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Maritime Day Expo, Fremantle

Freemantle Maritime Day Expo 2013

Freemantle Maritime Day Expo 2013

The South Westerly wind that barrels through Perth is known as the Fremantle Doctor because it blows in fresh air and today it lived up to it’s fearsome reputation. Balloons, caps and pieces of paper were thrown into the air and out of the grasp of those unfortunates who had loosened their grip momentarily.

But this could not dampen the spirit of the occasion of Maritime Day at Fremantle where a frigate from the Australian Navy – the HMAS Sydney – and a Tall Ship – the  “Dewaruci” from the Indonesian navy were open to the public. In addition, there was a rescue submersible , a colourful Indonesian marching band and the Leeuwin sail training ship. Our tour of the HMAS Sydney included seeing a missile system, fire control systems and there was an opportunity to handle machine guns, something my girls politely refused. But we enjoyed the fact that we could inspect the inside of a working navy ship that had done tours to Iraq, East Timor and many other trouble spots that the Australian defence forces had been involved with.

It was a fun and informative day, which we finished off by visiting the Maritime museum where the Australia 2 is kept, it was the first foreign vessel to win the America’s Cup – at the time, Prime Minister Bob Hawke descrbed any boss who didn’t give their workers the day off to watch the event as a  “bum”, such was the fervour that gripped the nation during that race.

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