One hull of a sight
The enourmous hull of the HMAS Canberra dwarfs a dinghy off Point Londsdale yesterday as the new navy ship was brought through The Heads by the giant carrier Blue Marlin.
AN ENORMOUS navy ship with a deck the size of 24 tennis courts will be docked in Geelong from today after travelling around the globe piggy-backed on the world’s largest lifting ship.
Hundreds of people turned out to see the HMAS
Canberra come through the heads on the back of the Blue
Marlin yesterday morning. A group of men from the World Ship Society joined the
Geelong Advertiser on board Queenscliff’s South Bay Eco tour boat to greet the ships at the Heads.
Melbourne engineer Ross Gardiner and his son were among the admirers on the tour boat.
‘‘The sheer engineering of getting a ship on the back of another and then coming through one of the world’s most dangerous stretches of water is just fantastic,’’ Mr Gardiner said.
The Canberra’s hull was built to the level of the flight deck in Spain, then brought over by Dockwise’s Blue
Marlin, which has previously
made headlines for helping to return the USS Cole to American shores after it was hit in a terrorist attack.
From today, works will begin at Lascelles Wharf to remove the sea-fastening blocks from the HMAS
Canberra.
The 217m Blue Marlin will then be submerged near Geelong next week, to allow the landing helicopter dock ship to float and be towed to Williamstown.
Contractors BAE Systems will carry out works at Williamstown which will see the ship transformed into one of the largest built for the Australian Navy. It will house a hospital, dental surgery, helipad and combat gear.
The Australian ManufacturingWorkers’ Union, said the new hull should and could have been built in Australia, creating hundreds more manufacturing jobs.
‘‘We certainly have the capabilities to build these sort of ships here, there’s no doubt about that and if there’s not the infrastructure involved, that’s fine, create the infrastructure,’’ AMWU assistant state secretary Leigh Diehm said.
‘‘Why aren’t the Victorian Government and for that matter, the Australian Government, supporting local manufacturing?’’