What AUKUS means for Fremantle and Cockburn Sound

Well, what a night at The Local hotel in South Fremantle was Monday night!

Nostalgia here, nostalgia there. Lots of bolshy Freo folk everywhere. But others in civvies as well. And a lot of contemporary angst about everything nuclear, naval and civil. My goodness, protest was in the air, it was palpable. Quite French revolutionary.

Couldabeen Freo in the 60s, or the 70s, even the 80s. Not so sure about the 90s, but maybe the 90s too. And certainly just now.

I spotted Jo Darbyshire and her Mum over there, Jo having just curated the Desperate Measures exhibition (still showing at FAC) about Freo’s peak protest years of the late 70s, early 80s. Jo probably recognised some of the faces in The Local crowd from her exhibition photographs, and I suspect was on the lookout for some newer ones for her next exhibition.

Fiona Stanley, she of the hospital, could be one. She was making notes even before the speakers spake. Plainly had things on her mind. As we discovered later.

And was that Jo Valentine over there, the famed anti nuclear-powered ships in Freo port protester, near the window, looking as sharp-minded as ever? My goodness, it was! And when she assumed her place in the relay team of questioners later, she was as sharp as.

There was the odd former Australian Ambassador here, and pollies local and State there, doing their best to mingle, inconspicuously, in the crush of Freo folk out for a good old fashioned Freo knees-up.

As it transpired, Politics in the Pub, a treasured regular event presented by Christian Mauri and Rob Delves for the Fremantle Network, was the cause of all this blasting from the past and bonhomie. With the night’s well advertised topic being ‘What AUKUS means for Fremantle and Cockburn Sound’, how could it be anything but a flame to so many Freo peace moths. Just saying ‘AUKUS’ around Freo and Cockburn these days is a bit like saying Orcas near a colony of resting seals in the Antarctic. Not well received.

And add the word Americans and, phew, anything could happen.

Christian and Rob had cleverly fuelled expectations for this event though, stoked the fire one might say, by inviting not only Freo Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, recently back from visiting US naval and military establishments on the US east and west coasts – especially San Diego – with other local government pollies from near Freo on what some have cruelly called a ‘junket’, to tell the punters what she had learned. Namely, pressure on housing supply and public transport in the broader Freo/Cockburn region will simply be accelerated by an influx of new immigrants to our previously quiet, sedate even, part of the world, which needs to be properly and quickly planned for. Hannah also let punters into the secret that the citizens of San Diego apparently don’t seem all that concerned about whether nuclear is risky or otherwise a bad thing. Thousands of San Diego workers – like 130,000 – apparently commute from Mexico each day to San Diego because it’s cheaper living south of the border. Maybe the Tequila Sunrises are cheaper there too and help to dull the senses?

Commodore Matt Hudson from the new ASA – Australian Submarine Agency – has the unenviable job it seems of explaining to ordinary folk outside Navy just how the arrival of nuclear-powered submarines and the things and people – including lots of Americans, whether or not commuting from Mexico – required to maintain the subs now and into the future, will fit into our existing urban and social structures. ‘Policy’, Matt made clear, was not his topic. Facts and figures and trust and transparency in dealing with we the locals are his concern. His job, one gathers, is to be the human, naval face of the new and fast-growing nuclear-powered submarine base at HMAS Stirling.

One of the first heckles of the night came when Matt repeated the oft-repeated claim that the low-level, radiation waste from the nuke submarines was akin to the low-level radiation found in hospitals, like gloves and masks. By the end of the evening, in the face of precise questioning from Leonie Lundy from Stop AUKUS, and KA Garlick from the Nuclear Free WA Collective, Matt sensibly expanded on his initial gloss to accept the nuke subs’ waste would be more than that – just what he did not say – with a half life of 300 years, and it would be contained – not yet clear how or where in the longer term – on the Defence Estate.

And then Daniel – oops, Paul Myler, just days after formally retiring from his 30 year career in DFAT and his return from a 4 year posting to Washington DC as Deputy Chief of Mission, a former Ambassador to Russia, and the evening’s Star Turn – voluntarily entered the lions’ den. Paul, sensing he would be on a hiding to nothing amongst a restless crowd of Peaceniks and Peace-mongers if he did otherwise, quickly fessed up that he was on the side of Australia signing up for AUKUS and having the nuclear-powered Virginia class subs rotating in and out of HMAS Stirling. His world view went along these lines: the geo-political situation has moved dramatically in the past 15 years or so and Australia needs AUKUS to arm itself with appropriate military deterrents in the awful event things look like going pear-shaped – or is that mushroom-shaped? Paul struggled to convince everyone, although no doubt his view is the one that currently informs successive Australian governments and is held firmly within the Australian defence establishment. It is a sobering one that some folk no doubt took home with them to mull over later.

