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HENDERSON NAVAL BASE
THE PRESENT POSITION
LARGE QUANTITIES OF MATERIAL
LYING IDLE.
THE HISTORY OF COCKBURN SOUND.
Shortly after the war Admiral Lord Jelliceo
inspected the Henderson .Naval Base. Sub
sequently tie expressed himself in the fol
lowing words: — 'This afternoon I visited
the Henderson Naval Jiase, and a more
magnificent piece of water I think 1 have
uevtsr aetjn. jl usea to uubk a 101 01
Scapa Flow. Seapa Flow, on perhaps one
day in the year, can possibb compare
with Coekburn Sound as far as weather is
concerned, on what I gather to be the
rule nine months of the year. Scapa Flow
is about one-third larger than Cockburn.
Sound, and can take in the whole British
navy as well as the German High Seas
Fleet. It was a very real pleasure to come
back from Coekburn Sound by water in
order to have the opportunity of seeing
this h'ne harbor of Fremantle. The works
now going on bid lair to make Fremantle
capable of taking in any ship that is like
ly to be built.'
Such was the eulogistic strain in which
the chief of the English navy spoke, A
few years ago the hopes of Western Aus
tralia were centred in the Henderson Navl
Base. To-day the Westralian public have \
only the remembrance of political bungles i
and broken assurances to remind them of
the project that once held such promise
for the State.
In 1887 Sir John Coode, the eminent
head of the firm of Coode and Matthews,
came to Australia for the purpose of se
lecting a. site for a Naval Base. Four
years later he supplied his report. In his
report Sir John expressed himself as fav
orably impressed with the Coekburn Sound
site, and requested that borings might be
made through the Success and Pannelia
Banks in order that the character of the
banks be ascertained. He suggested that,
further tests be carried out. and stated
that as the bores had not been put down
to a depth sufficient for him to determine
the point as to whether an ocean steamer
could be safely navigated, further borings
of the nature referred to should be con
ducted. These bores should be put down
to a depth at least equal to that proposed
to be fornyd in ihe channel. He estimat
ed the total cost of channel dredging at
£L200,000. In accordance with Sir John
Coode 's recommendations, additional tests
were made, and.an investigation of the Suc
cess and Pannelia Banks showed that they
were accumulations of sand, fed in all
probability by the preponderating, souther
ly movement of sand through Gage Roads
and along the coast. Work by Captain
Archdeacon, of the Royal Navy, dealt with
wind pressure, the currents, and all diffi
culties of navigation in the case of a ship
entering the channels, while Admiral Hen
derson, who also- inspected the site, sug
gested that expert advice be obtained to
thoroughly examine Coekburn Sound, with
a view to locating the site of the future
naval dockyard. Following the Ad-'
miral's recommendation, money was spent
tor exploration and survey work, this being
done before Jervoise Bay was finally se
lected. An estimate at that time was
that the cost of dredging the two channels,
across the bank would probably be £500,000
and dockyards and building quite £1,500,
000. The work of putting down bores
was progressed with by the Naval Depart
ment in conjunction with the State Gov
ernment which contributed the sum of
£100, and lent the dredge Governor for the
purpose. These bores were put down to a j
depth of 40ft., and information regarding
them was in the possession of the Naval
Department before February,' 1913, and also
at a meeting when the decision was made,
that Jervoise Bay be selected as the Naval
Base site. The bores were sunk without
encountering any substance that could not
easily be dealt with by a dredge.
Coekburn Sound, or what was the Navjj^
Base, extends for a distance of 12 miles
south of Woodman's Point To the west
is Garden Island, which forms shelter, and
to the north are two sandbanks which com
pletely close the mouth of the Sound, An
other sandbank juns south across the
mouth of Jervoise Bay, and behind that are
the sheltered waters of Jervoise Bay.
Mangles Bay, which was described by a
prominent member of the Ministry as
being the best site in the Sound, lies imr
mediately to the south, and is not avail
able to ships of any draught, being parti
ally closed by rock and sandbanks. The
length of channel which was estimated to
be deepened by Sir John Coode was
roughly, 18,166ft., and on figures would
be cut. 30ft. deep and 30ft. wide by a mo
dern, dredge in about six months, proyidr
ing that.no rock was encountered.
The Success and Parmelia Banks form
the channel of entrance to the Base.
