Fleet Base Wagga Wagga Carrier & Escort Regatta – 2019

15 August 2018 Craig Taylor 0

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When:

8 June 2019 – 9 June 2019 all-day

2019-06-08T00:00:00+10:00

2019-06-10T00:00:00+10:00

Where:

Oasis Swimming Centre
50 Morgan St
Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
Australia

Contact:

Kerry James or Brian McCrowe

FB Wagga Wagga

Task Force 72 added 10 new photos.

4 hours ago

The Balikpapan class was a ship class of eight heavy landing craft (officially Landing Craft, Heavy or LCH) ordered for the Australian Army and operated by the Royal Australian Navy. 🇦🇺️

All eight were originally laid down by Walkers Limited for the Australian Army in the early 1970s however a reorganisation of watercraft responsibilities in the Australian military meant the landing craft were to be operated by the Royal Australian Navy, with seven commissioned directly into RAN service during 1973 and 1974, and lead ship Balikpapan transferred from the army to the navy.

During the leadup to the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975, two of the vessels (Salamaua and Buna) were transferred to the new Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). 🇵🇬️

During their careers, the Australian vessels have operated in support of Operation Navy Help Darwin in 1974–75, Operation Bel Isi from 1997 to 2003, INTERFET (International Force East Timor) operations in 1999 and 2000, and the Regional Assisitance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) operations from 2003.

The six remaining RAN vessels were paid off in the 2010s: Balikpapan, Betano, and Wewak in 2012; Brunei, Labuan, and Tarakan in 2014. They are yet to be replaced in RAN service.

The two PNGDF vessels remain active and in 2014, the former HMAS Labuan was transferred to Papua New Guinea as the training ship Lakekamu. HMA Ships Brunei and Tarakan were refitted and donated to the Philippine Navy in 2015, commissioning as Ivatan and Batak. 🇵🇭️

Three additional units of the class - decommissioned units former HMAS Balikpapan, HMAS Wewak and HMAS Betano - were loaded on a transport ship in March 2016 for transport to the Philippine Navy and are now in service.️

The LCH were never fast vessels but were remarkably versatile, carrying out a vast range of activities in Australian waters and throughout the South Pacific region. A number of these vessels, often jokingly referred to as 'shoeboxes' in the RAN, have been modeled by Task Force 72 members as can be seen here. ...

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Task Force 72 shared Eyes of the Fleet's post.

1 day ago

While we are extremely proud of the 1:72 scale models we build, and that they are all in the same scale, that doesn't mean that we don't appreciate models in other scales.

in fact many of our members build in a range of other scales, notably 1:24 amongst others.

We also appreciate the wonderful work of others, which is why we will occaisionally feature work of other builders in other scales.

This superb builders model is of the Royal Navy's Second World War era King George V-class battleship HMS Howe.

Builders models were usually built by the shipyard joiners or professional model makers that constructed the actual vessel and were either kept by the shipyard as display pieces to document their yard's work or were alternatively obtained by the new ship's owner to display in their office.

These images were first displayed on the facebook page Eyes of the Fleet, a page well worth a look.HMS HOWE Builders model....un known scale but BIG !! ...

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Task Force 72 updated their cover photo.

2 days ago

The container ship Cape York, pictured at a Task Force 72 Annual Regatta in Naracoorte in South Australia ...

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Task Force 72 added 11 new photos.

4 days ago

As mentioned here on the 9th, the members of Task Force 72's Fleet Base Gulf Waters put on a static display for the public in Adelaide, and did they ever come through.

As one member described it... "All up we have 3x Battleships, 1x small Carrier, 2x Nuclear cruisers, 1x Attack sub, 2x DDGs, 2x DDs and a FFG, 1x Russian Corvette, 3x Armidales, 1x LCH, x1 USN Fleet tug, 1x Coastguard cutter, 1x Hospital ship, an Amercian paddle steamer, a Japanese PT boat, a Sunseeker 108 motor yacht, a 1/72 sailing ship and a Circus ship!"

Enjoy some of the models on show. ...

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Task Force 72 added 5 new photos.

6 days ago

On this day (12 October) in 1985, the guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth, (CAPT G. Sloper, RAN), rescued the crew of the Singaporean ship Hoe Lien, in mountainous seas off Newcastle, NSW.

In a feat of daring seamanship Perth took the ship in tow and proceeded towards Sydney.

The tow was passed to the tug Wonga the next morning, however Hoe Lien later sunk 30 miles north of Sydney.

Captain Sloper would go on to become the on-scene senior officer of the RAN Task force committed to the first Gulf War (1990-91) as Captain of HMAS Success, eventually reaching the rank of Commodore. ...

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