HMAS Townsville makes final journey up Ross River Creek
HMAS Townsville will make her final journey this morning up Ross River Creek as a lasting legacy to the city but the ship will also have a lasting legacy for former crewmates.
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HMAS Townsville will make her final journey this morning up Ross River Creek as a lasting legacy to the city but the ship will also have a lasting legacy for former crewmates.
The ship’s motto was ‘Bold and Ready’ and as she makes her way up Ross Creek one more time she will once more be adorned with her signal flags displaying the vessel’s motto and call sign Victor, Lima Romeo and Delta (VLRD).
The ship, one of 15 Fremantle Class patrol boats built for the Australian navy, is being moved today ahead of an official ceremony at the Maritime Museum of Townsville on Thursday morning.
HMAS Townsville was decommissioned and gifted to the MMT in 2007.
For former crewmen Charlie Barmettler, service on HMAS Townsville was about working hard, camaraderie and establishing lifelong friendships. He even had his daughter christened on the ship.
He spent 23 years in the navy on small ships including 5 on HMAS Townsville from the end of 1998 to 2004 and now is in the navy reserve working on a navy tug for Serco Defence in Cairns.
The veteran said it was a good life but it was hard work on board, on patrol.
“There was no thrills it was very simplistic,” he said.
“But the lifestyle was great - you work hard, party hard, sort of mentality. You’re always exploring places around Australia or top end that no one would ever get to see or do unless they paid an absolute fortune on luxury cruises or private yachts.”
The former crewmen said the highlight was when his daughter Antonia was christened on board in 2002 with her name later engraved on the ship’s bell.
“I wanted, I guess, something of my name to live on that boat, if that makes sense. So it’s on the ship’s bell, which I believe is in the Naval Historical Collection on Spectacle Island in Sydney Harbour.”
He is happy HMAS Townsville will soon be on public display.
“I’m really glad that they did save (HMAS Townsville) so my other previous patrol boat HMAS Gladstone which is Gladstone. and I’m proud they kept HMAS Townsville in one piece, and they’re putting it up on the sand, where it’s going to be preserved a lot better than being in the water,” he said.
But it is the enduring friendships from life on board that will always bring back memories of his time on HMAS Townsville.
“She was a definitely fun boat. The main crew stayed on that boat for about five years together, which is very unusual. Usually you get posted off every two to three years, but we all stuck together for many, many years and that job was hard but it was just a lifestyle that we liked. I’ve got lifelong friends.”
MMT volunteer Jon Davidson was in the navy for 41 years rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander but his happiest days in service was on the deck of a patrol ship – either an Attack class or Fremantle class vessel.
“The best time I had was on patrol boats. By far the best, you know, the camaraderie we had, the things we did. We worked hard,” he said.
“I don’t know why they gave us a bunk, because we were never in it, and we got our sea legs pretty quick, especially in Bass Strait, especially on the old Attack class boats, and they used to roll on with grass.”
He also has lifelong friends from his days on a patrol boat.
“It’s a different sort of just friendship. It’s a camaraderie. We all live together in a small combined space, especially on patrol boats. We work together. We were seasick together, it’s just that special bond we’ve got. And there’s a whole pile of us. We’re all around Australia now, but we all keep in contact regularly.”
The veteran is over the moon that HMAS Townsville will be on permanent display.
“I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Especially this being a garrison city, there’s big army presence and air force presence, but no navy presence. But it’s about time we had something here with the navy.”
“It’s just good that it’s the vessel named after this city. Is going to be here hopefully forever and a day,” he said.
MMT managing curator Dr Robert De Jong said the ceremony on Thursday for HMAS Townsville would be the start of a new chapter for the museum.
“It was gifted to the museum in 2007 and it has been a long way in getting to the stage where she will now finally be out of the water, on in a proper position and accessible, available to visitors,” he said.
HMAS Townsville will be on the former Curtain Brothers slipway near the museum.
“The slipway is Townsville’s oldest founded in the early 1880s so it’s got a history for stretching more than 100 years. It’s very fitting that a patrol boat is sitting on Townsville’s oldest slipway which also functioned during World War Two, to serve as and to repair navy ships.”
Originally published as HMAS Townsville makes final journey up Ross River Creek
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