Looking up at the refurbished Parramatta I stern are Lord Mayor of Parramatta, CLR Julia Finn, RADM Guy Griffiths (ret’d), LCDR Nick Stoker and Mr Russell Jardine of the Naval Association.

The State Vice President for the Naval Association of Australia and master of ceremonies, Mr Russell Jardine addresses those gathered during the re-opening of the memorial at Queens Wharf Park.

LCDR Nick Stoker addresses those gathered during the re-opening of the memorial. All photos this

page: ABPH Brenton Freind

By Graham Davis

The stern of the first warship built for the fledgling Commonwealth Naval Forces, later the RAN, HMAS Parramatta I is today looking almost as good as new.

The stern stands in Queens Wharf Reserve at Parramatta.

(Her bow is on the northern end of Garden Island/Sydney while her centre section rests on a mudflat in the Hawkesbury River).

Parramatta City Council has just spent $150,000 halting corrosion and upgrading the relic’s appearance.

The council has also added interpretive information regarding her history and the use of the name HMAS Parramatta on this and subsequent RAN ships.

Designs for the improved display were prepared in liaison with the RAN, the Naval Historical Society, the sub branches of local RSLs and then given final approval by the NSW Heritage Office.

With work completed the relic was finally unveiled at a ceremony held on October 12 and attended by more than 80 guests, local residents and the media.

The ceremony was conducted by Parramatta’s Lord Mayor, CLR Julia Finn, accompanied by RADM Guy Griffiths, the commissioning Commanding Officer of HMAS Parramatta III LCDR Nick Stoker, the Executive Officer of Parramatta IV and Mr Russell Jardine, the State Vice President of the Naval Association.

A group of sailors from Parramatta IV accompanied LCDR Stoker.

During his address RADM Griffiths paid tribute to the late Mr Lew Lind of the Naval Historical Society for being the driving force during the 1970s to have the stern and bow removed from the hulk then sitting in the Hawkesbury River, Milson Island, and for the pieces to become memorials to the Parramattas which had served Australia so well.

The stern and bow were recovered in 1973 but it was not until 1981 that the stern was taken from council storage and mounted in Queens Wharf Reserve.

Changes to the 1981 design included new brickwork and the installation of a panel of text and pictures providing an historical context, detailed data about Parramatta I and information on subsequent ships commissioned as HMAS Parramatta.

And another thing

Two hundred metres to the east of the Parramatta I relic is another Parramatta memorial.

A large boulder carrying a bronze plaque remembers the 138 officers and sailors who perished when Parramatta II was torpedoed by a German sub off Libya on November 27, 1941.

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