Nova Shows Highlights of Sea Going Life
28 July 2009
It’s not every day that ‘wakey, wakey’ is piped over a ship’s main broadcast system with a harmonica, but then this was no ordinary day.
HMAS Arunta (CMDR Stephen Bowater) was playing host to the Nova 93.7 morning crew when co-host Nathan Morris decided to wake the crew with his own version of ‘wakey, wakey’.
As part of a recruitment initiative, the event saw former Big Brother star, (and notorious larrikin), Nathan and his Nova 93.7 co-presenters Natalie Locke and Shaun McManus embark in Arunta for a two-day sea ride.
Also joining the ship was Nova 93.7 listener Graham Thomas who triumphed over other civilian competitors in a “physical challenge” at HMAS Stirling and won the chance to go to sea in Arunta. The two-day sea ride started on July 20 at the Fleet Base West (FBW) wharves where the radio crew joined the ship. After receiving a safety brief, the sea-riders were shown to their racks and taken to the wardroom for lunch, as the ship sailed into Cockburn Sound.
The next 24-hours saw the ship’s company put through its paces in a number of evolutions, including an encounter with a rogue abalone fishing vessel, a man overboard exercise and a damage control exercise.
The visitors were also treated to an extensive tour of the ship, before heading to the main galley to help prepare chocolate éclairs for that night’s duff. After dinner the wardroom was the place to be for visitors and officers alike, to catch the last couple of hours of the second Ashes test.
An early start the next day saw the sea riders up and putting the finishing touches to their radio show, which went to air at 0600.
For the next three hours the Navy, and Arunta in particular, was the topic of conversation as CMDR Bowater and a number of the ship’s junior sailors were interviewed live on air by the popular radio trio.
A boat transfer back to FBW signalled the end of the sea going jaunt, which was sure to have highlighted the merits of a naval career to the thousands of listeners who tuned into the show.
The event was organised by Defence Force Recruiting (DFR) Perth.
"Many people put a lot of work into making this happen and it was a great way to promote the message about Navy jobs to a prime recruiting audience," said Senior Military Recruiting Officer - WA LCDR Mark Daly.
