peterAustralia
Member
It kinda went like this.... if my understanding is correct
ammunition was stored in Sydney, but the Navy realised they could make a lot of money by selling the land where all this was stored. It might have not met the modern NATO ammuntion storage requirements too,
The idea was to move the ships and the ammunition down to Jervis Bay. Once that got shelved they then had to put the new ammuntion store and wharf somewhere, so they chose Eden (twofold bay)
I was told that before they can do maintenance on a ship they have to remove the ammunition, it is apparently a safety thing. The problem with the ships is Sydney and the ammunition wharf down in Eden, is that if ships are about to undergo maintenance, they have to sail down to Eden, unload their ammuntion then sail back to Sydney to get work done. Hence why Jervis Bay was desriable in that in theory it was all close togehter. It would save a heap of time in sailing back and forth.
It was late 1980s when the jervis bay thing was knocked back, thus I guess the TwoFold Bay facility was built in the early 1990s.
Just a litte aside, the Navy pronounces Jervis Bay as Jarvis Bay, EVERYONE in the local area pronounces it Jervis Bay. (I spent the first 18 years on my life in Nowra).
A couple mroe little anecdotes,
Years ago when we still had skyhawks they were used by the Navy to undertake simulated attacks on Navy ships as a way of calibrating their radar. This was then replaced by a 'cheaper' contractor flying Lear Jets. The thing was that the Lear Jets could not handle the G forces that the Skyhawks could. How this affected the radar calibration I dont know.
After the Jindavicks were retired (a target drone aircraft - it towed the target), the Navy bought this system from America. The idea was at first to use the same airstrip as the Jindavicks used to use. The trouble was that this new drone had a couple of jettisonable rockets to get it up to speed, , and these rockets were likely to drop of in the bush and start lighting fires.
I dont know, but the story was that they then moved the drones to flying off the cliffs at either Beecroft (higher cliffs there) or on the Southern peninsula, thus the rockets would fall into the sea.
By the way at Beecroft right behind the cliffs there is a small helicopter hangar and a landing pad, It had a roof but is open at the ends. Not sure what it is used for, I guess it is useful in an emergeny as being a few km closer than another pad if a helicopter is coming in from the Sea. There is also a lot of unexploded shells around there. You are free to walk around Beecroft when teh Navy is not doing shore bombardment exercises (they close the gate when they do their shelling,,, which seems like a very good idea). I have zero idea if they are filled with high explosive, but there are certainly a lot of them, (look like 5 inch shells) and in no way was I going within ten feet of them.
ammunition was stored in Sydney, but the Navy realised they could make a lot of money by selling the land where all this was stored. It might have not met the modern NATO ammuntion storage requirements too,
The idea was to move the ships and the ammunition down to Jervis Bay. Once that got shelved they then had to put the new ammuntion store and wharf somewhere, so they chose Eden (twofold bay)
I was told that before they can do maintenance on a ship they have to remove the ammunition, it is apparently a safety thing. The problem with the ships is Sydney and the ammunition wharf down in Eden, is that if ships are about to undergo maintenance, they have to sail down to Eden, unload their ammuntion then sail back to Sydney to get work done. Hence why Jervis Bay was desriable in that in theory it was all close togehter. It would save a heap of time in sailing back and forth.
It was late 1980s when the jervis bay thing was knocked back, thus I guess the TwoFold Bay facility was built in the early 1990s.
Just a litte aside, the Navy pronounces Jervis Bay as Jarvis Bay, EVERYONE in the local area pronounces it Jervis Bay. (I spent the first 18 years on my life in Nowra).
A couple mroe little anecdotes,
Years ago when we still had skyhawks they were used by the Navy to undertake simulated attacks on Navy ships as a way of calibrating their radar. This was then replaced by a 'cheaper' contractor flying Lear Jets. The thing was that the Lear Jets could not handle the G forces that the Skyhawks could. How this affected the radar calibration I dont know.
After the Jindavicks were retired (a target drone aircraft - it towed the target), the Navy bought this system from America. The idea was at first to use the same airstrip as the Jindavicks used to use. The trouble was that this new drone had a couple of jettisonable rockets to get it up to speed, , and these rockets were likely to drop of in the bush and start lighting fires.
I dont know, but the story was that they then moved the drones to flying off the cliffs at either Beecroft (higher cliffs there) or on the Southern peninsula, thus the rockets would fall into the sea.
By the way at Beecroft right behind the cliffs there is a small helicopter hangar and a landing pad, It had a roof but is open at the ends. Not sure what it is used for, I guess it is useful in an emergeny as being a few km closer than another pad if a helicopter is coming in from the Sea. There is also a lot of unexploded shells around there. You are free to walk around Beecroft when teh Navy is not doing shore bombardment exercises (they close the gate when they do their shelling,,, which seems like a very good idea). I have zero idea if they are filled with high explosive, but there are certainly a lot of them, (look like 5 inch shells) and in no way was I going within ten feet of them.