It was stated that with two dredges of the
modern type, working together, a navig
ah]p nTia-riTifll rainirl hfi rait out of a 'width and
depth equal to the Suez Canal at the rate
of one mile for every 22 hours; therefore it
was anticipated that the dredging of the
channels should be completed in two years.
In 1913 two modern dredges were on or
der. In the preceding year the initial work
at the base was opened by Mr. James Bar
rett, M.M.I.E., who proceeded to the Cock
burn Sound site with 30 men. Explora
f.irm and Knrvp.v work was done, but this
pioneer party were carrying on under diffi
culties, and at the end of nine months Mr.
Barrett resigned, stating that, proper facili
ties had not been given him. He, was suc
ceeded by Mr. Walkerdon. In 1913 Sir
Maurice Fitzmaurice, an English expert,
connected with the firm of Coode and Matt- .
hews, came to Australia for the purpose of
reporting upon Coekburn Sound and the
other Australian bases. A Press announce
ment stated that his fee was 4,700 guineas,
and at the time there was considerable com
ment concerning the action of the Govern
ment in paying such a high fee to a man
who was required to go over work done by
the head of his firm some 20 years previous
ly. The Melbourne base was known as
Western Port, and was regarded as a sub
sidiary base to Coekburn Sound, but with
the change of Ministry in 1912-1913 a pro
nounced change took place in the operations
at the respective bases. With the appoint*
ment of Mr. Walkerdon, at Henderson Base,
work -was speedily proceeded with, and
numbers of men were put on. When the
new Government took office 168 men were
employed at Coekburn bound, but in Sep
tember, 1913, only 30 hands were employed.
The Government's excuse for the putting
off of men was that until further expert ad
vice was received they could not proceed
with the work at the W.A. base. The ex^
pert (Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice) was also re
quired to advise the Government as to oper
atioDs at Western Point. In June, 1912,
394 men were employed at the Victorian
base, and in August of the following year
that number had increased, thereby indi
cating that the Government was adopting a
different policy at Western Port than at
Coekburn Sound. While expert advice was
wanted for Western Port, men had not been
put off there, while at Coekburn Sound the
drastic action of closing down the works
had been taken. This meant that thou
sands of pounds would be spent at Western
Port before the arrival of the expert, and
there was the possibility of an unfavorable
report, because the same question as at Hen
derson Base had to be decided, viz., dredg
ing. Western Port was selected, because it
was to be the main torpedo,' destroyer, and
submarine base, but shelter and calm seas
were necessary for that purpose. The in
let at Western Port had to be dredged prac
tically to the whole depth required, because
at low water it was to all intents and pur
poses a swamp. ^ So the position was that
when Sir Maurice arrived it was probable
he might say that Western Port had. beeii
wrongly selected. Bui still the work went
on, while the employes at Henderson Base
were thrown out of employment. Sir John
Coode 's report had been acted upon, and
boring and surveying work at Jervois Bay
disclosed that up to the depth of 40 feet
no obstruction that could' not be removed
by a dredge had been encountered. Up to
the time of the cessation of work very lit
tle work had been done at the Westralian
base. Half a mile of railway had been laid
down, in addition to the exploration and
survey work. The line as constructed
branched off at Fremantle half a mile to
Woodman's Point, and a further half-mile
to the base, the extension beyond Wood
man's point being arranged with the Wes
tralian Government. Sir John Forrest was
of the opinion that Mangles Bay, which is
south of Jervois Bay,' was the superior site,
but heavy seas and northerly winds are ex
perienced there.
The men who were put off at the Hender
son site had been at the base when work
first started there, and many of them had
shifted their homes to South Fremantle, i
thinking that there would be employment
for them at the base for a few years at
least. That the Government were deter
mined to push matters at Western Port was
emphasised by the publication of an ad
vertisement of the Commonwealth Govern
ment requiring the services of 100 riveters
for the base. The additional 100 rivet
ers brought the number of workers at Wes
tern Port up to 600. As the Henderson
Base was supposed to be the principal Aus
tralian base, this policy of the then Go
vernment was indeed strange, and aroused
great indignation. tl was pointed out
that there was room for 300 men at Cock
burn Sound at least, but this statement was
not heeded. Working conditi-«s at Hen
derson Base had been bad. If the men got
in five minutes' work in the morning they
would be paid for the day, but they rarely
got the five minutes in. If the weather
looked threatening in the morning the gen
eral foreman was sent up to meet the train
and inform the men that it was a non
working day. Generally the day turned
out hne. in addition, there was a
lack of proper working facilities, and
the men took exception to the working
conditions. They held a mass meeting,
in- the Fremantle Trades Hall with the
idea of sending in a requisition for an
alteration of the existing conditions to the
usual, viz., the men to work as long- as they
could during the day, the ganger of each
squad to keep the time and dock whatever
was. lost through rain. A compromise
was arranged with the engineer to the effect
that the day be divided into four quarters,
if the men started at all in the morning
they would be paid for two hours, the same
in the nest two hours, and in the after
noon. On the morning of August 5 the
men returned to work thinking that they
would be working under the amended con
ditions, but were met at the train and
informed that it was a non-working day.
