Publication:Sea Talk Summer 2005/'The Western Force' alias HMAS Stirling

Story by LCDR Graham Spencer, CMDR Philip Orchard and LSCSO Rachael Whitney-Smith

HMAS Stirling has borrowed the title 'The Western Force' from Western Australia's new rugby union team due to venture into the international 'Rugby Super 14s' competitionnext year.

With the degree of teamwork and level of support Stirling and its lodge units provide to ships and submarines. Stirling workersreckon it's more than appropriate.

For those unfamiliar with 'the Jewel in the Defence Crown' (another description those at Stirling are happy to own), the base is set on an island about 10km long and 1.5km wide (at its widest) some 45km south-west of Perth. It separates Cockburn Sound from the Indian Ocean by a five kilometrecauseway from near to the closest 'mainland' centre, Rockingham.

Defence occupies only about 28 per cent of the 1300 hectare island. The remainder is home to its natural inhabitants - tammar wallabies, tiger snakes, carpet pythons, more than 90 species of birds and 190 plant species.

The wealth of environmental splendour extends beyond the shoreline. There are seagrasses off the east coast where a pod of dolphins live - they regularly visit ships and submarines berthed at Stirling - and thereare limestone reefs to the west of the island.

Stirling became known as Fleet Base West (FBW) during the '80s after the Maritime Commander created a Commodore Fleet Bases position to manage all shore-basedMaritime Command support elements.

Eighteen months later, management of shore-based support was handed to Commander Australian Naval SystemsCommand (CANSC).

While there's no clear demarcation, these days most people consider FBW is a place (and a handy acronym distinguishing it from Fleet Base East) and HMAS Stirling is a naval base - postcode 6958 - comprising a command element and more than 80 lodger units.

Seagull near the HMAS Stirling quarterdeck with ships alongside Diamintina wharf background. Pic by CPOPH Rob Fengler

1 Ships, subs and strength
2 WAXA and Lancelin
3 Senior Naval Officer Western Australia (SNOWA)
4 Operations

Ships, subs and strength

Since commissioning in 1978, Stirling has grown to the point where it's now 'home' to one-sixth of the RAN's people - taking into account the headquarters, lodger units andships and submarines homeported there.

The base provides operational, training and logistic support for four of our Navy's major platforms: Collins Class submarines, Anzac Class frigates, Adelaide Class frigates and, the underway replenishment ship and Clearance Diving Team Four(AUSCDTFOUR).

Stirling's total strength is

1155 Navy personnel posted to Stirling
1533 Navy personnel posted to the WAhomeported ships and submarines;
292 public servants; and
Up to 591 long term contractors, 856 medium term contractors and, on average, 106 short term contractors travelling onto Garden Island on any day.

CO Stirling is responsible for the Naval establishment at Garden Island and provides the administrative chain of command for Navy personnel serving in the Western Australia area - including in the lodger units, in Rockingham, Leeuwin Barracks (in EastFremantle) and RAAF Base Pearce.

The 15 units in the Stirling command element include regulation, maintenance of discipline and ceremony, providing Port Services Management, Helicopter Support Facility, Naval fuel installations, marine support, manning and activation of Lancelin Naval Gunfire Support (NGS) Range and the Navy Reserve Regional Pool-WA. The pool provides trained Navy manpower for lodgerunits, WA fleet units and other RAN units.

WAXA and Lancelin

The West Australian Exercise area and Lancelin range provide operational training areas for the Fleet.

An area 120nm west of Garden Island, stretching south to Cape Naturaliste and north to Lancelin, with defined dimensions of sea and air space has within it an underwater torpedo tracking range with connections to Garden Island for recording and analysis of activity.

Stirling personnel activate and man Lancelin range, 180nm to the north of Garden Island, for NGS and demolitions training between 15 and 20 times a year for training by Australian or visiting warships and aircraft.

A lodger unit, Joint Operations Command (MCJOC-W), coordinates and manages the ranges and (Defence) Corporate Services and Infrastructure Group (CSIG) maintains them.

Senior Naval Officer Western Australia (SNOWA)

The Senior Naval Officer Western Australia is also based at Stirling. The current SNOWA, CDRE Richard Shalders represents both the Chief of Defence Force and Chief of Navy.

