Visit to HMAS Coonawarra
It's Navy Week in Darwin at the moment, and as
part of the event, the local patrol boat base at HMAS Coonawarra was
opened to the public to come down and have a gander at the boats. We
got to crawl all around HMAS Pirie, as well as talk to the sailors and
support crew and have a look at some of the weapons they handle.
These boats are used 90% of the time to stop illegal fishing in our
waters. They carry a crack boarding party (essentially commandos) that
regularly intercept and board Indonesian and other foreign vessels that
are conducting fishing within our 200 mile nautical limit. There was a
demonstration of their boarding techniques during the day, and I must
say, if I was an illegal Indonesian fisherman, I would NOT be messing
with these guys anytime soon!
