Navy Berth Push
Newcastle Herald
Saturday December 30, 2000
NEWCASTLE could become one of two national Navy headquarters undera Federal Government shake-up of maritime defence.
The Navy is under increasing pressure to quit Sydney Harbour and a spokesman for Defence Minister John Moore said yesterday that Newcastle and Jervis Bay were the two most logical alternatives.
The Navy's east coast base is now on priceless Sydney Harbour landmark Garden Island.
An estimated 4000 sailors are based at Garden Island and relocating their vessels and Navy headquarters to Newcastle would be a huge boost to the regional economy.
`It would need to be somewhere that is not too far away from Sydney,' Mr Moore's spokesman said.
Newcastle Labor MP Allan Morris said yesterday that Newcastle had a strong case to become a fleet base.
The move from Sydney to Newcastle would reportedly cost $10million but the Minister's spokesman said he could not say where this figure originated.
Speculation over the naval shake-up surfaced this week when it was revealed that Carrington minehunter builder ADI and Transfield offshoot Tenix were considering a joint bid for the Government's Collins class submarine builder, Australian Submarine Corporation.
Mr Moore's spokesman described the subsequent reported threats to Transfield's Williamstown shipyard, in Victoria, as `speculation'.
But the sale of the corporation was the `number one issue' facing naval planners.
The Government would not interfere in the plans of private industry defence contractors but was determined to ensure the Navy continued with its `two fleets' policy.
This meant that one fleet would be based on the east coast and another in the west, now in Fremantle.
Mr Morris said Jervis Bay was too environmentally fragile to house a naval fleet but Newcastle had the proven record in shipbuilding and repair.
He said ADI's minehunter facility was world-class in fibreglass technology and nearby the Forgacs floating dock had handled such big-ticket Navy jobs as refits of HMAS Tobruk, Westralia, Manoora and Kanimbla.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald