Vindicatrix Boy

ANZAC Light on the Water has been awarded the City of Port Adelaide Australia Day 2009 Community Event of the Year Award. 

The framed Award Certificate will go on permanent display in the Seafarers Centre in Port Adelaide.

Federal and State politicians, Councillors, Council Executives and other VIPs were at the Awards Ceremony at Sunnybrae Function Centre, along with families and individuals from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the UK who were awarded Australian Citizenship in a special ceremony conducted by the Mayor Gary Johanson and Council CEO Harry Wierda.

Local Federal Member Mark Butler MP (pictured below with Keith Ridgeway, Secretary of the SA Merchant Navy Association (left) and John Williams) gave a special address in which he welcomed all of the new citizens and congratulated those who received the Australia Day Awards.

Read the full story in the Portside Messenger.

The State and Commonwealth’s search for AHS Centaur has attracted eleven national and international expressions of interest, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said today.

“Tenders closed this afternoon and this is a most pleasing outcome to have had such interest,” said the Premier.

“The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, ablaze with lights, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine south east of Cape Moreton in May 1943. She caught fire and sank within minutes. Of the 322 persons on board, only 64 survived.

“The specifics of the eleven applications are commercial-in-confidence and are now the subject of evaluation. That process will be undertaken by the intergovernmental Steering committee.

“The evaluation will take place over the next couple of weeks. Dependant upon subsequent contractual negotiations, it is hoped the preferred Project Manager could be known soon after.

“The Project Manager’s first responsibility will be to develop search timeframes. It is expected that the search’s timing could be affected by the availability of suitable vessels, equipment and prevailing weather conditions.

“But my government is keen for it to be undertaken at the earliest possible time.”

The Committee’s evaluation criteria will be based on; relevant experience (particularly in the area of finding shipwrecks, marine salvage and/or archaeology), track record, methodology, business skills (people and contract skills), time (proposed timeframe, likelihood of achievement and availability) and referee checks.

“Also the panel will obviously evaluate the value-for-money aspect,” she said.

As the Acting Premier Paul Lucas said last week, the separate Reference Group; including the Steering Committee’s Chair, Project Manager, Centaur Association representatives, the RSL and historian Captain Foley will meet once the Project Manager is in place.

The Commonwealth is matching Queensland’s $2 million commitment for the search.

Story from www.australia.to/

Photo from Wikimedia.

Together with a multi-cultural event and an Indigenous event that celebrated Aboriginal and Maritime history, ANZAC Light on the Water was featured in the Culture and Community section of the Annual Review.

All three events had contributed to the community’s responsibility to ensure the next generation of young people has a greater understanding and acceptance of cultural differences in Australian society.

“Then, on the eve of Anzac Day, there was another moving tribute-this time to the 645 crew lost in the sinking of HMAS Sydney in 1941, and especially its South Australian members in the second Light on the Water event.
 
“It has clearly captured the imagination of a new generation of Australians, “ said Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Gary Johanson.
 
“3000 candle-lit  cardboard lifeboats were launched on the river this year, all of them made by local schoolchildren who have taken this event to their hearts.”

This year, as the world commemorates the 70th Anniversary of the start of World War II, people around Australia will focus on two significant events in Port Adelaide.

On ANZAC Eve, Friday April 24, the third Light on the Water on the Port River will commemorate the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur in a year when Veterans Affairs marks the World War II 70th Anniversary with a major focus on the role of women at war.

Eleven Australian Army nurses were among the 268 Australians who perished when the Centaur was struck by a deadly Japanese torpedo off the coast of Queensland on May 12, 1943.

Australian Merchant Navy crew, medical staff and men of the 2/12th Field Ambulance and 44 others made up the rest of those killed.

Australia’s second Merchant Navy Day march in Port Adelaide on September 3 will be on the very day that World War II started and a large number of veterans are expected to march.

The first casualty of World War Two was the British merchant vessel Athenia on September 3.

German U-boat Commander, Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp  sighted the ship 250 miles off the coast of Ireland. 

He maintained radio silence to achieve surprise and surprise is what happened because the British had just declared war that day of September 3, 1939. 

Just under 12 hours later, Lemp ordered his men to fire on the ship and four torpedoes crashed into the side of the unarmed passenger ship.

The ship exploded immediately killing all but 112 people. 

Lemp later claimed that the sinking of the Athenia was an accident, and that he didn’t know it was unarmed and believed it was an armed merchant ship. 

German command told Lemp to forget about it, and destroy all evidence he had of the sinking including diaries, papers, and any other article mentioning the sinking. 

The Germans were then going to blame Winston Churchill for the sinking of the ship by stating that Churchill had ordered the ship to sink to get the U.S. into the war.

The U.S. and British of course did not believe this story.

The story of the Athenia sinking is from this Battle of the Atlantic page.

And there is a very good account with pictures of Athenia, the U-boat that sank her and contemporary newspaper reports by Mike Kemble.