CHAPTER 35 NAVAL TRAINING IN NEW SOUTH WALES 1855 - 1983 "Many of the Colonial Governments, notably those of the Australian Colonies are now thoroughly aware of the necessity for providing for the protection of their ports against attack, in the event of Great Britain being involved in War". (Sir Cooper Key - First Sea Lord in 1884) Australia was born of Admiralty. She was discovered by seamen, who in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries opened her eastern oceans to the world. Her settlement was made possible by the courage and enterprise of seamen. From the beginning of settlement in Australia in 1788, the Colonists were characteristically aware the sea. The need for the defence of their sea borders was clear to the colonists and the method of defence was equally clear to them. The Royal Navy was the obvious weapon for the job. Cook the Discoverer, Phillip the first Governor and his successors Hunter, King and Bligh - all naval officers, brought their naval training, experience and attitudes to the young colony. The first major war vessel to visit Australia was HMS WARSPITE, a Ship of the Line which visited Sydney in 1826. Sydney saw ships of the Royal Navy East Indies Squadron from time to time after the l82O’s either on detached service or merely on visits. The British Admiralty was well aware of its responsibility for the naval defence of Britain’s Colonies. In all the Colonial States of Australia, little thought had been given to matters of naval defence until the 185O’s when rapid changes to Australia’s population, coupled with dramatic international events brought an awareness of the urgent need for the colonies to possess adequate naval defence forces. Russian warships had been visiting Southern latitudes and the Crimean War, (1853-1856) underlined the danger of Russian incursion. This period also saw in Australia, the building of many forts and coastal battery configurations around the Australian coast, particularly in Victoria. These were invariably erected because of a series of 'Russian scares' - mostly imagined. In 1855 the Colony of New South Wales built and launched the first warship constructed in Australia. This was the SPITFIRE, an armed ketch of 60 tons, which mounted a 32 pounder swivel gun in the forepeak. SPITFIRE was 61 feet long and was produced for local defence of Sydney Harbour. She was launched on 3rd April 1855. As no enemy appeared to challenge this guardian of Port Jackson, she was converted first into a lighthouse tender, later employed on the New South Wales coastal trade and finished her days as a pilot vessel at Bowen in Queensland. 207 Skilled Hands at Sea SPITFIRE may well be said to have formed the nucleus of the seed of naval training in New South Wales. At that time the Colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Queensland were actively forming and developing local maritime defence forces. Victoria’s Colonial Naval Forces grew into a considerably strong force of 16 ships backed up by shore training establishments at Williamstown, Geelong, Port Fairy, Port Melbourne and Portland, a naval dockyard and a large naval militia. Members of the Victorian Naval Forces saw active service in the Maori Wars and in the Boxer uprising in Peking. New South Wales, being favoured with the presence of the Australian Squadron of the Royal Navy based in Sydney did not attempt to establish a seagoing naval force. New South Wales provided land, works and buildings for naval shore activities. In 1862, New South Wales established a Naval Militia under the command of an ex-Royal Navy Master, Captain Francis Hixson - then the Harbour Master in Sydney. The Naval Militia’s activities were severely restricted because it did not possess a sea-going craft. In 1877, Colonel Jervois, appointed by the British Government to advise the Colonies on defence, urged the New South Wales Government to acquire an ironclad warship. Parliamentary approval was obtained for this project but a change of Government and a lack of expert knowledge of such matters caused the plan to lapse. In 1882, the New South Wales Government acquired the retiring Flagship of the Royal Navy - HMS WOLVERENE, a screw corvette. WOLVERENE became the Training Ship of the New South Wales Naval Brigade (forerunner of the Naval Reserve), in 1885, New South Wales also acquired from England the two Torpedo Boats ACHERON and AVERNUS for naval training in New South Wales. In the previous year, because of a new ‘Russian threat’ the Australian Station of the Royal Navy, with Headquarters in Sydney was elevated to the dignity of an Admiral’s command. Rear Admiral Sir George Tryon was the first officer of that rank to hold the position. This officer later died in the collision between HMS CAMPERDOWN and HMS VICTORIA in which over three hundred Royal Navy personnel were lost. Admiral Tryon’s urgings to the British Admiralty and to