On August 16, 1913, the Prime Minister
made an official announcement stating that
it was proposed to get expert advice as
to the best position for the naval base
and docks, etc It was also to be deter
mined whether Jervoise Bay was the best
position in Coekburn Sound
In reply to Mr. BurchelL M.H.R., the
Prime Minister said that until the dredg
ing of the sand bank at Henderson Base
had proved a success nothing could safely
be done on the land, while a period of
from four to five years was mentioned as
being necessary to demonstrate whether
dredging would be successful.
On August 29, 1913, the working staff
at the Henderson Base was composed of
two gangs, each of seven men, engaged on
water borings, a few survey hands on land,
four boatmen, an official staff of about 12,
and about 10 general workers. Members
of the dismissed survey party were thor
oughly competent men, and had the greatest
experience in the work that they were
engaged on. ? ? .?
That the Coekburn Sound site was not
a good one was the contention of an en
gineer in a letter to the Press on the 23rd
August, 1913. The engineer said that, in
his opinion, no part of Coekburn Sound
was the best possible site for large ships,
and added that everyone who had studied
the subject of drifting sands along our
western coast would agree that a dredged
Channel into the sound would he a diffi
cult and expensive roadway to keep open.
He said that the silting process had been
going on for years and hundreds of acres
of new land had been formed up from
Woodman's Point to the limestone outcrop
about two miles down. The building up
process was sejji going on, Dut to a lesser
degree as the Pannelia and Success banks,
which apparently. had their foundations on
reefs, served as traps arresting the- inrush
of the greater body of the. drifting sand;
To open a channel, jthe engineer concluded^
where nature has put up an effective bar
rier will simply throw wide a door for
the sands to enter. ? ? ?'? .
The last engineer-in-cHef at ' the Naval
Base was Mr. Walton. Mr. Walton was
put off in August of last year, and he gave
a 'Daily News' representative details of
the material that was then lying at the
Base. He said that there would be practi
cally no alteration now, as very little of
the stuff had been sent away. One bucket
dredge, two suction dredges, three steam
hoppers, three dumb hoppers, several tugs,
and a motor launch comprised the water
plant. Watchmen were on each vessel day
and night, two men to. a vesseL working
twelve hour shifts. The land plant in
eluded three steam navvies, which have
never been placed in commission, and while
the. three that were working, have been
sent to the River Murray -Water Commis
sion. There are four locomotives, and two
have been sent t-9 Canberra, while a cer
tain amount of rails and sleepers have
also been sent to the Federal capital Des
pite this, Mr. Walton said that there is still
about five or six miles of rails and sleepers
at the Base. Other material lying idle
last August included 100 tip wagons, 80
hand tips, two steam cranes, and four
Titan cranes for block setting, which have
never been erected. One of the Titan
cranes has been sent to the Morwell Elec-
tric Commission. There are a number of
buildings at the Base, and they include
fitters', carpenters', blacksmith', electrical
and boilermakers' shops, stores, messrooms,
locomotive stables, . offices, and various
other erections. The works office has been
removed to the Quarantine Station at
Woodman's Point, but the other buildings
have not been interfered with. The pre
sent staff at the Henderson Base is under
the command of Captain Pinker, and eon
sists of a storekeeper, dcrk, and a main
tenance gang of twelve, while, in addition,
there are the watchmen looking after the
water plant. The. maintenance gang are
engaged in repair work to the machinery
on tie land and painting the sea plant
Of the dredges that were used at the base
dredge 3 is engaged by the Westralian
Government afe Albany. As a result of
the cessation of work at the Base about
400 men were thrown out of work.
$