My interest in the Armidale Class Patrol Boats received a big boost recently. A friend of mine, Don, who is also a former teaching colleague of my wife's, has 2 sons in the Royal Australian Navy, one of whom was a former CO of HMAS Glenelg and HMAS Maryborough, both of which are ACPBs. I recently visited Don and took my model of HMAS Bundaberg along to show him. He told me he would be visiting his son, now based in Darwin, and would tell him of my model. While in Darwin, Don's son introduced him to a former CO of Bundaberg who, when he heard of my model, gave Don a replica of the the ship's crest to give to me, together with a copy of the builder's drawings of the vessel. Needless to say I was absolutely thrilled, especially with the plaque, a photo of which is below. Don knew we were due to visit Cairns where 4 of the Armidales are based, including Bundaberg, so he gave me his son's phone number and told me to ring his son (Nick), who may be able to arrange for us to go on board Bundaberg.
I rang Nick, and was told we couldn't have timed our visit to Cairns better, as it was the base's open day the next day. Bundaberg and several other RAN vessels were open for inspection, so I was able to see first hand how good (or otherwise) a job I made of my model. I took many photos, so now a refit is on the schedule to try to bring my model up to current condition. A few days later we were driving past the base, which is called HMAS Cairns, when we saw another ACPB, HMAS Childers, out of the water on a type of sling, obviously for hull maintenance. That afternoon, HMAS Bundaberg left Cairns for Sydney to take part in the 2013 International Fleet Review.
I said to my wife that we could go home now, as my visit was complete - needless to say that didn't go down too well
. We stayed for 8 days and had a great time in a lovely tropical city, where the weather was extremely kind to us, going out to the Barrier Reef, as well as a trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and back on the Skyway.
Peter.