ENGINEERING - Royal Australian Navy

N A VY EN G I N E E R I N G B U LL ET I N F E B RU A RY 20 0 2
3 5
Fleet Intermediate
Maintenance Activity –
HMAS Waterhen (FIMA-W)
HMAS WATERHEN, the shore support facility for the Mine Warfare and
Clearance Diving Group (MCDGRP), is a prime piece of real estate on
Sydney Harbour at WAVERTON. The base has been an Australian
Defence Force asset for many years, and as a result it has seen a great
deal of change. Not only have the personnel and military hardware
constantly changed, but the buildings and infrastructure located upon it
have also been transformed dramatically in recent years. In 1994 a
complete modernisation commenced, and this was completed in
December 1996.
In the early 1960’s WATERHEN
consisted mainly of single-storey,
timber-framed, corrugated iron
and fibro buildings. The
workshops supported the TON
Class Minesweepers. The high
power electrical workshop was at
the northern end, the mechanical
workshop at the southern end,
and the shipwright workshop was
in the middle. The Stokers and
Chippies workshops opened onto
the roadway on the eastern side
allowing for work to be conducted
outside. The Stokers workshop
was very compact, approximately
one fifth of the current facility.
The battery shop was a small
annex, adjacent to the northern
end of the building. Electric
motor rewinding and baking was
carried out in the Greenies
workshop. In the centre of the
workshop was a bench about six
feet long and four feet wide with
hinged sides that when lif ted
formed a giant uckers board.
The uckers bits were made from
the base sections of 40/60 mm
Bofor shell casings and the dice
of 75mm square shoring timber
cut to form cubes and painted in
international uckers colours.
Many a lunch hour gave way to
the sounds of dice throwing and
uckers movement. One of the
best two-handed games seen was
between Dolly Gray and Bud
Nilon in the early 1990’s, before
the building was demolished.
In recent years FIMA WATERHEN
has seen many changes, not
least of which is its name. With
the ama l gamation of the old
F I M A-W and the Mobile
O p e rational Te chnical Un i t – M i n e
Wa rfa re (MOTU-MW) in 2000, an
o rganisation known as the Mine
Wa rfa re Operational Engineeri n g
G roup (MWOEG) was cre a te d .
This name, howeve r, was short -
l i ved and FIMA-W was re - b o rn .
F I M A-W is now a ve ry modern
facility with a wo rk fo rce capable
of providing te chnical support to
the new Coastal Minehunte rs
(MHC) and other MCDGRP assets.
FIMA-W is active in providing
technical training for all
personnel. Sailors are given the
opportunity to under take further
training via a newly implemented
program in which civilian
instructors are utilised on-site to
provide expert instruction,
resulting in a more successful
rate of competency progression.
Most sailors posted to FIMA-W
operate from Building 3 at
WATERHEN. The ground floor
consists of a main wor kshop
dedicated to hull and propulsion
BY LIEUTENANT PAUL DENNENY,
CSC, RAN
TOP FIMA-W BATTERY SHOP STAFF
CONDUCTING ELECTROLYTE SPECIFIC
GRAVITY TES T
BOTTOM VIEW OF FIMA WATERHEN
(BUILDING 3) FROM THE NORTHERN
WHARF