Royal Australian Navy electrician LS Shane Bartlett. Photos by WO2 Al Green and Cpl Wade Laube.

Royal Australian Navy electrician LS Shane Bartlett (pictured right) and his team of electronic technicians have overcome "different" technology and made sparks fly.

Soon the people of Newcastle will have the benefit of their ingenuity and work skills.

Shane and his team have restored a World War II searchlight. It took a lot of doing. Some time ago buffs of the Fort Scratchley Historical group bought the 1942 vintage searchlight at auction.

The group wants to display the light in its Nobby's Head fort and museum.

The Federal Government provided $4.6 million to help the museum. The group asked FIMA/Sydney if it would help restore the generator and light.

"The equipment arrived in February. The generator and light didn't work," Shane told Navy News.

"We had the additional problem of the technology.

"The generator works on 'direct current' where we are trained to work on AC (alternating current)," he said.

Never-the-less the FIMA team went to work with the help of former CPO Greg Dunnicliffe and technical whiz Dave Dalli, a man with many contacts in the engineering world.

The team, which included members of the Navy Youth Program, stripped down the diesel engine.

"Parts we needed, Dave seem to get from his contacts," Shane said.

"We re-wound the generator and worked on the light itself.

"Illumination is from carbon arcs. Like welding," he explained.

The team stripped the machinery back to bare metal because the original paint was lead based.

The engine and generator were re-assembled, batteries attached and the engine successfully fired.

There was plenty of work still to be done to counter further corrosion and apply kharki paint.

Last week the two devices were loaded on to trucks and taken to Newcastle.

In Newcastle the historical group is working to restore a WW II vintage Studebaker truck.

"The light will be mounted on the truck and the trailer towed behind it," Shane said.

"The vehicle and light will become an important exhibit," he added.

By Graham Davis