More than 150 people attended the 2023 Goldrick Seminar held at the Australian Defence Force Academy on 19 October. This was the first Goldrick Seminar since the passing of former ANI President, Rear Admiral James Goldrick on 17 March.
In staging the 2023 Seminar, the ANI partnered with the Naval Studies Group at the University of New South Wales (Canberra), the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Seapower Centre. The corporate sponsors for the event were the Australian Missile Corporation, Kongsberg Defence Australia and Luerssen Australia. Among other things the corporate sponsorship will allow for three podcasts to be produced from some of our presentations given today as part of the ANI’s Saltwater Strategist series.
The theme for this year’s Goldrick Seminar was The Influence of Seapower on Australia’s Future. The Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond delivered the keynote address in which he emphasised the importance of the blue economy and the application of seapower to Australia’s future. He also highlighted the need for Australian society to be given the opportunity gain a greater appreciation of this relationship.
The Seminar presentations covered the wide spectrum elements that contribute to seapower. Professor Michelle Voyer outlined the growing importance of the ‘Blue Economy’ to Australia’s development, while Professor Bec Strating gave a sweeping overview of the influence of seapower on the nation’s security. These excellent two presentations will be soon released as podcasts as part of the ANI’s Saltwater Strategist podcast series. Also to be released as a podcast, was the keenly awaited presentation by Rear Admiral Matt Buckley on the work of the Australian Submarine Agency which was established on 1 July 2023.
The afternoon session was devoted to three panels of the centrality of shipbuilding, the enabling role of people and of industry. In the shipbuilding session the panel discussed the complexity inherent in building warships and the need to have long term commitment to the enterprise. There also a view that Australia has, and can going forward, build cost-effectively high quality warships. It does, however, require good decisions and policy settings, a skilled workforce, commitment and confidence. Some of these themes were carried on into the industry panel. It was clear from discussions that industry is keen, following the Defence Strategy Review for the follow-on studies to be expedited so that they can respond to Defence’s realigned requirements. One of the policy pieces of particular interest will be the release of the Government’s Defence Industry Development Strategy which may be released as early as next month.
The panel discussions on people discussed the improving Navy retention rates and the high quality of people serving in todays’s RAN. There was considerable discussion about both the recruitment process and the achievement rates in recent years.
The People panel was led by Chief of Personnel, Lieutenant General Natasha Fox who explained that Adecco Australia is the new commercial provider for recruitment services. They commenced operations on 1 November 2022, with an eight month transition period completing on 30 June 2023. General Fox explained the new recruiting process is more streamlined, faster and provides more feedback and assistance to candidates. The early results are promising.
Finally, during the Goldrick Seminar, the book The Yachties: The Australian Volunteers in the Royal Navy 1940–45 by Janet Roberts Billet was launched by Vice Admiral Jones. The book chronicles the history of the Australian involvement in the Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme. Janet’s book sheds a light on the wide range of service the ‘Yachties’ actually undertook. Vice Admiral Jones said “They seemed to be everywhere. Besides the Battle of the Atlantic they took part in the Dieppe and St Nazaire raids, defused mines and unexploded bombs, were in the Mediterranean, on gunboats in the English Channel, in the Persian Gulf, at the D-Day landings at Normandy, and finally, in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.”
The last surviving ‘Yachtie’, Lieutenant Doug Gilling, aged 102, passed away on 15 July. There were, however, a sizeable contingent of ‘Yachtie’ descendants who attended the book launch. They later attended a Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial for the first Yachtsman Scheme casualty, Ordinary Seaman Bill McGregor who was killed in an air raid at Portsmouth Barracks within a few weeks of arrival in the UK on 27 April 1941.
In addition to the podcasts from the Goldrick Seminar, selected papers and presentations will soon be accessable at https://navalinstitute.com.au/goldrick-seminar-archive/
A book review of The Yachties is also forthcoming and copies can be ordered on-line at https://scholarly.info/book/the-yachties/
