Dear Editor,
With reference to the Fuel Storage Tanks segment of the Exmouth Gulf – Submariners’ Haven article by Colin Randall published in the December edition of the Naval Historical Review, I have made an interesting discovery in relation to this. The Fuel Storage Tank segment mentioned the ‘four x 2,000 ton welded steel tanks that were at the port of Onslow’ responsible for storing marine and aviation fuel. Quite coincidently, my mother, currently residing in Melbourne picked up a pearl shell (Pinctada sp.) at a second-hand store that is inscribed: ‘Onslow (Navy OFI) North-West Australia, 1946-1947.’
Knowing that I had been volunteering at the Naval Historical Society office at Garden Island during my Gap Year, she sent me a photograph and requested I ask the experts in historical artefacts about its significance. The shell inscription made direct reference to the Oil Fuel Installations located at Onslow, which led me to believe the shell has some historical value relating to this story in the Review. It begs several questions around who owned and wrote on the shell and why this was done. Following publication of the article, it is an interesting coincidence that this occurred.
Closeup of inscription
Letter to the Editor by MIDN Lloyd Skinner:
By Editor: Do any of our readers recall similar curios being made in the rich pearl shell sea beds off the northern Western Australian coast?
Photo of shell