Issue - November 27th Access to the Members Area From the Desk of the GM James Craig shorter Day Sail - starting December 20th Kiama Picnic Train Sunday 6th December - winners Final Thursday BBQ for 2015 - Thursday 3rd of December Five Ship Spectacular on Sydney Harbour State of Volunteering survey Emergency Services at Rozelle Fleet Christmas Party - Call for action! This Week's Photos Contribute to your Fleet Forum From the Desk of the GM The concept of a Maritime Heritage Precinct in Darling Harbour is gaining traction with a formal submission to the NSW Government to be prepared. The Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) has developed a proposal for a Maritime Heritage Precinct in Darling Harbour with two new wharves angled off Wharf 7. The NSW State Government has seen an outline of this proposal and called for a formal submission. The new wharves would provide for the operation of our historic vessels and the Fleet’s presence in the precinct is seen as a key feature. Discussions are underway with the ANMM to bring about a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Sydney Heritage Fleet and ANMM to ensure that we speak with one voice and are seen by Government as equals in this proposal. There is no intention of giving up our Bank Street plans until Government has approved this Darling Harbour concept. Given its central position in the Barangaroo / Darling Harbour area, this precinct could well prove to be a strong tourist drawcard and this of course would augur well for Sydney Heritage Fleet. Exciting times! There is an amazing range of knowledge, experience and talent within the Fleet and this has been exemplified recently through some great innovative thinking by Michel Hedley and Matthew Wright regarding Sydney Heritage Fleet as an organisation – a ‘structure’. I believe Michel has spoken with many Rozelle and James Craig volunteers regarding the idea of recognising ‘Activity Hubs’ for the numerous but uniquely different areas of work undertaken within the Fleet. More on this concept as it is developed. We are a community of peers. Happy sailing Ross Back to Top James Craig shorter Day Sail - starting December 20th Just a reminder that we are trialling a 4-Hour Day Sail. Come join us and you'll capture heart-pounding memories lasting a lifetime! Breathtaking views and an experience you won't forget. A magnificent, fully restored, 3-masted, 19th Century barque, she is a living reminder to all Australians of those voyages that helped shape our heritage. Full details & booking available on our website. Sail Tall Ship James Craig 4-Hour; Dates: 20 Dec 2015 24 Jan 2016 21 Jan 2016 28 Feb 2016 20 Mar 2016 Please note that our 6-Hour Day Sail are still available, follow the following link to book & read more; Sail Tall Ship James Craig 6-Hour; Dates: 21 Nov 2015 05 Dec 2015 09 Jan 2016 06 Feb 2016 05 Mar 2016 Back to Top Kiama Picnic Train Sunday 6th December - winners Lucky group of 32 plus one guest have been chosen by random selection to secure a place on the Kiama Picnic Train. My apologies for the mix up with email but Excel did not behave as I expected it to. The list of the lucky 32 people is here. If you cannot take advantage of the ticket, please email me at [email protected] as soon as possible and we can pass the tickets onto the next random winners. Car 5 which is the rear carriage of the train between Sydney and Kiama is the car allocated to our group. The stops SHF members can get on at are Sydney, Hurstville, Sutherland, Thirroul and Wollongong. The time table is presented here again for your convenience. Check at Central and your station which platform to use. Sunday 6th December Departure 8.40am Sydney Terminal 9.15am Hurstville 9.35am Sutherland 11.05am Thirroul 11.25am Wollongong 12.25pm Kiama Return 4.20pm Kiama 5.20pm Wollongong 5.35pm Thirroul 7.10pm Sutherland 7.25pm Hurstville 7.55pm Sydney Terminal Joan Carter Back to Top Final Thursday BBQ for 2015 - Thursday 3rd of December The next Thursday BBQ will be the last for this year and will be held on Thursday 3rd at the later time of 2.00pm. Peter Rogers will be around in the morning as usual to collect your $3.00. Because of the later time, liquid refreshments will be available on board James Craig. Hope to see you all there and thank you, Peter and helpers for providing this opportunity for us to have lunch and a chat on the Wharf. Back to Top Five Ship Spectacular on Sydney Harbour Top morning and evening crew! A fabulous day and night on Sydney Harbour on board Waratah. Here are some coverage from the medias: Daily Telegraph - See Waratah photobombing some of the pictures! The Herald - Spectacular night shot during the fireworks. Business Insider - Beautiful aerial footage of the ships arriving in Sydney Harbour. and below are the pictures from our members and volunteers, Heather Kirk OneDrive Album and Wes Eggins Flickr Album Top left: P&O fans waving/cheering at the P&O cruise ship. Picture: Heather Kirk. Top right: P&O liner "Pacific Eden" as seen from the bridge deck of Waratah. Picture: Wes Eggins. Left: Early morning start for our steam tug Waratah. Picture: Tim Drinkwater Bottom left: Waratah photobombing the 5 P&O cruise liners. Picture: Dennis O'Brien, taken from my boat, former Stannard Bros. line boat "Cobar". Bottom right: P&O Eden at dusk. Picture: Grant Platt on board Waratah. Back to Top State of Volunteering survey Our colleagues at Museums & Galleries of NSW forwarded us this State of Volunteering survey. Volunteering Australia with the assistance of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are currently developing the 2015/16 State of Volunteering in Australia report, which comprehensively details the trends, demographics, challenges and successes in the volunteering sector in Australia. As such, we would appreciate your input by completing this survey. Any information you are able to share will assist in providing insights into the activities occurring within the volunteering sector. This survey will take 15 minutes. The survey has been extended and will close on 4th December 2015 at 5pm. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the survey, please contact Rikki from Volunteering Australia on (02) 6251 4060. It is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the development of new volunteering policies in NSW and we think it’s important that you have your say. Use the following buttons to access the survey: Individual Volunteer By the way, here is also Museums & Galleries of NSW's latest newsletter. It's sad to read that Sydney Tramway Museum lost significant stock in a fire late in October. You can read more on this here. Back to Top Emergency Services at Rozelle When someone reports a fire at Rozelle, at 6am, it's good to know the emergency services are on the job promptly! Firefighters came by road and water (right picture). The police arrived making enquiries. Operations manager, Tim Drinkwater, being "questioned" by police officer (left picture). The "fire" of course was in Waratah's furnace as she raised steam for an early morning cruise to see the five P&O ships. Pictures from Wes Eggins. Back to Top Fleet Christmas Party - Call for action! It's not too late to organise our Fleet Christmas Party. Should you or a group of volunteer wish to put your hands up, please try to mark Thursday 17th of December as the tentative date! Email invitation, flyers and posters can be organised, as well as picking the venue and organising some fare and obviously Santa's visit. Of course, we have some templates and previous years' record are accessible. We hope we can see some expression of interest (EOI), please email ([email protected]) or call the office (02 9298 3888). Back to Top This Week's Photos Graham Renton enjoys his first sail on James Craig on Saturday A tour of James Craig was part of the last Fleet Discovery November 21st. Graham has completed 100-hour maintenance Day of the year. work on James Craig, all done at dock. Picture: Heather Kirk Picture: Doug Barrow. James Craig moored at the Point Piper buoy during the 1998 Martyn Low and Tom Haywood craning coal into Waratah's Australia Day celebrations. bunker last Tuesday 17 December. Picture: Tim Swales, on board Lady Hopetoun. Picture: Lindsay Brice. Back to Top Would You Like to Contribute to Fleet Forum? Fleet Forum provides an opportunity for members to highlight events and to express their views on a range of topics. The views and comments are therefore those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sydney Heritage Fleet's Board or Management. If you would like to contribute to this weekly Fleet Forum message, or send out a message to a particular group, please send your email to [email protected]. Photographs: When submitting photo(s), please note: Attach the photo file (using the ‘paper clip’ icon) to the email. Do not Insert into the body of the email. Large photo files (‘high resolution’) are preferred. If re-sizing a photo, it is preferred to be at least 1920 x 1200 pixels. Include details of the activity, event, location, people and vessel (as applicable) Include the name of the photographer, and the date taken. Contributions for Fleet Forum received by 1630 each Wednesday will be considered for the next issue, others may be held over to the following week.