to school/cheapest live in nanny working for pocket money, etc)

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


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 12:32 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 8:09 am
Posts: 4569
City or Town: Lake Munmorah
State: NSW
:happy: Akuna Vista Estate... :-k I knew it was something like that, Brian, but they could have named it MOBI Vista Estate out of respect for/ in recognition of our heritage past...! :salute1:

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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


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