|
| |
Return to Platypus 40 years on
By CAPT Chris Skinner, RAN (retired)
Volume 50, No. 16, September 06, 2007 |
| |
|
 |
|
| HISTORIC SUBMARINE SITE: VADM Ian MacDougall, AC AFSM RAN (retired), formerly Chief of Naval Staff, delivers the inaugural Platypus Address. |
|
Saturday August 18 dawned fine and bright for the 40th anniversary of the commissioning of the second HMAS Platypus as the new base submarines of the Australian Submarine Squadron.
The event, organised by the Submarines Association Australia, was held at the former Platypus site at Neutral Bay in Sydney.
The inaugural Platypus address was made by former submarine commander and Chief of Naval Staff, VADM Ian MacDougall AC AFSM RAN (retired).
Among the guests were representatives of federal, state and local government and the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, which has responsibility for the site.
The site had been conceived as a more permanent base than that used by the Fourth Submarine Squadron of the Royal Navy that had been based at HMAS Penguin since soon after World War II.
During that period submarines of SM4 had sometimes used the Neutral Bay berth of the RAN Torpedo Maintenance Establishment that had been there since the dark days of 1942 when Australia had begin manufacturing torpedoes for Australian and allied forces
When the decision was made to build HMAS Platypus a number of facilities were needed, notably the new administration building and the modern submarine wharf modelled on the new wharf at the Royal Navy base in Faslane, Scotland.
August 18, 1967 also marked the arrival of HMAS Oxley, the first of six Oberon class submarines built expressly for the RAN.
Coincidentally, VADM MacDougall was the Executive Officer of Oxley on that day.
The ceremony was attended by some eighty members of SAA and supported by Naval Cadets of Training Ships Sydney and Condamine.
ABOUT THE SITE: The site for HMAS Platypus was first used from 1876 by the North Shore Gas Works to provide own gas to the north shore of Sydney Harbour for the first time. Gas was used for lighting of streets and homes in the years before electricity became more widely available.
Gas production ceased in 1933 but over the period had unfortunately produced some nasty contamination tarry liquids that were contained in pits at the north end of the site.
They were all safely sealed in concrete for the period of naval use but that is not good enough as a perpetual solution to what will become public-access park areas. The contaminants will therefore need to be remediated involving some removal of material, and that is turn will require some demolition of buildings, including the squadron administration building.
ABOUT THE SHIP: This was the second use of the name Platypus; the first Platypus was a sea-going depot ship acquired in World War I to support the first submarines of the RAN — AE1, lost without trace in the first RAN operation of World War I to take the German territory in Rabaul, and AE2, the first allied ship to penetrate the Dardenelles and engage the Turkish Navy in the Sea of Marmara, before being fatally hit and scuttled. HMAS Platypus continued in various other supporting roles in both the RAN and the RN until paid off in 1946.
ABOUT THE PEOPLE: The first Commanding Officer of HMAS Platypus base was CAPT Bill Owen RAN (retired) and he was in the audience for the anniversary. Also at the commissioning was VADM Sir Ian McGeoch, Flag Officer Submarines in the Royal Navy, who presented the bronze sculpture of the platypus that has stood proudly in front of the submarine squadron or group to this day.
ABOUT THE OPERATION OF THE BASE: Platypus was an extraordinary base in that it provided in the one place for all aspects of personnel and materiel support, the operational direction of the submarines and (from 1981) the shore training of submariners as well.
ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE SITE: The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust has responsibility for eight sites around Sydney, all of them formerly Department of Defence. The Trust is required to plan for the opening up of the sites for public access while at the same time ensuring that heritage aspects are conserved in the most effective manner. For the Platypus site this means ensuring that the three periods of its use — gasworks, torpedo factory and submarine squadron — are all covered in conservation planning. |
| |
|
