Seizing the day yet again, we drove down to Sydney on Saturday to tour HMAS Toowoomba, which was open to the public as a fundraiser for a group of children’s charities called Kids in Need. These charities included Muscular Dystrophy NSW, which assists me with managing my dermatomyositis, which is a neuro-muscular condition. Unlike Muscular Dystrophy, there is treatment for DM, although not always as effective as we’d like.
HMAS Toowoomba
The Police were all waiting for Mister to turn up.
HMAS Toowoomba was docked at Garden Island, in Sydney Harbour. Garden Island is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to the north of the suburb of Potts Point. Used for government and naval purposes since the earliest days of the colony of Sydney it was originally a completely detached island. It was joined to the Potts Point shoreline by major land reclamation work during World War II.
The kids at the entry to base.
Garden Island is so-called because it was planted in 1788, in the first months of European settlement in Australia, to serve as a kitchen-garden by officers and crew of the First Fleet vessel HMS Sirius.[2] Initials carved into a sandstone rock on the site are believed to be the oldest colonial graffiti in Australia, comprising the letters “FM 1788,” representing Frederick Meredith who served as Sirius ’ steward.[3]
Frederick Meredith carved his initials into the rock at Garden Island in 1788, the year the First Fleet arrived in Sydney.
Which came first Qantas’s flying Kangaroo or the Navy’s ocean hopper?
HMAS Toowoomba (FFH 156) is the seventh Anzac class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was laid down in 2002 by Tenix Defence Systems and commissioned in 2005.
In 2007, Toowoomba was deployed to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Slipper. Her second deployment to the Middle East occurred during the second half of 2009. As part of this, she became the first RAN vessel to operate with the counter-piracy Combined Task Force 151.
If you look behind the kids, there is either the perfect location for hide & seek or time out.
Geoff testing out their breathing apparatis.
The kids with “Oscar” their crash test dummy. He leads quite a rough life and has had 4 incarnations in the last 12 months. Apparently, a shark got his hands.
Miss is now ready to put out any fires onboard.
I was absolutely stoked at being able to make it up this ladder. A testimont to the power of prednisone and being in remission.
Standing under the “cannon”, or whatever you call it.
Obviously, we had a fabulous day out and would liike to thank everyone who made it possible!!
xx Rowena
