Lovely Fremantle - For Battlestar (and anyone else)

[HMS Bergamot]

Attached, pictures of Fremantle in March 2008

[herakles]

Dear old Freo! I'm glad you didn't mention the flies or their footy team! ;)

[battlestar]

G'Day Richard

Ahhh, home.:D

Did you tour the submarine? I was a tour guide there for a couple of good years. I'm hoping to post photos about it shortly.

I'm hoping to do a post on the RN's war service out of Fremantle, its slowly being written when I'm in the proper state of mind.

[herakles]

Am I right in saying that artefacts from the Kormoran are there?

I look forward to that story.

[battlestar]

G'Day

Am I right in saying that artefacts from the Kormoran are there?

Not a lot. In fact one day in the late 1990's a man came to the WA Maritime Museum (WAMM) with a set of keys. He told the story of him getting the keys of a German officer in Geraldton, and the events around it. The person at the museum said they WERN'T interested. The Australian War Memorial has the better display, just.

They were the master set of the Kormoran's ship's keys, and when that person offered them to the Army Museum up the road, they snapped them up!

I will be blunt about the WAMM, the navy people there are the best, but the museum has in the past run by fools, the navy exibition, apart from the submarine Ovens Exhibit, has BIG mistakes due to the fact that when they did the signs, they did not bother asking the Navy Exhibit people on the proper spelling. I was there the day the new museum on Victoria Quay openned, where the navy exhibit is, and watch and RAN Admiral nearly explode in rage as he read about the details of the fire in 1998 that killed 4 sailors on HMAS WESTRAIL. WESTRAIL is the railway company here in WA, HMAS WESTRALIA is the ship the explosion happened on. As of 2004 (The last time I was at the museum for a look) it still had not been corrected. :mad:

[herakles]

That's a bad business re the spelling.

For those of you that don't know the Westralia, she was purchased from the RN in 1994. There she was known as RFA Appleleaf. In fact the RN bought her as the tanker Hudson Cavalier. She was a replenishment oiler capable of carrying 25,000 tones of oil. After decommission in 2006 she became the tanker Shiraz.

The fire in 1998 was caused by a burst pipe.

She has a small niche in naval history as the first Australian women to serve in a combat zone were on-board during her service in the Gulf War.

There is an earlier Westralia, an auxilary cruiser in WW2, later converted to an LSI. She also has her moment in history having sighted a Japanese sub outside Sydney Harbour in 1942. She ended her days as a livestock carrier.

[spruso]

Hi,
I went to the Maritime Museum in Fremantle when I was over there for the commissioning of HMAS Perth 3. I enjoyed it but was rather mystified by an excellent model of HMAS Perth 1 which unfortunately showed a camo pattern on her port side that to my knowledge was never worn.

While not wanting to detract from the modeller's efforts,I was surprised that the museum had apparently not done their research on this exhibit before putting it on display.

Cheers
Bruce

[herakles]

I guess this is far from uncommon. Museums make mistakes.

I remember I was at a very well known Army museum in England when I noted that a model of one of their soldiers was standing with his hand on the muzzle of his rifle. That was worth 7 days. I pointed it out but no-one was very interested.

[HMS Bergamot]

When I visited the WAMM, in the WW1 section there was a labelled photo of the 12" HEAVY cruiser Australia. I had to point out that it was in fact a BATTLE cruiser, but they just shrugged their shoulders as if to say, "So what."

It was a pity.

[astraltrader]

Well with the Americans regularly re-writing WW2 in Hollywood, then accuracy is possibly a disadvantage!!

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Ok, this will be the last time (hopefuly) that I bad mouth the WAMM in this Forum. But after reading your posts, there are things you need to know.

First off, for those wondering what the museum looks like, the photo of USAV SPEARHEAD provided shows the WAMM, it is the white building that looks like an overturned boat, and yes that was the look they wanted, they were hoping for a Sydney Opera House type of landmark.

Museums in WA (Including WAMM) are run by WA ARTS, the Western Australian Arts Department. Putting it bluntly, run by left wing government hippys! They fought against a naval exhibit in the museum, and the Submarine Ovens, even though the Ovens is the only money making part of the WAMM.

Good people within the museum have done their damnest to ensure a Naval presence, but they are not high enough in the food chain, which is why at last report half of the large navy artifacts are located in storage more than 200km east of Perth in a warehouse.

Now, I understand that new and better management have started to run WAMM, but its too late as far as I can see. The examples you ave given of the way WAMM staff are with your enquiries is SOOO entrenched. I applied for a Tour Guide job there once. I had the knowledge, and the training from being a volunteer tour guide at the Ovens, but they want young faces, with no knowledge. WAMM got what they wanted.

To myself and others, WAMM is known as the WA Maritime Art Museum, because it has held art and photographic displays, but none of the travalling naval exhibitions. When the Great White Fleet exhibition arrives in town in the next few months, it will be held at the FREMANTLE museum, not the WAMM, I was told they weren't interested.

The final straw for me with WAMM, was the refusal to take HMAS FREMANTLE (FCPB-203) as an exhibit. There was more than enough interest in this happening, the RAN was willing to do its part. But WAMM said NO. Days after WAMM tell the world that they have a thirty million dollar deficit, and they blame it on the high upkeep of the new building at Victoria Quay.

The mistakes that you all have seen, may never be corrected. WAMM is LOATH to spend money on the Navy Exhibit, hell, they complained about the AE-2 conning tower replica, but those same people took credit for it when it became an instant hit with the public!

Ok, I'm done complaining about WAMM! Trust me, Fremantle has gems which far outshine a shabby museum such as WAMM.

[herakles]

Streuth! What a shambles. Are they also running the footy team? :rolleyes:

[battlestar]

G'day all

herakles, some of them are members of the Dockers...(For those non Aussies, the Fremantle Dockers are the local Aussie Rules football team) but yes, a dogs breakfast it what WAMM is!

I thought I'd show a couple of view of Fremantle Harbour from two vantage points, the first from Monument Hill overlooking Fremantle, the second is from Signal Hill, on the edge of the city.

Enjoy:)

[astraltrader]

I can both pick up on and relate to your frustration on WAMM Ian.
From what you say their attitude to these vital artefacts of Australian Naval History beggars belief!!

[HMS Bergamot]

More from March,

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Richard, love the pics, did you get to see the Army Museum here in Fremantle?

Bruce, I was at the PERTH commissioning too, not a bad event! It was the first Anzac commissioning I could attend, but I got to attend five of the six Collins class commissionings. including HMAS WALLER.

Terry, it is no lie when I say that when I saw some of the things the WAMM management did with the naval artifacts, some of the submarine guides, the navy section, and myself started to think very violent thoughts!

Enjoy:)

[BILLFORD1]

I have to concur with the general sentiment expressed re the WAMM....We had friends over from NSW last year, took them all the way to Freo, (about 60+ km from here), to have a gander at said WAMM, got there only to find a sign in Texta colour out the front informing everybody that as it was a Public Holiday, the joint was closed !!! Have not been back since....No wonder it's running at a loss !! :(