The ANI themed blog

Interesting to note that some 60% of Australian exports pass through the South China Sea (SCS) notably through the disputed territories.
Australian is spending an awful lot of money on assets to “protect” these shipping lanes, but to protect them from whom?
Presumably China. Is China that stupid that it would attack its own vessels? Is China likely to attack its own ships with cargo bound for its own ports and industry?
Increasingly Australian mines and minerals industries and of late port infrastructure has been purchased by the Chinese military wing of the communist party.
Since Australia no longer has even a single ship that is registered, built nor manned that passes through the waters of the SCS why on earth would we seek to “defend” the shipping that passes through these waters?
Secondly why would we seek to increase tensions with our largest trading partner over such an unlikely action on their part?

I am interested in learning about RAN crew members that were part of the HMAS Brisbane construction. Here’s why: My wife was born in Bay City, Michigan in 1966 and she was quickly put up for adoption. She is looking for her biological father. Her adoption papers say that her father was from Australia and was part of the Royal Australian Navy. The only connection we can find to tie a RAN person to Bay City, Michigan, is the Defoe shipyard. Defoe built 3 ships for the RAN. HMAS Brisbane was one of them.
My wife’s biological mother and some of her family actually worked for Defoe in the 1960’s. We surmise that her mother met a RAN person while on the job at Defoe…..and the rest is history. Given my wife’s birthday in April 1966 we suspect her parents met in 1965 while Defoe was building the HMAS Brisbane. We are looking to find what RAN persons were at Defoe in 1965. Any help or direction is very much appreciated.