From the Davy Jones’s Locker
As part of the ANI’s 50th Anniversary commemorations, selected articles from the first editions of the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute will be reproduced in the weekly newsletter and website. They will no doubt illuminate both how the Royal Australian Navy has changed, but also how some of the issues affecting the Navy are perennial. The archive of all Journals (later renamed Headmark) are available to members on the website. The first article reproduced is appropriately the first in the inaugural edition. It was written by the ANI’s founding President, Commodore Vernon Parker.
From the President
It gives me great pleasure to write this first message to members of the Australian Naval Institute. In the years to come many people will write for the Journal and so it is with this certainty and also the belief that the Institute will grow and go from strength to strength, that prompts me to say that at last, we people devoted to the advancement of professional knowledge with respect to maritime affairs from an Australian stand point, have a, forum dedicated to expressing such views. We should be proud to belong to the Institute and having got off to such an auspicious start we can be quite confident about the future. I would like to express my appreciation of the hard work carried out by the steering Committee and others associated with our beginning and also to thank you for the honour of electing me the first president.
The Australian Naval Institute – How It Began
In October 1973, late one night, when usually the most eloquent arguments are pro-pounded, the clearest statements made, and the Navy is put to rights V. Parker and J. Robertson came to the not original conclusion that what is needed is a Naval Society. During the following few months the idea was discussed with various people to gain some indication of support. Thus it was on 12 July 1974, 16 officers met in the Conference Room of Navy Building 2, Russell Offices, Canberra to more formally discuss the proposal. At this meeting the formation of a Naval Society, with the broad aims of encouraging and promoting the advancement of knowledge related to the Navy and the maritime profession and to provide a forum for an exchange of ideas related to the Naval profession, received encouraging support. A Steering Committee was formed consisting of V. Parker, J. Robertson, L.G. Fox, W.B. Loftus, A.M.F. Summers, N.E. McDonald and K.W. Grierson. Several Meetings of the Steering Committee then followed, under the Chairmanship of W.B. Loftus and drafted a constitution for consideration by the Registrar of Companies for Incorporation in the ACT. It was decided that the Society should be called the Australian Naval Institute and on 2 October 1974 a letter was forwarded to the Minister of Defence requesting approval to use the word ‘Naval’ this being a specified word for the purposes of the Defence (Prohibited Words and Letters) Regulations. The proposal received out of session Naval Board support. Notwithstanding, it was not until 15 January 1975 that the Minister’s approval dated 7 January 1975 was received Meanwhile membership was slowly increasing and reached 30 by 21 January 1975.
With Ministerial approval to use the word ‘Naval, our Honorary Solicitors were instructed on 21 January 1975 to formally seek incorporation. A most extraordinary series of events then followed. At first the Registrar did not like our objectives. Then he thought the use of the word ‘Naval’ should be referred to the Attorney-General. When it was pointed out that the Minister of Defence had approved this the Registrar then demanded to see the original of the approval and not to receive this through the Officers of the Institute but direct from the Department of Defence. You may draw your own conclusions from this stipulation. In any event the Registrar referred the whole question of incorporation to the Attorney-General in early March 1975. In early April the Attorney-General queried whether the Australian Naval Institute was associated with the Navy League or Naval Association, which at the time, you may recall, were issuing statements to the press on Naval policy. The Attorney-General was informed that we had no association with these two bodies and for that matter with any other organisation. Frustrated by these delays and in expectation of an earlier consent to our application a Special General Meeting had been set down for 4 April 1975. This was duly held and an interim Council elected, an Auditor appointed and a paper “Law of the Sea-Defence Implication’ was delivered by Commodore K.D. Gray DFC ADC RAN, an historic first. On the books on that date were 57 foundation members.
The Attorney-General gave his consent in April 1975. The Registrar approved the publication of an advertisement in the Canberra Times on 24 April 1975 giving notice of the intention to form the Australian Naval Institute. The ANI was formally incorporated on 10 June 1975 at which time the membership stood at 68. In all, twenty months from conception to realisation.
Vernon Parker
