Ex-R.A.N. sub. to be sold on eBay

[kookaburra]

Report from item aired on ABC TV's 7.30Report/Stateline program this evening:

Six years ago the Westernport Oberon Association - a group of enthusiastic volunteers - were delighted when they received a $500,000 Federal Government grant to
to acquire and move the Oberon Class submarine, ex-HMAS Otama, from Stirling Sound in Western Australia to Hastings, on Westernport Bay southeast of Melbourne.

But their plan to have the 317ft (96.6m), 2000-ton submarine brought ashore and mounted as an tourist attraction in this area not far from the Flinders Naval Base (HMAS Cerberus) have since met with official indifference at State and local government levels, and obstacles from new heritage overlays and environmental concerns for the sensitive shoreline areas.


Moored offshore at Cribb Point, the rusted hull of the submarine is now deteriorating. The Association's secretary Max Bryant told ABC-TV's weekly 7.30 Report program 'Stateline' tonight that his committee had discussed the option of offering the sub for sale on eBay, and that this would now happen "within the week." If that happens, the Association expects the submarine may be moved interstate.


There is already an Oberon on display at Holdsworthy NSW(Edit: see below - it's at Holbrook, my mistake) on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney.


I think a transcript of the program, maybe video, will be placed on this site shortly:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/

Just as a bye the bye, this volunteer group also has a website, which you can find by searching 'HMAS Otama.'
Actually, here's their site:

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://upperiscope.com.au/plank_images_oberon/Otamapayoff.jpg&imgrefurl=http://upperiscope.com.au/plank_images_oberon/Otama_Update.html&usg=__oRdBeYsiG-9TpKjRjjyzAic1ecs=&h=337&w=450&sz=21&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=PJUl2uOEs8tIAM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHMAS%2BOtama%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa %3DG




The boat was built at Scott Lithgow Ltd in Greenock Scotland between 1973-1976, and was de-commissioned in 2000, as the Collins Class were coming into service. Here's some pics - the boat looks pretty ship-shape down below, from what I saw on the program.

[mik43]

In one way it is nice to know that it is not just the UK government etc which doesn't take care of its nautical heritage. Once again it is left to volunteers to try and preserve something for the coming generations.
Mik

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Shame, Shame, Shame to those that brought it to this! I was at OTAMA's decommisioning, and I remember the talk about it role as a museum piece in the eastern states. Even then there were thoughts that those involved hadn't got their act together.

One other thing, under the deed of gift from the Australian Govt, the sub can't be sold to interests outside the country, and if sold locally, must have Govt clearance, looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

The 'Warrior Dolphin' must be saved!

[astraltrader]

If it gets sold on Ebay I wonder if the price will include postage and packing?

[spruso]

Hi,
The NSW sub is at Holbrook not Holsworthy. I believe at one stage they actually took a part off the monument for use on a submarine that was still in service.
Cheers
Bruce

[herakles]

Hi,
The NSW sub is at Holbrook not Holsworthy. I believe at one stage they actually took a part off the monument for use on a submarine that was still in service.
Cheers
Bruce

Wow! In that case the AWM had better guard all its exhibits closely!

[battlestar]

G'Day All

Hi,
The NSW sub is at Holbrook not Holsworthy. I believe at one stage they actually took a part off the monument for use on a submarine that was still in service.
Cheers Bruce

Hi Bruce

Holbrook is the spiritual home of the RAN Submarine Service, as the town (formerly known as Germantown till 1915) is renamed in honour of Lt. Norman Douglas Holbrook, a decorated wartime submarine captain and winner of the Victoria Cross. Lt. Holbrook commanded the submarine HMS B11 during the Gallipoli campagin.

The upper Casing and Conning Tower of OTWAY are at Holbrook, but other pieces of the sub were taken and stored both at Holbrook and in the RAN supply system, OTWAY was the second RAN Oberon to decommission, leaving four still operational at the time.

The Sub (for want of a better term) is located on the Hume Highway, and the stretch of road that runs next to it has more minor traffic accidents there that in all of country New South Wales. In fact when I was there in 2002, I saw a accident occur, a local slammed into the back of a tourist that slowed down to view the sub in a park.

I've included some pics! Enjoy:)

[herakles]

Not a great place to have put it. I am reminded of a similar poor placement, that of a statue of Ike in the middle of a roundabout near Omaha beach.

