Submission to the 2001 HMAS Sydney II Seminar
Author/s M. McCarthy
Year of publication 2001
Report Number: 164
Compiler's note:
At the conclusion of the Royal Auslralian Navy's HMAS Sydney II Seminar in November 2001, the Western Australian Maritime Museum sought permission to compile and promulgate the many submissions received for the seminar. In similar fashion to the papers received on the occasion of the Museum's 1991 HMAS Sydney II Seminar, the intention was 10 make the submissions available to slakeholders, researchers and the public.
In constrast to the 1991 situation, the adopting of an ex officio posilion in conducting Ihis service and in assisting with the 2001 seminar was necessitated by the receipt (in August 2001) of advice from Environmenl Australia-emanating from concerns expressed within the Museum itself-that the wrecks of HMAS Sydney and the HSK Kormoran were not protected under the terms of the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976, primarily because they were not yet 75 years old. The matter is presently under review.
The understanding that the wrecks were prOlected under the Act had under-pinned the Museum's involvement in examining (sometimes with the RAN), the many reports that the wrecks had been located in years past. It also provided the justification for convening of the 199 I Seminar, and for pressing in lectures, position papers and on the Museum's website for a resolution to the HMAS Sydney saga on both social and historical grounds. It also provided the philosophical basis for the Museum's formal liaison with other stakeholders (e.g. the HSK Kormorml Association, the HMAS Sydney Association, the RSL etc.), with intending search companies (e.g. the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the HMAS Sydney Foundation Trust etc.), with relatives of the lost men, researchers, authors, and with government instrumentalities (e.g. the RAN, the Office of Australian War, etc.).
As one tangible result of the realisation that the Act did not apply to these two wrecks, the website containing an analysis the causes of the continuing controversy and urging official action was voluntarily withdrawn. Those people who had lodged claims to have located the wrecks wilh the Museum as representative of the Commonwealth Government under Ihe ACI were then asked to provide delails of any outstanding 'finds' to the RAN (owners of HMAS Sydney) through Ihe Seminar. Further, while staff were able to assist Ihe Navy in the 2001 Seminar by providing advice, assistance and facilities, the Museum was not able to provide funds or to finance the promulgalion of submissions as it had in earlier times.
In recognition of the need that they be made available for scrutiny, however, the compiler undertook to lodge copies of the 2001 Seminar papers with Ihe Slale Library of Western Australia for access on the Interlibrary Loan system. Further, and as advised at the Seminar, those individuals and institutions willing to cover copying and poslage charges will be sent the volume aI cost, again as a voluntary service.
In respect of the compilation itself, some of the submissions received were relevant to two or more of the four areas under scruliny (archives, oceanography, oral hislory, & search method) and as a result they would have appeared more than once in Ihe overall offering-a prohibilively expensive exercise. As a result the papers are presented here under aUlhor's name in alphabelical order, rather than under each of the four main research sections. Titles, honours, degrees and service levels conferred or attained by the author(s) are used only where they are supplied by the author(s) themselves, are referred 10 in the submission as an indicator of the bona fides or experlise of the author(s), or appear in subsequent correspondence. Included also are a number of lale submissions andlor papers Ihat were circulaled to attendees at the seminar.
Where a paper has been submilled by one aUlhor and appears again as a secondary reference in a work presented by another, only the cover of that paper is presented in the latter case. Where there are multiple authors, the first name appearing on Ihe paper is used to set the papers in their alphabetical order. In cases where correspondence has resulted in an amendment or addition to the original submission, that has also been reproduced.
Finally, in order to facililate Ihe reader's progress Ihrough what is anmher very weighty tome-adding further 10 Ihe mass of malerial emanaling from the 1991 Seminar and the 1998/9 Parliamentary Inquiry the compiler has produced a precis of each submission. Of its brevity, and in being but one person's interprelalion of an onen complex offering, Ihis mighl offend some and an apology is tendered at this point. Finally, readers are referred 10 Ihe proceedings, reporls, and Ihe final deliberations that will be produced by Ihe RAN under a separate cover.
