On This Day

1976-1999 > Post Vietnam

December 1, 1978

HMAS CANBERRA, (guided missile frigate), was launched at Seattle, USA.

October 1, 1978

Female Officers of the WRANS were granted equal pay with their male counterparts.

July 28, 1978

HMAS STIRLING, (shore establishment in Western Australia), commissioned. Located at Garden Island WA,. near the town of Rockingham, the base is often referred to as Fleet Base West.

July 1, 1978

HMAS VENDETTA, (destroyer), represented Australia at the Solomon Island Independence Day celebrations, at Honiara.

June 21, 1978

HMAS ADELAIDE, (guided missile frigate), was launched at Seattle, USA.

May 8, 1978

RADM G. J. Willis, AO, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Her Majesty’s Australian Fleet.

April 27, 1978

The Oberon class submarine HMAS OTAMA, was commissioned. OTAMA was laid down at Scott’s Yard, Greenock, Scotland, on 28 May 1973, and launched on 3 December 1975. HRH Princess Anne performed the launching ceremony. OTAMA was the last of six Oberon class submarines built for the RAN.

April 21, 1978

CDRE Sir James Ramsay, became the first officer of the RAN to be knighted twice. CDRE Ramsay, a Knight Bachelor and Governor of WA, was created a KCMG.

January 11, 1978

During squadron exercises on 11 January involving HMA Ships Barbette, Barricade and Bombard, an Aztec Piper aircraft on charter to the RAN and assisting with the exercise collided with Bombard’s mainmast and foremast, and crashed into the sea. Both of the aircraft’s civilian crew were killed. The remainder of the exercise was cancelled and Barbette resumed patrol operations on 28 January.

December 16, 1977

HMA Ships BRUNEI, LABUAN, and WEWAK, (landing craft heavy), broke adrift in the Brisbane River during a violent tropical storm. The ships were saved from serious damage, and possible loss, by the ‘exceptional initiative, courage and seamanship’ of CPOMTP(D) W. Lehane and POCOX J. Edwards. Both men were awarded the BEM for their actions.

December 2, 1977

AB R. A. McLeod, RAN, was awarded the Australian Bravery Medal for the rescue of five members of the crew of HMAS ARROW, (patrol boat), which sank in Darwin Harbour during Cyclone Tracy, on Christmas morning, 1974.  AB McLeod was injured himself at the time of the rescues.

October 23, 1977

HMAS Duchess decommissioned, one day after the 25th anniversary of her original Royal Navy commissioning. DUCHESS had been loaned to the RAN in 1964, as a replacement for the destroyer HMAS VOYAGER. This loan was later extended, and she was purchased outright by the RAN in 1972. In 1973 she commenced an 18-month conversion to a training ship, but saw only three years service before being paid off. For a number of years Duchess languished at Bradley’s Dolphins until she was sold on 7 May 1980 and towed from Sydney Harbour on 9 July bound for Taiwan. There she was broken up by the Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation

August 27, 1977

HMAS COOK, (oceanographic ship), was launched by Mrs. Joyce Killen, wife of the Minister for Defence, at Williamstown, VIC.

August 25, 1977

HMAS JERVIS BAY, (ex-merchant vessel AUSTRALIAN TRADER), was commissioned as a training ship.

August 17, 1977

Legislation for the proclamation of a 200 mile Australian fishing zone was examined by the Australian Government.

July 28, 1977

Kiowa 891 crashed near Sunday Island, Western Australia while recovering one of the HMAS Moresby’s crew from the top of a cliff. The man jumped aboard the helicopter which then became unbalanced and its rotors struck the cliff face causing the helicopter to crash at the base of the cliff. The aircrew (Lieutenant Neil Jackson and Aircrewman Anthony Mason) and the passenger survived but the helicopter was destroyed and was swept away by the tide and subsequently located nearly 25km away in Cygnet Bay It was later replaced by a Kiowa transferred from the army.

July 27, 1977

HMAS ADROIT, (patrol boat), arrested her third Taiwanese vessel illegally fishing in Australian waters in the month of July. ADROIT was operating with Pabron Three.

July 15, 1977

HMAS MORESBY, (survey ship), went to the aid of a refugee vessel with 47 Vietnamese men, women and children aboard off the West Australian coast. A boarding party from MORESBY repaired the vessel’s engine, and it steamed safely to Broome.

July 13, 1977

Westland Wessex Mk.31A, N7-213, 823 ditched in the Sea. The helicopter was performing plane guard duties from HMAS Melbourne on Exercise Highwood in the Irish Sea with Lt(P) Phil Pinniger RAN. The carrier was in the process of launching A-4G Skyhawks at the time. The Wessex ditched and Lt Pinniger, Aircrewman Bob Cousins and ships diver, Abata Richard Stanford exited the aircraft. The aircraft was then cut in half by the destroyer HMAS Brisbane that had steamed into position to pick up the aircrew. Divers from Melbourne attached crane cables and airframe less its tail section was raised onto the deck.

June 30, 1977

A Harrier G-VTOL aircraft was flown for the first time from HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier).

June 28, 1977

HMA Ships MELBOURNE and BRISBANE represented Australia at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Naval Review, at Spithead England. MELBOURNE was the oldest, and the largest ship at the Review. The youngest was the Greek missile launcher, LIEUTENANT TROUPAKIS. 175 ships from 18 nations with 30,000 sailors embarked attended the Review.

June 15, 1977

The Oberon class submarine, HMAS ORION, was commissioned. ORION was laid down in Scott’s Yard, Greenock, Scotland, on 6 October 1972, and was launched on 16 September 1974. Mrs Armstrong, (Wife of the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom), performed the launching ceremony.

June 11, 1977

HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), launched two of her Wessex helicopters, each carrying a World War II cannon, from a position off Crete, and delivered the pieces to the newly built Cretan-Australian War Memorial at Stavromenos. Fifteen minutes later the helicopters returned with a section of the, band which played the National Anthems of both nations.

May 25, 1977

A Tracker aircraft from HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), located the disabled Dutch ship IMPALA PRINCESS, in the Gulf of Aden, and directed a French destroyer to her assistance.

May 10, 1977

HMAS VENDETTA, (Daring class destroyer), made a high-speed dash to provide aid for 28 Vietnamese refugees, in a disabled vessel, drifting in the South China Sea.