the Governments of the Australian Colonial States had the major influence on the formation of the Royal Australian Navy. About 1890, the Colony of New South Wales, along with the other Colonies of Australia began, through the effects of an Economic Depression to take lesser interest in affairs of local naval defence and training. The New South Wales Naval Brigade was disbanded and the Government declined to replace WOLVERENE which had been broken up in 1889. However, in 1900, the New South Wales Naval Brigade was reactivated when some 100 members of the Brigade went to China along with the Victorian Naval Contingent to take part in the war against the Boxers who had besieged the International Legation Quarter in the city. The New South Wales Naval Contingent joined the Victorian Naval Contingent to the Boxer Rebellion at Woolloomoolloo and sailed from there in SS SALAMIS. The Imperial Conference of 1902 concerned itself mainly with matters of Colonial defence. Soon after the conference, the Colonial Navies were merged into the Commonwealth Naval Forces and branches of the Royal Naval Reserve were set up in the States, including New South Wales. When the RAN was formed in 1911, the Royal Australian Naval Reserve was formally gazetted. Members of the Sydney Port Division of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve who had trained in Sydney took part in the first Australian action of World War I in the landing at Bita Paka New Britain in September, 1914. The assault landing was carried out by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force whose goal was to attack and capture the German Wireless Station at Bita Paka. That strike was successful. 208 Skilled Hands at Sea The Royal Australian Navy was formed in July 1911 by transferring the former Colonial Naval Forces ships from the Commonwealth Naval Forces to the Royal Australian Navy and by the addition of two Torpedo Boat Destroyers HMAS YARRA and PARRAMATTA which had been acquired from England in 1910. During the next two years, culminating in the arrival in Sydney of the first Australian Fleet, much effort was applied in Australia to the recruitment of young Australians to man Australia’s new Navy - both officers and ratings. The first Australian Fleet arrived in Sydney on 4th October 1913 headed by the Battle Cruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA. Shortly after this a significant amount of naval training commenced in New South Wales. In 1909, Captain F Ticknell, a former Commandant of the Victorian Naval Forces and Acting Director of the Commonwealth Naval Forces in the absence of Captain W R Creswell, drew up a memorandum based on the training of cadet officers at Osborne and Dartmouth Naval Colleges in England. His proposal was for the formation of a Royal Australian Naval College to train native Australians to command Australian ships. Fresh impetus to this proposal was added by the Lord Mayor of Sydney who was Chairman of Trustees of the ‘Dreadnought’ Fund which originally had the intention of providing a capital ships to the Royal Navy. The Dreadnought Fund offered Prime Minister Deakin 40,000 pounds for the establishment of an Australian Naval College with one proviso that the college be situated within the environs of Sydney. The offer was accepted and sites were examined at Middle Head, Bradley’s Head, La Perouse, Pittwater, Rhodes (on the Parramatta River) and at Lugarno. The Federal Government fell shortly afterwards and the naval adviser to the new Government, Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, recommended that the Naval College be established at Jervis Bay in New South Wales but that the site be an enclave of the Federal Capital Territory. On November 16th 1911, after much political debate and infighting, the site of Jervis Bay was decided upon by the Federal Parliament for location of the Royal Australian Naval College. It was apparent that the building and development of the Naval College at Jervis Bay would occupy about three years. The Government acquired a temporary lease of a property Osborne House on Corio Bay Geelong, as the temporary Naval College to be used until the RAN College at Jervis Bay was completed. The first entry of Cadet Midshipmen arrived at the Royal Australian Naval College, Geelong on 13th February 1913. Among that entry were some 13 years old boys who later became famous in Australian Naval history including John Augustine Collins, Harold Bruce Farncomb, Joseph Burnett and Frank Edmund Getting. Two members of the first entry, Cadets Larkins and Cunningham died during the first World War (both were drowned) and Cadet Otto Albert died of meningitis whilst on leave from the College. The Otto Albert prize for Seamanship examinations at the Naval College was endowed by his father in his memory. Cadets Burnett, Getting and Watkins were killed on active service in World War II.