THE Story of NIRIMBA Apprentices from 1956 to 1966 скачать в хорошем качестве

THE Story of NIRIMBA Apprentices from 1956 to 1966

The RAN began training its own trades apprentices in July 1956 at HMAS NIRIMBA. The decision to train its own apprentices was due to a severe shortage of transfers of skilled artificers from the Royal Navy and dwindling enlistments of qualified Australian tradesmen. These tradesmen shortages were largely due to a severe global skills shortage in the post WW2 recovery and boom period, very much like Australia is experiencing in 2025. The RAN’s apprenticeship scheme was highly sought after and in its first decade produced highly skilled tradesmen for the RAN’s expanding modernised fleet of mainly steam powered ships and its new Fleet Arm. This presentation by Bill Marcroft, a former NIRIMBA apprentice and later Marine Engineer Officer, looks at NIRIMBA “the place” and the diverse range of activities that made the Royal Australian Navy Apprentice Training Establishment (RANATE) such a success during its first decade of operation. Many previously unseen photos will provide a graphic understanding of what life was like for the young sixteen- to twenty-year-old apprentices during their four years of intensive training before joining The Fleet. The PowerPoint style trip down memory lane of “NIRIMBA the place” is based mainly on photos from Bill’s own collection along with others generously provided by the large cohort of ex NIRIMBA apprentices, mainly from the period covering 1956 to 1966.