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More aid for E.T.

April 17, 2000

A Sea King prepares to land on the flight deck of HMAS MANOORA. Picture: ABPH Damian Pawlenko.
HMAS MANOORA is on her way to East Timor with vitally needed humanitarian aid.

Transporting two vehicles, tonnes of rice, hospital equipment, medicines, clothing and school books is, however, just one facet of her seven-week northern deployment.

In the seven weeks at sea the ship under the command of CMDR Chris Frost has to:

  • Complete flight trials using a Navy Sea King and an Army Blackhawk helicopter.
  • Begin using two LCM8s and honing the skills of lifting the craft over the side using MANOORA's 70 tonne capacity foredeck crane.
  • Test the catering and accommodation capabilities of the ship by sending 100 troops to sea.
  • Provide seamanship lessons to 55 ADFA students who joined the service just two months ago and who will use the classroom on the ship.
  • Provide training for 35 members of the ship's company of sister ship HMAS KANIMBLA which continues to undergo refurbishment in Newcastle.
  • Provide co-operative training to personnel from the Singapore and Tongan navies who are aboard.
  • Improve and monitor the general skills of the ship's company and machinery.
Just days before the ship left Sydney 20 doctors, nurses and medics from the Balmoral Naval Hospital put the operating theatre and intensive care facilities to the test.

When MANOORA departed she carried around 350 people, up from the usual ship's company of 207.

"It will be the busiest time for us since we commissioned," CMDR Frost said.

"We have to put in 700 flying hours to complete flight trials using Sea King and Blackhawk helicopters," the ship's aviation and public affairs officer, LCDR Derek Frew, continued.

He said 35 aviators, including test pilots and safety experts, had joined the ship.

"It will be purely trials…unless we get an emergency lifesaving call," LCDR Frew explained.

On the way up the East Coast MANOORA called at Townsville to pick up her two LCM8s.

But for days before her Sydney departure the ship was a hive of activity.

Loaded aboard, complete with gold bow and signage, was a station wagon donated by Sydney couple Yvonne and Michael Simmonds.

"It is going to Trisha Johns who has opened an orphanage and needs to move her 30 children and goods about the place," Yvonne explained.

Also loaded aboard was another station wagon donated by a NSW Riverina family and going to Sister Fabiola Gusmao at the Carmelite Convent in Dili.

In addition there were 23 pallets holding rice, medical equipment, (much of it donated by nursing services in Bathurst) books, clothing and household items, lifted aboard.