Navy People: Navy in the family

20 February 2010

With a brother and step-father in the Navy, it was no surprise that Cairns man Andrew Lovell joined the fleet.

This former Red Lynch High School has now specialised as a marine technician and been promoted to Able Seaman.

“After working as a manager for a large retail chain, I felt I really needed a job that would offer excitement and something new every day,” says Andrew.

“Now I’m posted to HMAS Darwin, a guided missile frigate. We are usually based in Sydney, but we have the chance to visit lots of places.”

“At the moment, I am working in an area we call ‘hotel services’, but that’s not what you think. In HMAS Darwin that work includes maintenance of our large air-conditioning plants, our reverse osmosis system which creates fresh water from sea water, refrigeration, collection and holding, which is our waste water system, and air compressors. It’s hands-on and requires ingenuity and creativity.”

For the next four weeks Andrew and his shipmates are currently somewhere off the eastern seaboard, training with other Navy ships for humanitarian assistance missions and high-end war fighting.

But for the men and women of the Fleet, it’s not all business.

“For me, the highlight was last year when we went on a deployment to south-east Asia,” said Andrew.

“I’ve already visited places I would never have dreamed of going to. Places like Cambodia — somewhere I would never have thought of but now I would go back there just as a tourist.”

HMAS Darwin ship goes into refit in April and many of her personnel will take time off to do courses and take leave. Andrew is consolidating his hands-on experience with courses that translate to qualifications recognised in the civilian world.

“Eventually I intend to go back home to Cairns and work on the Armidale Class Patrol boats like my brother Tom.”