Day 127

Day 127 Wodonga

Today we were in rural NSW/Vic border area and we saw a submarine, not a small model or a midget

Maureen feeding ducks in the morning

Our little Wier

submarine, but the HMAS Otway full size, but I jump ahead. We left Queanbeyan this morning and moved our expedition in a Northerly direction (we are back on the road now so we are and expedition again). Our path led us back to Yass, which we diverted through for a look. The Hume Highway seems to divert around all the towns and given the amount of heavy trucks and volume of traffic, I can see why, but it

Obviously heritage listed next to new

Where the dog sits on the ticker box

does deter travellers such as us from going in. when then went onto Gundagai, we did not make the mistake of turning into Gundagai, but into the Dog on a Tucker Box memorial, 5 miles from Gundagai, sounds like a good line for a song. We had lunch there and spent longer that we intended, about an hour and decamped in a Westerly direction.

Our next stop was Holbrook. This town was originally called Germantown but during the first world war, Germans were not top of the pops and they petitioned to have it changed in 1916. The options

HMAS Otway

they were given were Seville (English PM prior WWI), Fischer (Admiral of the English navy), Kitchener (Field Marshal of the English Army) and Holbrook (after Lieutenant Holbrook of the English navy). Who was Holbrook I hear you ask? Well let me tell you. Back in 1915 when we were looking at forcing the Dardanelles ( this is prior to Gallipoli), the English decided to send in a Submarine, the B11 to be exact, skippered by Lieutenant Holbrook. Holbrook took his submarine into the straits and dodged 5 minefields, submerged all the way. He then came up to periscope depth and low and behold, there was an old Turkish battleship sitting there. He dived

Underwater Stern section

Torpedo and tube

again and was caught up in the current and when he checked again with his periscope and he was lined up perfectly so he fired a torpedo and sank the battleship. He then got stuck in the shallows and after a lot of luck managed to get back into the channel and then drifted back out. Heroes welcome and Victoria Cross, well deserved, first submariner to do so and was a darling on the press. It unfortunately overshadows the poor Australian Submariner Lieutenant Stoker who soon after, not only took the

Maureen at hatch

Hologram presentation

AE2 Submarine into the Dardanelles but into the Sea of Murmansk and had half the Turkish fleet after him for ages then when he was sneaking out, almost made it out but snagged a mine cable and had to surface where he was fired upon and was sunk. A bit more daring do than old Holbrook but he was an upitty Australian so no VC or him.

So with those choices, they chose Holbrook as their town name. Can you imagine 4 English names at

Figure from hologram presentation

Lt Holbrook when he was a Commander

a time when we were at war with our own heroes and Generals!!! Anyway, they had their name and they started to keep contact with the submariners of the Australian Navy and made then Freemen of the town and had regular sporting contests between them and the navy, until they moved the submarines from Sydney to Garden Island – suck on that Sydney! When one of the Owen Class Submarines, Otway was being sold off, Simms Metals bought it for scrap and a few idiots at Holbrook had an idea, why don’t we see if we can get it here for a display. Well these brave men

Access to command centre

Officers mess

went to Simms and asked if they could purchase the outer hull (Submarines have 2 hulls, an inner pressure hull that keeps them dry and an outer hull that protects the inner hull so they stay dry). Simms said no worries, they would sell them as much as they wanted at scrap metal prices. So much for and idiotic idea.

They then trucked each of the sections from Sydney to Holbrook and reassembled it. They have the

Officers mess

Crew bunks

complete submarine that would be seen on the surface, conning tower, the lot. They also have the control room equipment and periscope that works. They have a small museum there set up and we went through that. They have a hologram presentation and the control room where you can look through the periscope.

Control room

Maureen even managed to take a picture through it. It is just the most amazing thing in the middle of the wheatbelt, it is like having it in Katanning!

From Holbrook, we decamped again and headed the expedition towards Albury, our planned overnight stop and had the intention to stop at the Ettamooga Pub that was listed on our map. Alas

and alack, we did not see any marked turnoffs for it. We were both looking and neither saw it so it may no longer be there. We got to Albury and started looking for a caravan park, our guide said there were 5, how hard could it

Maureen at the periscope

be. Well bloody hard, we found one but it looked really crappy, so we moved on. There are no caravan signs so I made the executive decision to abandon the search and head for Wodonga, hopefully better luck. Problem is with driving around a town with a caravan and you don’t know the streets, is too nerve wracking at the end of the day.

Girt and Trude through the periscope

We drove to Wodonga which was only 20kms so no big deal and similar issue except that we saw a sign saying turn for caravan park, which we did, and then nothing to the point we thought we were lost. A quick phone call and all sorted, just had to go another km or two. Tomorrow, Echuca.

Girt and Trude with HMAS Otway