HMAS MILDURA - NAVAL TRAINING SHIP 1954 - 1965

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• When Do We Go To Sea?
• The MILDURA's Last Cruise
• Brisbane River Days

"In the early 1950's the Reserve Training Establishment was located at HMAS MORETON (now demolished) in Alice Street adjacent to the Brisbane Domain. This had been the site where naval activities had been conducted since WW1, continuing through WW2 and was comprised of the standard large Naval Drill Hall, galley, sick bay, boat sheds with ramps and a small jetty etc.""In approximately 1952 it was proposed that the RAAF take over this location and naval activities were relocated to the two large double story buildings under the cliffs on the south bank of the river at Kangaroo Point. These buildings were originally constructed in the latter half of the 1800's as the Headquarters of the Queensland Colonial Navy."

"The perceived need for the post WW2 Reservists was to acquire a vessel to enable practical shipboard experience and training for the Reserves. To this end, ongoing representations were made by C.O. Reserves and NOIC Queensland to the Navy Office via the Director of Naval Reserves, culminating in a decision which saved HMAS MILDURA from the "knackers yard" for over ten years after she was decommissioned. Thus instead of being paid off into Ships In Reserve awaiting eventual sale and disposal, she was offered to the Reserve Port Division in Brisbane as a floating static (repeat static) vessel for training Reserves and Naval Cadets."

"In a discussion recently with the C. O. Reserves at that time, he recalled that he, with a small caretaker crew, traveled to Melbourne to man the ship during her delivery voyage to Brisbane. Good use was made by the enterprising Reservists of the few days in Port Melbourne before departure date, who made the most of "rabbiting" expeditions to other vessels awaiting disposal. It is rumoured that MILDURA eventually left Port Phillip lying considerably lower in the water due to the weight of "rabbits" (on board spares) sufficient to last for many years. But leave she did in the tow of the tug HMAS SPRIGHTLY on approximately December 8, 1954."

"Upon arrival in Brisbane MILDURA was berthed bow upstream at the Reserve Training Depot at Kangaroo Point, thus providing an authentic and realistic environment for introducing Reserves of all categories to a shipboard, if not a seagoing life.""However many Reservists in that early post war era had spent considerable time at sea during WW2 and the idea of having such a well preserved and equipped vessel designated for static training only, was to prove too much of a temptation for them."

"Hull and equipment wise, she was in quite reasonable condition, as were the triple expansion "up and down" steam engines. The unknown quantity was the condition of the boilers and the tubes. So to provide training and to set an achievable goal for the stokers in the the hope that the ship might become steamable instead of static, mighty effort was expended on tube cleaning and restoring the boilers to an operating condition for a boiler test. Thence a hopeful request to the Fleet Commander for permission to operate a mobile, as opposed to a static vessel."

"Came the fateful day. Flash up. Steam up - then Murphy struck. Somehow a fire occurred in the boiler room bilges creating a lot of smoke down below as well as what normal stuff was coming out of the funnel. This detracted considerably from the boiler room sailor's sterling efforts to raise steam and necessitated the precautionary attendance of the Fire Brigade. Needless to say, the Fleet Commander and other powers that be put paid to any future attempts to again steam MILDURA."

"Little things come to mind but on the whole most of the on board experiences seemed to revolve around chipping and painting and the fun times ashore where girls still at that time liked "men" in uniform. But two things still stick very clearly in my mind; one still affects me even now."

"When we had training weekends on board, most of us turned up on Friday afternoon after work. Since the Catholics had to have fish on Friday and the rest of us didn't care, Frank, our cook, always prepared boiled smoked cod. The smell always managed to remain for the whole month until our next training weekend. It was there when we went to Tuesday night training for the three weeks after and probably somewhere in Moreton Bay the smell remains. I would never be surprised to find a pack of razor blades that smelt of smoked cod. Even today I can't face smoked fish."

"The other thing that I remember very clearly was my first weekend on board. I had just joined the Reserve and was at Tuesday night training. At muster the OIC called for volunteers for the following weekend aboard the training ship HMAS MILDURA. Well, this was just what I had joined for. A life on the ocean waves. So guess whose hand was up first."

"So Friday night rolls around and I'm off to a life of adventure. Of course, if we are going to sea, we are sure to be calling in somewhere, so naturally I take all my gear to step ashore in some exotic port where, again, naturally, the girls will be waiting "for us men in uniform."

"An obviously we won't be cruising all the time, we'll be dropping anchor from time to time, probably near some island, so we'll have time for some fishing and perhaps even some spear fishing. So here's me arriving on board fully equipped with rod, reel, creel, spear gun, goggles, snorkel and flippers. "BE PREPARED."

"Halfway down the wharf I can smell smoked fish cooking; great, I enjoy a nice piece of smoked cod in white sauce. On board are around forty men. Nothing happening, just sitting around talking or rigging hammocks. Very quiet, only the noise of the air blowers. I can't hear the main engines, but "they" know what they're doing, so all's OK."

"Not on watch, whatever that means, so a few of us go off to town. Saturday morning we wake up to the noise of more men arriving. At last things are starting to happen. Surely not smoked fish for breakfast, that's all I can smell. Front up to the galley and there's bacon, eggs, and stewed tomatoes (which I learn is called Train smash). Terrific, but why does it smell like smoked fish?"

"After breakfast out on deck where I'm introduced to a chipping hammer and a wire brush. Still no noise from the engine room, but "they" know what they are doing and the ship must be prepared and made ready for sailing, which is my job. Lunch time and a lot of rust has been cleared and paint applied, can't be long now. I think the engines should be warming up. But "they" know what they are doing."

"After lunch, into some splicing and clearing up below decks. Still no sound from the engine room and soon it's Dinner time, roast lamb and baked vegetables that taste delicious, but smell like smoked fish. Then off on leave, but told to be back to get some sleep before I have to stand watch at 0400."

