HMAS Kuttabul (naval base)

Last updated

HMAS Kuttabul
Part of Fleet Base East
Potts Point, Sydney, New South Wales in Australia
Garden Island, New South Wales.jpg
Fleet Base East
HMAS Kuttabul.png
Crest of HMAS Kuttabul
Location map Australia Sydney.png
Red pog.svg
HMAS Kuttabul
Location in Greater Sydney
Coordinates 33°51′45″S151°13′36″E / 33.86250°S 151.22667°E / -33.86250; 151.22667 Coordinates: 33°51′45″S151°13′36″E / 33.86250°S 151.22667°E / -33.86250; 151.22667
Type Naval base
Site information
Owner Department of Defence
OperatorNaval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg  Royal Navy (1856–1911);
Naval Ensign of Australia.svg  Royal Australian Navy (1911–1967);
Naval Ensign of Australia.svg  Royal Australian Navy (1967 – present)
Site history
Built1856 (1856)
In use1856  present
Battles/wars Attack on Sydney Harbour
Garrison information
Past
commanders
Commander Todd Wilson, RAN

HMAS Kuttabul is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located in Potts Point in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Kuttabul provides administrative, training, logistics and accommodation support to naval personnel assigned to the various facilities that form Fleet Base East, the main operational navy base on the east coast of Australia. [1] [2] A part of Fleet Base East itself, Kuttabul occupies several buildings in the Sydney suburb of Potts Point and in the immediately adjacent Garden Island dockyard. It also supports navy personnel posted to other locations throughout the greater Sydney region. [1]

Contents

The base is named for the steam ferry HMAS Kuttabul that was sunk while docked at Garden Island during a Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942.

History

Garden Island itself has been host to a naval base since 1856, when the government of New South Wales suggested giving the area over to the Royal Navy as a base for ships serving on the Australia Station. Following the foundation of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, all naval establishments were given over by the UK to the RAN. However, until 1939, the ownership of Garden Island itself was in dispute, with NSW claiming it as its property. This was solved when the Australian government initially requisitioned the island (together with the naval base) under emergency wartime powers. The government then purchased Garden Island from NSW for £638,000 in 1945.

The Garden Island facility houses the Captain Cook Graving Dock which was, at the time of construction during World War II, the largest graving dock in the Southern Hemisphere. [3] The dock was constructed between 1940 and 1945, by filling in the area between Garden Island and Potts Point. The dock and associated dockyard are operated under lease by Thales Australia. The northern tip of Garden Island is as of 2008 open to the public, accessible only by ferry. The area features the Navy Heritage Centre, opened in 2004, and graffiti dating to the First Fleet in 1788.

From its foundation until the establishment of the Two Ocean Policy and commissioning of HMAS Stirling in 1978, Kuttabul was the RAN's main naval base. With the establishment of two main bases, Kuttabul and Garden Island took on the additional designation of Fleet Base East.

Facilities and operational units

Although Kuttabul is the main administrative part of Fleet Base East, Fleet Base East is also responsible for the Mine Counter Measures forces of the RAN stationed on the east coast. These are based at HMAS Waterhen.

Ships stationed

See also

Related Research Articles

HMAS <i>Success</i> (OR 304) Durance-class multi-product replenishment oiler

HMAS Success was a Durance-class multi-product replenishment oiler that previously served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s, she is the only ship of the class to be constructed outside France, and the only one to not originally serve in the Marine Nationale. The ship was part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War, and was deployed to East Timor in response to incidents in 1999 and 2006. The ship was fitted with a double hull during the first half of 2011, to meet International Maritime Organization standards.

Three ships and two shore installations of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS Penguin after the aquatic, flightless bird:

HMAS <i>Stuart</i> (DE 48) River-class destroyer escort of Royal Australian Navy

HMAS Stuart was one of six River-class destroyer escorts built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company at Cockatoo Island Dockyard in 1959, and commissioned into the RAN in 1963.

Garden Island (New South Wales) Place in New South Wales, Australia

Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, Australia, and the location of a major Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to the north of the suburb of Potts Point. Used for government and naval purposes since the earliest days of the colony of Sydney, it was originally a completely-detached island but was joined to the Potts Point shoreline by major land reclamation work during World War II.

HMAS <i>Vampire</i> (D11) 1959-1986 Daring-class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy

HMAS Vampire was the third of three Australian-built Daring class destroyers serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of the first all-welded ships built in Australia, she was constructed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard between 1952 and 1959, and was commissioned into the RAN a day after completion.

HMAS <i>Kuttabul</i> (ship)

HMAS Kuttabul, formerly SS Kuttabul, was a Royal Australian Navy depot ship, converted from a Sydney Ferries Limited ferry.

