Commanding Officer HMAS Collins
Commander James Harrap, RAN
Commander James Harrap, RAN was born in Reading, UK in 1975 and migrated to Australia in 1981. Having lived in various mining towns throughout northern Australia, he completed his education as a boarder at St Josephs College, Nudgee in Brisbane in 1992 and joined the RAN through the Australian Defence Force Academy in 1993.
Graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Chemistry CMDR Harrap spent the majority of his early naval training onboard the Guided Missile Destroyer HMAS Brisbane.
In 1998 he made the decision to specialise in submarines and commenced submarine training at HMAS Stirling.
Qualifying as a submariner onboard HMAS Waller in 1999, CMDR Harrap maintained a continuous string of sea postings from 1999 to 2006 serving on all six Collins Class submarines in some capacity throughout that time, earning a Maritime Commander’s Commendation for service as Operations Officer onboard HMAS Rankin in 2004.
CMDR Harrap completed submarine warfare course in 2002 and submarine XO course in 2005, being appointed as the XO of HMAS Dechaineux for 2005-6. He successfully completed the Netherlands Submarine Command Course (Perisher) in 2007 and the USN Submarine Command Course (SCC) later that year.
He completed an overseas exchange posting with the Royal Navy during 2008-9, serving as a Tactical Development Officer at the Maritime Warfare Centre, HMS Collingwood.
Promoted to Commander in 2010, he returned to Australia to take up a brief posting as Head of Submarine Warfare Training at the submarine training school (STSC) before commencing Commanding Officer designate course in preparation for an appointment as Commanding Officer of Crew 3 (HMAS Waller), where he assumed Command on 01 November 2010.
CMDR Harrap is currently Commanding Officer HMAS Collins whilst HMAS Waller undergoes mid cycle docking maintenance.
Commander Harrap holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of NSW and a Master of Business Administration from La Trobe University. He is married with three daughters and lives in Fremantle.
