Commissioning ceremony of HMAS Armidale (ll)
HMAS Armidale is shown port side to facing HMAS Gawler in this watercolour. Navy personnel are performing the commissioning ceremony of Armidale and preparing to board the ship. Gawler has dressed ship in honour of this auspicious occasion. Commissioning ceremonies are a century-old tradition of the navy and the first step in a naval ship’s career.
- About Robert McRae
Bob was born in New South Wales and attended the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education and Sydney Teacher's College during the 1970s. Since the 1980s, he has worked as a teacher at several TAFE colleges in New South Wales, including Wollongong and Dapto.
Bob has been painting ships since the 1990s.
During a painting trip to Darwin in 1999 to sketch the Northern Territory wetlands Bob painted several vessels stationed at the naval port. These vessels were part of the multinational force preparing for operations in East Timor.
He then moved on to become an official artist with the Royal Australian Navy during various offshore exercises. June 2005 Bob drew and photographed the commissioning of HMAS Armidale at Darwin Naval Base. In February 2006 he drew and photographed on board HMAS Townsville during Operation Ocean Protector off Jervis Bay, NSW.
In 2008, Bob was appointed Official Artist for the RAN Naval History Unit in the Iraq War. His role was to draw, paint and photograph naval activities. Most of the time, he was working aboard HMAS Arunta during patrols near Iraq.
Bob is an established and accomplished watercolour painter and printmaker who has exhibited extensively in New South Wales and the Northern Territory. Works by Bob are held in the collections of the University of Wollongong, BHP (Shipping), the Australian War Memorial and the National Maritime Museum in Sydney.
- About HMAS Armidale (ll)
HMAS Armidale (ll) was the first of fourteen Armidale Class Patrol Boats (ACPB) constructed for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built by Austal Ships at Henderson, Western Australia, as part of a $553 million contract between the Federal Government and Defence Maritime Services.
Armidale (ll) was named after the first HMAS Armidale (l), a Bathurst class corvette (minesweeper) which sank after being attacked by Japanese torpedoes near Timor on 1 Dec 1942.
More reading
- Additional resources for Robert McRae
- Robert McRae, Australian National Maritime Museum (sea.museum)
- Robert Torrens McRae, as an artist and Official Naval Artist with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) 2005-2008, interviewed by Edith Swift. | Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au)
- Wollongong war artist reflects on documenting the Navy at work - ABC News
- Additional resources for HMAS Armidale (ll)