Cockatoo Island Dockyard Australian dockyard

The Cockatoo Island Dockyard was a major dockyard in Sydney, Australia, based on Cockatoo Island. The dockyard was established in 1857 to maintain Royal Navy warships. It later built and repaired military and battle ships, and played a key role in sustaining the Royal Australian Navy. The dockyard was closed in 1991, and its remnants are heritage listed as the Cockatoo Island Industrial Conservation Area.

One ship and one shore establishment of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Kuttabul.

<i>Huon</i>-class minehunter

The Huon-class minehunter coastal (MHC) ships are a group of minehunters built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Following problems with the Bay-class minehunters, a request for tender was issued in 1993 for a class of six coastal minehunters under the project designation SEA 1555. The tender was awarded in 1994 to the partnership of Australian Defence Industries (ADI) and Intermarine SpA, which was offering a variant of the Italian Gaeta-class minehunter.

HMAS <i>Huon</i> (D50) River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy

HMAS Huon (D50), named after the Huon River, was a River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Originally to be named after the River Derwent, the ship was renamed before her 1914 launch because of a naming conflict with a Royal Navy vessel.

HMAS <i>Penguin</i> (naval base)

HMAS Penguin is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located at Balmoral on the lower north shore of Sydney Harbour in the suburb of Mosman, New South Wales. Penguin is one of the RAN's primary training establishments, with a responsibility for providing trained specialists for all areas of the navy. The current commander of Penguin is Commander Bernadette Alexander, RAN.

Fleet Base East Naval installation

The Fleet Base East is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) major fleet base that comprises several naval establishments and facilities clustered around Sydney Harbour, centred on HMAS Kuttabul. The Fleet Base East extends beyond the borders of Kuttabul and includes the commercially-operated dockyard at Garden Island, and adjacent wharf facilities at nearby Woolloomooloo, east of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. Fleet Base East is one of two major facilities of the RAN, the other facility being the Fleet Base West. The fleet operates in the Pacific Ocean.

HMAS <i>Waterhen</i> (naval base) Australian naval base

HMAS Waterhen is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located in Waverton on Sydney's lower north shore, within Sydney Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia. Constructed on the site of a quarry used to expand Garden Island in the 1930s, the location was used during World War II as a boom net maintenance and storage area. In 1962, the area was commissioned as a base of the RAN, and became home to the RAN's mine warfare forces. Waterhen was the first small-ship base established by the RAN, and from 1969 to 1979 was also responsible for the RAN's patrol boat forces.

History of the Royal Australian Navy Development of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788

The history of the Royal Australian Navy traces the development of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788. Until 1859, vessels of the Royal Navy made frequent trips to the new colonies. In 1859, the Australia Squadron was formed as a separate squadron and remained in Australia until 1913. Until Federation, five of the six Australian colonies operated their own colonial naval force, which formed on 1 March 1901 the Australian Navy's (AN) Commonwealth Naval Force which received Royal patronage in July 1911 and was from that time referred to as Royal Australian Navy (RAN). On 4 October 1913 the new replacement fleet for the foundation fleet of 1901 steamed through Sydney Heads for the first time.

Garden Island Naval Chapel Church in New South Wales, Australia

The Garden Island Naval Chapel is a heritage-listed non-denominational Christian chapel located in the heritage-listed Garden Island Naval Precinct that comprises a naval base and dockyard in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Garden Island in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Housed in a building designed by James Barnet and built between built 1886 and 1887, the chapel was established in 1902 after conversion from the former sail loft and is the oldest Christian chapel of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and has stained glass windows and plaques from that era to the present. The chapel was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2004.

HMS <i>Tabard</i> (P342) British T-class submarine

HMS Tabard was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built by Scotts, Greenock, and launched on 21 November 1945. So far she has been the only boat of the Royal Navy to bear the name Tabard, after the item of clothing. Having been launched after the war, she was selected, along with a number of boats of her class, to try out new streamlining techniques based on the German Type XXIII submarine. In May 1963, she was involved in a collision with HMAS Queenborough, and on 10 February 1964 she underwent exercises with HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager in the hours before their collision. When she returned to the UK, she became the static training submarine at the shore establishment HMS Dolphin, until 1974 when she was sold and broken up.

Sutherland Dock

Sutherland Dock is a heritage-listed dockyard at the former Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Cockatoo Island, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.

Garden Island Naval Precinct Heritage-listed naval base and defence precinct located at Cowper Wharf Roadway

The Garden Island Naval Precinct is a heritage-listed naval base and defence precinct located at Cowper Wharf Roadway in the inner eastern Sydney neighbourhood of Garden Island in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The precinct was built from 1856. It includes the HMAS Kuttabul naval base, formerly known as HMAS Penguin. The property is owned by Australian Department of Defence. It was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2004.

References

  1. 1 2 Royal Australian Navy. "HMAS Kuttabul". navy.gov.au.
  2. Royal Australian Navy. "Fleet Base East". navy.gov.au.
  3. Naval Historical Society of Australia. "Captain Cook Graving Dock » NHSA". navyhistory.org.au.