[kookaburra]

Here's the transcript of that program (which takes an extended search through prompts on the link given in post #1): I was a little stunned to hear that these folks had got a 1/2 million Federal Government grant (although pleased, as posted on the HMAS Ceberus site, that the group there had received a $1.5m grant in April to stabilize the condition of that very historic and deteriorating breakwater warship at Half Moon Bay, in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Black Rock, Vic)

The transcript:

KATHY BOWLEN, PRESENTER: It's not every day you can bid for a 2,000 tonne submarine on eBay, but that's what it's come down to. The HMAS Otama, the last Oberon submarine built for the Australian Navy has been sitting, rusting in Western Port Bay for six years. There were celebrations in 2002 when a small group of volunteers won the sought after tender with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Federal Government's Federation Fund. But the money's run out and the foreshore they now want to put it on is environmentally protected.

Cheryl Hall reports the volunteers are so frustrated, they plan to sell the sub online.

MAX BRYANT, WESTERN PORT OBERON ASSOCIATION: It's deteriorated quite considerably since the boat first arrived. Mostly it's rusting of the ballast tanks and that; you can see along the side. You can see by the bow how bad it is around the torpedo tubes, around the doors. It's deteriorated quite considerably in the last six years.

CHERYL HALL, REPORTER: So it's pretty frustrating for you?

MAX BRYANT: It is, it certainly is. It's disheartening and quite frankly, each time we come out to the boat it breaks our heart to see the poor thing deteriorating so rapidly.

CHERYL HALL: It seems a sad and forlorn ending for the last Oberon class submarine to be decommissioned from the Australian Navy. When it first arrived in Western Port Bay in 2002, it was hoped the HMAS Otama would be a valuable tourist attraction. But at 100 metres long and 2,000 tonnes, it's proved to be a huge headache.

MAX BRYANT: Certainly, we haven't got very far. As I said, here the boat is sitting here; six years later, we've made absolutely no headway whatsoever. You'd think that the state doesn't want it.

CHERYL HALL: Max Bryant admits he was naive when he tendered for the sub and beat more than 30 others from around the country. He's embarrassed to say he thought he'd bring it from Western Australia on the back of a truck. But that's proved to be the least of his problems.

MAX BRYANT: I don't particularly know what the exact problem is. We have tried to work with both council and state government to find a suitable site, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere.

CHERYL HALL: It was the former Federal Government that gave the Western Port Oberon Association a half a million dollar grant to bid for the sub. Most of that money has been spent. Local federal parliamentarian Greg Hunt believes the State Government is the problem.

GREG HUNT, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FLINDERS: There's literally a submarine which has been trapped at sea. The state keeps saying, "Good project", but there's not a minister, there's not a premier, there's not an official who's willing to make a decision. And you have a pattern of paralysis.

DAVID HAURE, FORMER OTAMA CREW MEMBER: I see French Island at the moment, which is off our starboard side. This is the Tarmasforit attack periscope. This is periscope that the captain used to always use.

CHERYL HALL: The original plan was to put the massive sub on display in Hastings Harbour.

SHANE MURPHY, MORNINGTON PENINSULA COUNCIL: It was envisaged to put the submarine alongside the north facing wall or the back wall of the marina, with the yacht club and the angling club based over here with the ramps here, the boat ramps. OK; it was a very congested area.

CHERYL HALL: Has the size of the project just been underestimated?

SHANE MURPHY: I think that's part of it. To bring a 100 metre, 1,500 tonne vessel ashore in a Ramsar-listed area, it was always going to have some difficulties. Not insurmountable, but certainly very, very large difficulties. You have the native vegetation, now you have cultural heritage overlays and other factors to consider. So yes, I think it's probably been underestimated.

CHERYL HALL: Two other sites south of Hastings are now being considered, but both have their complications. One at Cribb Point is also the proposed site of a bitumen storage tank. The other is Stony Point, Port Authority land which is currently leased to Patrick's. Both sites would need consent under the Coastal Management Act.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment is concerned about the potential damage caused by bringing it ashore. It would need to be either floated to the foreshore or moved on two rows of pylons.