"Standing at the Quarter Master's desk, ever alert against invaders trying to board. Nothing lives or moves except some rats on the river bank. Try to think of relevant things to write in the log - "0530 all quiet." Throw some rust at the rats. Check the springs and the hawsers."

"Sunday AM we put a couple of whalers into the water and I'm taught how sailors row. Not real impressed, but never mind, just let's get back on board and out to sea."

"After lunch, (something that smelled like smoked fish), I'm starting to worry. Perhaps I heard wrong. Perhaps this is a week's training cruise. Surely even if we leave right now we couldn't get out of the river and back, let alone out to sea. Hell, the boss is expecting me in the office in the morning. Well, I bet my serving our country gets priority, so surely my job is safe, but I'd be happier if I had told him."

"Sunday 1600 everyone packing up. What's going on? Shut up, Warren, just follow as if you know the ropes. Off home. As we climb the stairs up the cliff I ask a few questions about the engine capacity. How fast can the ship go? What? The engines don't work? The ship doesn't move?"

"Next month I'm an expert."

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TWO POLICEMEN CHASE, "ROPE" CORVETTE

Brisbane, Sunday, May 2, 1965

"Two water policemen today chased and captured a runaway navy Corvette. Their quick thinking prevented the 815-ton vessel ramming a British freighter. The unmanned Corvette HMAS MILDURA spent 90 minutes at large in the Brisbane River.  Police and naval authorities believe youths slipped its moorings and set it adrift. A strong tide carried the Corvette downstream. During its quarter mile voyage, the Corvette stuck once on a mud bank but broke free just as its pursuers arrived. The alarm was first given at 1:15pm. By 1:30 the Corvette was on the mud bank, apparently stuck fast at. Water police advised naval authorities, who organized a tug."

" Water police Sergeant A.A.Edmunds and Constable Robert Fuller were investigating when they noticed that the MILDURA had started to move again. They sprinted 500 yards down the riverbank and climbed through a hole in a wire gate to the Wharf. As the Corvette swept past, they jumped several feet to the deck, grabbed wire hawsers and threw them around bollards on the wharf. The Corvette came to a halt 100 yards from the freighter, Port St Lawrence. The tug arrived five minutes later. A Navy spokesman said that the 186-foot Corvette launched in 1941, had been for some years a training ship in Brisbane. It was normally moored at the New Farm naval depot at but last week was moved to make way for an American Navy submarine. There was no damage to the ship or other property."

From the Brisbane Courier-Mail, 1965

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BRISBANE RIVER DAYS
Recollections of Harry Heath, Lt/Cdr. RANR

Naval Reserves and Cadets

"The MILDURA provided excellent value as an outboard training unit for Naval Reserves and Cadets. A former CO Reserves of that time recalls that after one school holiday Cadet training period, all scuttles and openings were rendered somewhat less than watertight as all the brass dogs had been souvenired with a view towards a profitable visit to the scrap metal merchants. Discovered and recovered, in time to prevent a deal being successfully concluded, watertightness was restored with some slight damage to the pride of the Cadet Unit."

"Still as yet unresolved to this day was the disappearance of the engineroom lathe, not an inconsiderable item both in bulk and weight, and many hundredweights of lead ballast from the bilges, obviously carried out by some very strong, mature professionals."

"In 1960 it was proposed that the scattered Naval operations in several localities in Brisbane would be grouped in one central location, namely the former RN Pacific Fleet Stores and Supply building and wharf in the suburb of New Farm. As HMAS MORETON it remained there until the end of March, 1994. In the spring of 1960, MILDURA was towed from Kangaroo Point and installed alongside HMAS MORETON wharf at New Farm. Here she continued in her role as a static training vessel for several more years."

THE LAST CRUISE

"During this time she created a minor stir by going for a solo voyage, completely unattached and completely unmanned, down the Brisbane River. The Naval Ops officer of that time told me recently that he was alerted early one morning by astonished riverside residents in Bulimba Reach of the river that MILDURA was proceeding sedately downstream without any visible means of propulsion. An urgent telephone call to the duty Naval Dockyard policeman at MORETON did in fact establish that she was not (a) secured to the wharf and (b) was nowhere in sight."

"Like disappearing lathes and ballast, the real story may never be known. Albeit, someone - vandals maybe - had cast off the many very secure mooring lines and away the old girl went, drifting downstream about two and half miles to the mouth of Breakfast Creek on the very last of an ebb tide."

"Downstream from Breakfast Creek lie Cameron Rocks where the river turns hard right into Hamilton Reach. Lucky MILDURA! Halfway around the bend and just before colliding with the Rocks, the tide turned, so upstream she came now in the full view of a rescue team fro MORETON following her progress from ashore by motor vehicle."

"Meantime tugs had been summoned, but before they arrived, the tide had drifted the ship conveniently in to a wharf for an almost perfect unmanned come alongside, enabling ship jumpers from the shore rescue party to secure her temporarily until tugs returned her to her place of duty alongside HMAS MORETON."

"After that episode anything else would be an anti climax and with three hours of unfettered freedom as her last show of defiance MILDURA resumed her training role until she was finally sold in September to Brisbane Non Ferrous Metals Pty.Ltd. The new owners beached her on a sandbank under the southern approaches of the Story Bridge where she was stripped and systematically cut up (or is it down?) by oxy torch for scrap metal."

© HMAS MILDURA ASSOCIATION Victoria Australia May 6, 2004

Training Ship 1 Western Australia

Please e-mail me with any stories, pictures, or anecdotes from this period in the ship's history. If you would like to be contacted when this page is updated, please send an e-mail to hmasmildura@hotmail.com