|
| |
Bashers fly the flag high for Navy in Base to Bathurst event
By John Martin
Volume 50, No. 16, September 06, 2007 |
| |
|
It’s official, the RAN rules the waves with a new class of vessel: a $25,000 half-metre-long remote control speedboat that is now under lock and key at Garden Island in Sydney.
The price tag does sound a tad excessive. But what the heck, it was all the charity.
The Navy fielded two cars in the NSW Variety Base to Bathurst Bash which started on Sunday, August 5, left Fleet Base East and finished at HMAS Bathurst alongside HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin, on Friday, August 17. The route took them through central NSW and Queensland, then west across the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The Bash is not a race or test of speed. It is a high-profile fundraising event. Since its inception, Variety, The Children’s Charity has raised millions of dollars to help sick, disabled, and disadvantaged children throughout Australia.
And this was the fifth year Navy, and team leader LCDR Graeme Wong, had been involved.
This year the participants of about 120 cars in the event raised about $1.7 million.
The Navy raised nearly $70,000 of that – and proceeded to hand it over in a succession of fines and bribes during the 13-day event. Hence, the purchase of the model boat. It was to gain an advantage.
LCDR Wong, from HMAS Kanimbla, can’t remember exactly when the funds were handed over – only that it was at a little homestead with a 20-metre swimming pool deep in the dusty outback.
The rules of the race were simple. Two laps: up and back, up and back.
That’s when it gets hazy. “We were declared the winners, put it that way,” LCDR Wong said with a laugh.
He was also less than forthcoming when asked how much it cost for the Navy personnel to all have stints riding in the helicopter accompanying the Bash. “It wasn’t that much. It was a lot less than it cost other people.”
Not that the Bash helicopter was the only chopper in the vicinity.
One of the Navy cars was an EH Holden with a modified top that looked like a helicopter. The other, a HR Holden, was fashioned on top like a ship.
LCDR Wong owns both of the cars. The Navy provided support to the team for food, accommodation and fuel. The Navy team was supported by a number of defence industry companies who sponsored the team with a donation direct to Variety in support of the Navy Team’s entry in the Bash.
Aside from LCDR Wong, the other Navy bashers were LSNPC Toby Tobias, LSET Janelle Somerville, LSMT Jason Rigby, ABMT Neil Hird, SBLT Samantha Walker, Paula Parker from SAAB Systems and actor Matt Holmes, who plays the part of PO Chris Blake in the Nine Network’s drama Sea Patrol.
When LCDR Wong first became involved in the Bash, it was an all-HMAS Albatross affair, but when he moved to Sydney, it became the Navy Bash team and he’s thrilled about that. “This year we had people from Kuttabul, HMAS Darwin, myself from Kanimbla, a couple of defence contractors, an actor and people from FSU in Sydney. So we had people from all over.”
The CO of HMAS Kuttabul, CMDR Bryan Parker, also came along for the first leg of the Bash, and Joe Viglione, the chief executive of EPTEC, joined the Navy team from Longreach to Darwin.
LCDR Wong was thrilled with the send-off from Garden Island when 2500 people turned out, but CMDR Parker had a less than auspicious start.
He drove one of the cars and managed to stall it coming out of the first water crossing of the Bash. It might not have been so bad had it not been in the range of TV cameras.
CMDR Parker made national TV that night and was awarded the Bash’s Mug of the Day award. For the sake of charity, of course.
In Darwin, Commanding Officer CMDR Stu Wheeler, sailors from HMAS Coonawarra and friends and family were present to greet the Bash 2007 participants as they closed the finishing line.
This followed a street parade down Darwin’s main street which LCDR Wong said was jam-packed with spectators.
A few days later LCDR Wong was back on HMAS Kanimbla headed for Jervis Bay for exercises with the Army, and the cars were on the back of a truck headed back for Sydney, both in need of new differentials and heaps of work to come up to scratch for next year’s bash. |
| |
|
 |
2007 MEMORIES: A tired but happy Navy team after the finish in Darwin. |
| |
 |
2007 MEMORIES: One of the Navy cars makes a creek crossing. |
| |
 |
2007 MEMORIES: Navy Bashers, from left, Matt Holmes, LSMT Jason Rigby and LCDR Graeme Wong with their $25,000 model boat.
|
| |
|
 |
END OF ROAD: The EH Holden crosses the finish line at HMAS Coonawarra.
Photo: LS Helen Frank
|
| |
 |
MONEY MEN: LSNPC Toby Tobias and LCDR Graeme Wong with the Chief Barkers Trophy awarded to the Navy Team for the Highest Team Fundraiser.
|
| |
 |
TYRESOME: Another stop for the Navy Team, this time for a shredded tyre after hitting a large pothole. |
| |
|
