Newsletter’s 2019

Exhibition at Docklands Library Planning for the OSSA November exhibition at the Dockland Library is proceeding well. The theme for this exhibition will revolve around Bass Strait Oil & Gas (this year is the 50th anniversary of the first oil), Antarctic and the Royal Australian Navy. We recently had a meeting at the Library to discuss planning at which Esso, Navy and OSSA attended. Everyone came away very excited about the location and what we will be able to showcase. Events coordinator Reg McNee and his team are bringing this all together and it will be terrific. Dates are 6th to 26th November. There will be an Opening night (exact date yet to be determined) so we hope most members

will be able to get there at some stage. We will advise the Opening Night date as soon as determined. Membership Membership growth continues. We now have 80+ members and need more!! Please spread the word as we will have roles for all.

Melbourne Maritime Heritage Network In a further development a separate organisation – Melbourne Maritime Heritage Network – has now been registered. This is a great step forward in the ambition to create a Maritime Precinct for the City of Melbourne. Chaired by Cr. Jackie Watts (Jackie is also an OSSA Board member), MMHN will seek to draw together the many maritime interests into a cohesive force to address the lack of maritime recognition in Melbourne. Networking the many skills throughout the various groups, sharing knowledge and building momentum with an ultimate ambition to have a Maritime Museum located within the docklands area. An inaugural meeting of this group will take place sometime in October and all members will be invited to attend. We will advise the date once decided.

Mission to Seafarers Renovation The Mission to Seafarers is currently undergoing restoration with all the floors in the downstairs area being the first target. This work will take some months, but the OSSA meetings will continue to take place each Thursday at 10:00 in the usual office in the Manse. As always, every member is welcome to attend.

Be Connected I would encourage all members to sign up to the “Be Connected” program dealing with IT knowledge. My wife and I have joined and have found it (much to my surprise!) to be a very informative and simple program. OSSA is benefitting with grants for arranging this and we need to make a target, so we do require your help in joining in. If any questions, please contact Dick Lowry (dick.lowry@ossa.org.au) who is coordinating this program.

Last month Peter Barrow and I were honoured to be able to give a presentation about OSSA to many interested ex Farstad people during our visit to Aalesund.

We were particularly pleased to meet up with so many of our long-time friends and colleagues during this visit and specially to meet up again with Andy Farstad who is the International Patron of OSSA.

The presentation itself was enthusiastically received and there were many questions.

The venue was at Andy Farstad’s office and about 25 people attended. We are sure they all came to hear Peter and myself speak and not because of the Pizza and soft drinks beforehand!

We were able to sow the seed that perhaps a similar activity could be started up in Ålesund and a museum covering the offshore involvement of the Ålesund area could be both of international interest and a selling point for local industry such as ship building, machinery etc.

My name is Heather Berry, and I’m currently studying my Masters of Cultural Materials Conservation at the Grimwade Centre at the University of Melbourne.

This degree teaches students chemistry in order to conserve and preserve objects, arts, or paper. My specific area of interest is objects, which is super broad, so I’ve specialised it down to maritime objects conservation. Essentially, I would like to work in a museum or a similar context, preventing maritime objects whether they be textiles, metals, papers, books, or organic materials like wood, from deteriorating, and helping conserve objects that have deteriorated.

A background to how I got to this course: I did a double major in Psychology and Ancient World Studies at Melbourne Uni in my undergrad and went on to do an honours year in Ancient World Studies but realised this

wouldn’t exactly be a job in and of itself! So, I took a year off, and lived in the Seychelles, diving and doing coral conservation and subsequently getting my dive masters and working at a dive shop.

When I came back to Melbourne, I decided to pursue a Masters, found the cultural conservation course and thought it would be perfect to combine my love of the ocean and diving, and my love of history, since I could become a maritime objects conservator. How I found OSSA is quite a funny story; I work part time at Tiffany & Co in Collins Street, and a lady came in looking for a present to herself to celebrate her one year anniversary of opening her own business; we got chatting and I asked what her business was, she said a law firm, and when I asked what kind of law she practiced she told me about maritime law.

I said I was interested in maritime object conservation, and studying conservation at Uni, to which she responded that she had just joined up with a group called OSSA with an amazing collection of objects, and I should come along to a meeting! We exchanged email addresses, and Alison accompanied me to my first meeting in May.

I’m really excited to come on board with OSSA and to be of any assistance in the care of their amazing collection!

There once were three vessels which were built to service the extensive Woodside Petroleum Oil & Gas assets (Platforms & Rigs) off King Bay, Dampier, WA. The vessels were named Shelf Challenger, Shelf Ranger and Shelf Supporter. The Shelf prefix designates their area of operation – the continental shelf off the WA coast.

Around the time of the Millennium Woodside decided that operating vessels was not really part of their core business and subsequently sold them to IOS the Company formed by the partnership between P&O and Farstad and forerunner to FSIP (Farstad Shipping India Pacific) being created through a buyout of P&O’s interest in Offshore Shipping by Farstad AS the principal company headquartered in Aalesund, Norway in 2003. Subsequent to this the three vessels were bedecked in IOS colours and renamed Lady Christine ( ex-Supporter) Lady Gerda (ex-Challenger) and Lady Margaret (ex-Ranger).

The Lady Christine was retained and chartered by Woodside as a multi-purpose vessel for many years.

The other two were for some time seconded to Vietnam where they were chartered to JVPC (Japanese/Vietnamese Petroleum Company) along with another venerable IOS ship the Lady Cynthia.

They all became part of the FSIP family and worked for many years in the oilfields in SE Asia and Australia.

Eventually they were all sold – the Margaret went to work in west Africa initially for Farstad then other interests there. The Gerda was sold and reflagged in India working out of Mumbai. She is still afloat, but not in good condition as evidenced by a recent photo. The Christine is Malaysian flagged and is incredibly still working in the North Sea oilfields running out of Aberdeen.