Coast guards in Australia

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Australia, with 19,650 kilometres of coastline does not have a force purely to defend its coast. The duty of patrolling the Australian coastline falls to the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Customs (through its Coastwatch division), and the Police services of the states. In addition, there are several private volunteer coast guard organizations, the two largest rival organizations being the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol (established in 1937) and the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard (established in 1961). These volunteer organizations have no law enforcement powers, but are essentially auxiliary Search and Rescue services.

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[edit] Australian Volunteer Coast Guard

The Australian Volunteer Coast Guard is an organization akin to the United Kingdom's Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It is a search and rescue service that provides:

  • monitoring of emergency radio channels;
  • tracking services for recreational boaters;
  • public education and training programmes; and
  • safety patrols.

[edit] Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol

In 1936 Commander Rupert Long, OBE, RAN, Director of Naval Intelligence raised with retired Captain Maurice Blackwood, DSO, RN the possibility of raising a group of trained yachtsmen as a Naval Auxiliary Service. Discussions were held with HWG Nobbs and W Giles, both Sydney yachtsmen and a proposal sent to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board that a Volunteer Coastal Patrol be established under the command of Captain Blackwood. The Naval Board supported this and on the 27th March 1937 the Volunteer Coastal Patrol was established under the command of Captain Blackwood, DSO, RN (rtd) with H.W.G. Nobbs as Staff Officer Operations and W Giles as Staff Officer Administration.

During World War II Coastal Patrol members became special constables and guarded commercial wharves, oil installations and bridges. By the war's end, patrol vessels had patrolled 128,000 miles of harbour and coastal waters and donated 393,000 man-hours of unpaid war service. They were granted the right to fly the Police Nemesis pennant as recognition of this service and the right to fly the New South Wales State Flag as their ensign.

Post war development saw the Patrol undertake civilian search and rescue operations as their primary role but maintain their original Royal Australian Navy inspired organisation structure, ranks and uniform. 1955 saw a democratically elected council formed which directed the development and administration of the Patrol and appointed the Officer Commanding. 1963 saw the Patrol become an incorporated company and the articles of association written. In 1974, Her Majesty the Queen granted the Patrol the privilege of adding the Royal prefix to its title when it became the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol.

Today the Patrol works closely with all government agencies in search and rescue and education to the boating public. They maintain constant watch in Radio Bases for marine traffic, work with the Water Police in search and rescue as well as crowd control at major maritime events, run education classes in seamanship, navigation, first aid and meteorology for the public as well as providing constant information to Radio Stations and TV stations regarding sea conditions etc.

All members of the Patrol are volunteers with a large proportion of their time devoted to fund raising to purchase the latest equipment and vessels.

[edit] External link

[edit] Efforts to create a single Australian Coast Guard

After the MV Tampa incident, and the declaration of the War on Terrorism, in 2001 Kim Beazley announced that the Australian Labor Party, if in government, would establish an Australian Coast Guard "responsible for conducting Australia's coastal surveillance and meeting Australia's maritime protection needs, including in relation to illegal immigration, drugs, fisheries, and quarantine-related issues".[1] This plan met with criticism. Peter Reith criticized Beazley for stating that an Australian Coast Guard both will and will not be an "answer to the question of people smuggling".[2] The plan was criticized by the Australian government, on the grounds that it would either be prohibitively expensive or inadequate to the task. It later became a plan to extend the capabilities of the Australian Federal Police.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Margo Kingston. "The Beazley vision", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2001-09-06. — Kim Beazley's address to the Asia-Australia Institute at the University of New South Wales
  2. ^ (2001-09-14). "Transcript of the Hon Peter Reith M.P. address to the AAA National Party breakfast, Victoria Club, Melbourne" (Microsoft Word).
  3. ^ Stuart Rosewarne (2004-10-12). "Engaging with the politics of fear: the Australian labour movement's fandango with the conservative putsch on the war against". University of Sydney.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links