MSA Brolga in 2001 |
|
| Career (Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | The Brolga |
| Builder: | Australian Shipbuilding Industries |
| Launched: | 1975 |
| Acquired: | 10 February 1988 |
| Decommissioned: | 2003 |
| Renamed: | Lumen (1975-1988) MSA Brolga (1988-2003) Retriever 1 (2003-present) |
| Reclassified: | Lighthouse tender (1975-1988) Minesweeper(1988-2003) |
| Homeport: | HMAS Waterhen (until sale) |
| Status: | Active in private service as of 2008 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 268 tons full load |
| Length: | 28.45 m (93.3 ft) |
| Beam: | 8.1 m (27 ft) |
| Draught: | 3.5 m (11 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 1 Mirrlees Blackstone diesel 540 hp, 1 shaft |
| Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 8 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
I-band navigation radar |
MSA (Minesweeper Auxiliary) Brolga (1102) was a minesweeper operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1988 and 2003. She was constructed in Fremantle, Western Australia by Australian Shipbuilding Industries (now Tenix) in 1975, and first served as the lighthouse tender Lumen for the Australian Department of Transport.
She was purchased by the RAN on 10 February 1988, and entered service as a Minesweeper Auxiliary (Small). Brolga was one of three Minesweeper Auxiliaries operating as part of the Craft of Opportunity (COOP) Program[1] under the command of the Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Group, along with MSA Bandicoot and MSA Walleroo.[2]
MSA Brolga saw operational service off Bougainville, supporting the Peace Monitoring Group during Operation Belisi.[3]
In 2003, Brolga was sold at auction for AU$255,000. She was returned to Fremantle, Western Australia, where statements given at the time of the auction indicated that she was to be used as a mothership for a fishing fleet.[4] Instead, the ship was used for recreational purposes for 2 years, such as in a local protest for Port Coogee, and then sold to a private customer.
Converted to a diving and salvage platform, the renamed Retriever 1 was suspected to be linked to the disappearance of conman Peter Foster in January 2007. She was detained and searched multiple times by Vanuatuan police, and three of the ship's eight crew were arrested on immigration and firearms charges.[5] Three crew members were charged with harbouring Foster, but they denied the charges.[6]
However, according to Andrew Kelman, head of Transnational Crimes Unit for Vanuatu, Peter Foster had claimed he had been on the boat and had tried to make a deal with Kelman implicating the crew.[6]