SHANE MURPHY: No one's going to say we should just bulldoze mangroves and native vegetation to put a submarine in there. You can't do that. I think from our perspective, we do need some leadership or direction from the State Government ministers to say how we're going to make this happen.

CHERYL HALL: The people behind this project are all volunteers. They thought the hard part was actually getting the submarine, but six years later, it's still sitting here, homeless. They're so frustrated they're now thinking about putting the submarine on eBay.

MAX BRYANT: There has been some discussion amongst the committee regarding putting it on eBay and we will be proceeding down that path within the week.

CHERYL HALL: Why do that?

MAX BRYANT: Well, we need to have a back up. If the State Government doesn't want this project in Victoria, we need to advertise it throughout the world and find either a partner or another group that wants to take the project over. I don't think there's been too many submarines advertised on eBay before.

CHERYL HALL: The submarine can stay on its current mooring for another two years. But even if a decision was made immediately, the volunteers say it would take at least two years to raise more money and move it. They say it's too historically valuable to leave it to rust.

MAX BRYANT: If we can't get it ashore within the two years, then we have to certainly consider something alternate, like another location, possibly interstate. It's not from the lack of trying. We've got a very, very strong, small team that have worked very hard and put in a hell of a lot of work over the last, well,12 years and, um, it would sort of, I would say, break our hearts to see it go.

KATHY BOWLEN: Cheryl Hall with that story.

[herakles]

Can the galahs at the top of Spring St. be shamed perhaps? Can this get wider coverage?

[kookaburra]

Hmmm, yes, we're all overlooking the fact that sister boat HMAS Onslow is of course preserved at the (superb) National Maritime Museum on Sydney's Darling Harbour. So NSW has two - I don't think they need a third in that particular State, really!!

Seen here alongside ex-HMAS Vampire, Daring Class destroyer, and reconstruction of Cook's barque Endeavour.

[kookaburra]

a couple more angles on Onslow

[herakles]

Here's another view of her.

[kookaburra]

With a reserve price of $4.9 million, there were no bids for the submarine HMAS Otama in an auction that closed today (presumably on eBay).

Here's the ABC News story:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/19/2451540.htm

[kc]

Just to mention we have a page of photos of the launch of this sub, taken by my dad who worked at Scotts at the time. Here is the link : http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hmas_otama.htm

Here is one of the photos :

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/images/hmasotama7.jpg
HMAS Otama

[mik43]

Gosh KC, Scotts of Greenock, that brings back some memories. We used to sail out of the James Watt Dock and I can remember 3 ships being built on Scotts slips at the time (1966-1969) - two banana refrigeration boats for Geests and an RFA. One of the Geest boats was 'Geestcape' I think, but I can't remember the name of the second one. The RFA was either Resource or Regent I think. There was also a rather seedy bar just outside the main gate, turn right and across the road!!! Not that I ever frequented such places, well not that one anyway!!
Regards
Mik

[jonti]

With no bids received on e-bay for HMAS Otama, my local paper which covers the Mornington Peninsula between Western Port Bay where Otama is at present and Port Philip Bay, reports that Bundaberg in Queensland is interested, and Frankston on Port Philip Bay. Frankston, after nearly 10 years of negotiations, is close to building a Safe Boating Harbour that Otama would enhance and would have a wet berth accessible to any visitors. Rob T

[maccdale]

Heres a video of the ex Canadian Onondaga, Oberon Class, being towed from Halifax to Rimouski to be opened as a museum. Just thought some of you may find it interesting. She actually tipped over the first night in her new home.

Its really amazing to me, the parrallels between the Canadian Navy and the Australian Navy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQE4pbHFqyg

Enjoy, hope I haven posted it in the wrong spot...Im a newbie.
:)
Mac
http://macsnavylinks.ca/

[harry.gibbon]

Heres a video of the ex Canadian Onondaga, Oberon Class, being towed from Halifax to Rimouski to be opened as a museum. Just thought some of you may find it interesting. She actually tipped over the first night in her new home.

Its really amazing to me, the parrallels between the Canadian Navy and the Australian Navy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQE4pbHFqyg

Enjoy, hope I haven posted it in the wrong spot...Im a newbie.
:)
Mac
http://macsnavylinks.ca/
Mac I watched it on TV only a couple of nights ago... an ambitious project for the movers ... but ooooh the mis-calc's towards the end of the prog.