Features
Eight Bells


Edition 5006, April 19, 2007
 
CHEERS: Ballarat Bertie the mascot of HMAS Ballarat.
He has proved a popular choice with the ship’s company.
 
Ballarat embraces Bertie mascot By Michael Brooke

Since being resurrected from obscurity HMAS Ballarat’s iconic mascot Ballarat Bertie has been hard at work raising $10,000 for the ship’s charity.

Ballarat’s search for a suitable mascot during her deployment on Operation Catalyst in 2006 led to the rediscovery of Ballarat Bertie, the original mascot of the WWII corvette Ballarat I.

Ballarat Bertie is a caricature drawn in 1926 of a cellar man holding aloft a pint of his finest Ballarat Bitter ale, who featured on the famous Ballarat Bitter beer label.

Ballarat’s WEO LCDR Glen Gallagher said that Ballarat Bertie really struck a chord with the ship’s company, who enthusiastically welcomed the return of a long lost shipmate.

“A one-metre tall aluminium cut-out of Bertie now stands proudly atop of the bridge, manning his SSD position to guide the ship to and from harbour,” he said.

In an interesting spin-off, Ballarat Bertie has raised $10,000 for the ship’s charity.

When the Federal Member for Ballarat, MHR Catherine King, visited the ship in the Northern Arabian Gulf as part of the ADF Parliamentary Program last year she learnt all about the forgotten icon.

The Federal MP was so taken with Bertie that she approached Foster’s about doing a limited release of Bertie beer, which was last brewed in the early 1980s.

“The Foster’s Group thought it was a great idea,” she said.

When Ballarat visited Melbourne last year she hosted a cocktail party to celebrate Bertie’s 80th birthday and the launch of the limited release of the beer.

LCDR Gallagher said all 10,000 cartons quickly sold out, which is good news for the ship’s charity, the United Way Community Fund of Ballarat, because Foster’s pledged a donation of $1 for each 24 can carton sold to the fund and recently presented it with a $10,000 cheque.
 
PROUD: Grady Lloyd with his father Rick on HMAS Diamantina 1.
 
Ready to rev up ships’ engines By Graham Davis

Motor mechanic, Grady Lloyd, 22, from Weiba Downs in Queensland may soon brighten the heart of a hard pressed ship’s engineering officer faced with a puzzling mechanical problem.

For the last two years Grady has patrolled the streets and highways of Brisbane going to the aid of motorists whose cars, utilities and trucks have broken down. He has done the work as an emergency patrolman of the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland, an organisation similar to the NRMA.

Now he is in the Navy with his heart set on being a marine technician.

Grady was one of 34 young men and women inducted into the RAN in Brisbane on April 2. Grady’s father Rick and stepmother Marie said they were very proud of Grady. With other family members they waved to him as a coach whisked the recruits off to the airport, HMAS Cerberus and a new career.
 
WELCOME: Ms Lorna Seijo Brew, right, with LCDR Janine Narbutas of Defence Recruiting Brisbane.
 
Crossing the bar to sea By Graham Davis

For six years, Lorna Seijo Brew, 36, stood at the bar of the PNG Supreme Court as a fully qualified litigation solicitor.

On Monday, April 2, Ms Brew was accepted into the RAN as a recruit.

She is now doing her basic training at HMAS Cerberus and on completion seeks to become a writer.

“I needed a change in career ... and chose the Navy,” she told Navy News soon after swearing an oath of allegiance to Australia during a ceremony on the deck of HMAS Diamantina 1, now sitting in the Queensland Maritime Museum’s dry dock in Brisbane.

“I was born in Goroka. My mother is from PNG and my father is Australian,” she said.

“I studied at the University of PNG and became a solicitor. For six years I worked as a litigation solicitor generally in the debt collection field.

“Then I did two years working for AUSAID,” she said. “In 2005 I came to Australia and took Australian citizenship. My grandfather, Mr Ron Brew senior, served in the RAN from 1945 until 1949...He was a stoker.

“He suggested I join the RAN.”

HMAS Wort sponsored by ADCU

 

 

 

 

 

Dikko by Bob Dikkenburg
QUICK QUIZ
1: Which Australian Test Cricketer later became a derelict, sleeping rough on the banks of the Yarra River?
2: Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Mel Gibson all played what famous mutineer?
3: Which First Sea Lord of the RN, who introduced the Dreadnought battleship, resigned in protest against the Dardanelles expedition in 1915?
4: The words “Call me Ishmael” appear in what famous novel of the sea?
5:What Australian Prime Minister said this: “What Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the near north.”?



ANSWERS
1: Chuck Fleetwood- Smith.
2: Fletcher Christian.
3: Baron (Jackie) Fisher.
4: Moby Dick.
5: Sir Robert Menzies.