HMAS Cairns to honour service personnel as it reopens to public for first time in a decade

Cairns’ sailors won’t allow the rain to dampen their enthusiasm to honour service families and the community as the base conducts a rare open day to the public on Saturday.

Rain will not stop the public’s first access to HMAS Cairns in more than a decade as personnel conduct an open day to honour the community and service families on Saturday.

HMAS Cairns is granting rare public access from 9am Saturday morning to celebrate 122 years of the Australian navy.

Alfonso Santos Commanding Officer of HMAS Cairns said it was an opportunity for the community to see the best of what the navy has to offer and thank their servicemen and women and their families who sacrifice to serve.
“It’s all about thanking our people, our servicemen and women for their sacrifices and to thank their families and certainly our community,” Commander Santos said.

Alfonso Santos Commanding Officer of HMAS Cairns is excited to welcome members of the public onto the base for Saturday's open day.

He said the day would include studied displays, boat rides and guided tours of patrol boats.

“It's about seeing what we do here on the base but also to see the technologies that we have and to engage with our sailors and officers,” he said.

Commodore Ray Leggert, Deputy Fleet Commander of HMAS Cairns, said the day was an opportunity to “highlight our people”.

“They do an incredible job. The hardware is really cool as well but our people constantly amaze me in terms of the job they do and their families that support them,” Commodore Leggert said.

“We literally couldn’t do our job without them. They do a very hard job, a very diverse group with incredible skills and that’s what I really want to highlight.”

For those interested in pursuing a career in the defence force, Commander Santos said there would be a recruiting station available for people to leave their details.

“We really encourage them to welcome one of the best adventures as far as a career goes,” he said.

The last time the public were given access to the base was during the last open day held in 2013.

“We’ve had the age of Covid which certainly put a stop to things and we’ve had phase three development so it just happens that we have a great opportunity this year to open up the base to the public,” he said.

Up to 1500 tickets have already been registered with the base expecting up to 3000 people to turn up on the day.

To attend the free event, attendees must register online via Eventbrite either before the event or on the day.

“We’ll remind them out the front to quickly register, put your names on there and in you come. We’re certainly not going to turn them away,” Commander Santos said.

Originally published as HMAS Cairns to honour service personnel as it reopens to public for first time in a decade