He is also Commander Australian Navy Submarine Group (CANSG) and heads up Submarine Force Element Group (SMFEG).

SNOWA

A lodger unit, Joint Operations Command (MCJOC-W), coordinates and manages the ranges and (Defence) Corporate Services and Infrastructure Group (CSIG) maintains them.

HMAS Sheean submariners preparing for winching by a Seahawk helicopter in Cockburn Sound. Pic by ABPH Joanne Edwards

Operations

The size and complexity of Stirling mean that, to be truly effective in the aim of providing naval capability, the units need to cooperate and agree rather than adhere strictly to defined command/functional jurisdictions.

All Stirling personnel embrace this senseof collective purpose rather than a cultureof rigid demarcation.

Lodgers CO Stirling administers and supports more than 80 lodger units - too many to list individually.

Some idea of the scope of the activities of Stirling is evident from the performance indicator statistics below:

The PABX has 3500 telephoneextensions in use on Garden Island withcapacity to expand to 4500 overnight, if orwhen required.
The Mail Room collects and deliversmail to 72 mail distribution points twicedaily and up to 14 WA-based ships andsubmarines alongside, AUSCDTFOUR, andvisiting ships and submarines daily.
The Information Systems Support Cellcurrently supports 2,540 computer accountsat Garden Island and elsewhere.

Ospreys nesting at Garden Island (West) - pic by LSPH Peter Lewis.

The Commissioning Crew: ship's company of HMAS Toowoomba, the newest addition to the major fleet units homeported at HMAS Stirling. Pic by ABPH Yuri Ramsay

The number of visitors to the gymnasium has increased by about 10,000 since 2001-02FY to 75,000 per year, constant over the last three FYs.
The Port Services Manager (PSM) provides on average more than 4000 port services per annum including berthing parties for ship movements, wharf-side services, management of refuelling and defuelling, provision of Naval pilots and support craft such as tugs and small boats, crane support, coordination of logistic requests from visiting Fleet and foreign visiting ships and submarines, and environmental management of Naval waters for oil spills, etc.
Helicopter movements at the Helicopter Support Facility have increased from 312 to 417 over the last two years.
The Reserve Regional Pool-WA maintains contact with 1184 Navy Reserves in the State: 786 in the Stand-by Reserve and 398 in the Active Reserve.
The Pass Office issued 38,604 access passes to Garden Island last year.
Training Centre West (TC-W) trained between 10,000 and 11,000 personnel from Stirling during FY 2004-05.

Recent developments

Recent building work at Stirling includes completion of:

Extensions to the Defence Science and Technology building;
The Anzac Ship Support Centre (ASSC) to enable Anzac Class training where the ships are homeported; and

HMAS Toowoomba approaches Fleet Base West for the first time. PIC by ABPH Joanne Edwards

The Weapons Training Simulator System (WTSS) to provide training on the Steyr rifle and other small arms to Stirling and Fleet units.

The 12 new Armidale Class patrol boats (being built at the nearby Austal Shipyards in Henderson, across Cockburn Sound from Garden Island. NUSHIP Armidale underwent a 21-day mission trials before being accepted into service and commissioned at its homeport, HMAS Coonawarra.

Contractor harbour and sea trials of succeeding boats are conducted by a Navy trials and transition crew, including evolutions in the West Australia Exercise Area coordinated by Stirling lodger, Joint Operations Command - West. The second and third of the new patrol boats, NUSHIPs Larrakia and Bathurst, are to be commissioned in mid-February.

Stirling welcomed the seventh Anzac frigate, HMAS Toowoomba, the most recent major fleet unit to be homeported in the west, on October 21 and the first of the new submarines, HMAS Collins, back in service after a full-cycle docking, on November 2.

The first of the six guided missile frigates (FFGs) to be paid off, HMAS Canberra, was decommissioned on November 12.

The Stirling rate of effort indicators above show that as the number of Stirling lodger units and WA homeported fleet units has increased over the years; the level of support provided by Stirling has continued to increase to meet the support requirements of fleet units homeported there.

Every single activity that the RAN engages in takes place at Stirling and all of these activities and support cannot happen without the skills and efforts of the Defence, civilian and contracted personnel. To this end, Stirling could be likened to a tree with numerous roots feeding a common cause: to nurture and ripen the fruit of their labours - operational units.