Brendan Moore, a traditional Noongar owner and the City of Fremantle Aboriginal Engagement Officer, but on this occasion speaking just for himself, started off the night by reminding everyone of the ancient stories of the skirmish between the Waugal, that looked after the Derbarl Yerrigan, and the intruding spirit crocodile Yondock that came down the coast towards the river looking for territory. The thrashing croc helped to create the Sound, Garden Island and Carnac, and its scales, when it was overcome by the Waugal, created the bar to the mouth of the Derbarl Yerrigan that existed before CY O’Connor and his construction team largely blasted the bar to smithereens when they constructed Fremantle’s inner harbour in the 1890s. Remnants of the bar remain today near the Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay.

It was left up to Phoebe Corke, resident of Cockburn and lifelong anti-nuclear campaigner, to deliver a spirited address on why AUKUS isn’t wanted and why, leaving aside the risks posed, nuclear powered submarines just invite a nuclear arms race in the Indian Ocean. Phoebe was the one of all the speakers who highlighted the dangers of the very large and growing industrial complex and population base that is so close to the expanding nuclear sub base at Stirling, and how Freo and Cockburn region would be an undoubted target in a time of hot conflict. To the extent this proposition was responded to by the panel, it was by Paul who said we were a target regardless.

If the panel members had been wondering where the sentiment in the packed out meeting room in The Local lay, they were left in no doubt after Phoebe’s address – it was met with sustained applause. One should mention at this point that The Local’s meeting room was indeed packed. Some 30 or more folk had to be turned away as there simply weren’t enough spaces to permit their attendance on top of the multitude who had reserved places via Facebook over the previous couple weeks.

After a comfort break following the panel members’ presentations, Christian lined up a relay team of those who were most anxious to ask questions. Entirely predictably, Matt and Paul copped it. As mentioned, Leonie Lundy from Stop AUKUS, and KA Garlick from the Nuclear Free WA Collective started the relay team off in spritely fashion. Matt wisely conceded quickly on the low-level, radiation waste issue, as mentioned above, and emphasised his determination to answer the AUKUS questions that will keep coming from the local communities with transparency. No doubt the odd challenging meeting will still lie ahead for Matt, but this one was probably a good initiation for him in dealing with the occasional short ball on a slightly sticky wicket. Matt also made it clear why the Stirling base is where it is and why it’s a good place for subs to tie up – Cockburn Sound has deep water.

Jo Valentine seemed more up to date on the terms of Australia’s military and defence agreements with the US than Paul, but appreciated Matt’s confirmation that unlike places like Pine Gap, Australia controls what happens on HMAS Stirling, now and into the AUKUS future, not the Americans.

Paul Myler expanded on his world view. Said again he supported AUKUS. He demurred to Fiona Stanley’s suggestion that rampant capitalism is responsible for many of the world’s woes. Nor would Paul accept Fiona’s proposition that nuclear-powered submarines are really all about making money for the US military industrial complex.

But, comfortingly, and readily, Paul acknowledged that AUKUS could be stopped. Australian’s have it in their power to say No, if they collectively want to say No. And plainly they do have that power. However, it would require quite a political movement, one suspects, at least as powerful as the Anti Conscription and Anti Vietnam War movement of the late 60s and early 70s, that led to the election of the Whitlam government in 1972, and the immediate ending of both conscription and Australia’s involvement in that War, for No to AUKUS to sway the day.

So what did the Politics in the Pub event achieve, if anything? Well, first, a great night out – like an old fashioned Dinner Party with a lot of interesting guests with a range of interesting views! But secondly, more to the point, an airing of the discontent one senses ordinary Freo and Cockburn folk have about how little they know of AUKUS and what it is likely to mean for them, and how little useful information they are being offered about AUKUS. Thirdly, the event provided the opportunity for concerned locals, in a strange sort of collective way, to demand of the Australian government that it do better in providing them with open, honest and transparent information about what the AUKUS project will mean to them in social, economic, environmental, and nuclear hazard, terms, without having to be asked continually for more information.

The AUKUS deal is a big deal for Fremantle and the surrounding local government areas adjacent to and nearby the Cockburn Sound, and indeed the State. It would not be an overstatement to suggest that what is already happening at and connected with HMAS Stirling on Garden Island under the rubric of AUKUS, and what is slated to happen over the years ahead, represents one of the the most significant naval base projects in our country’s relatively short nationhood. In particular, we need to get the impact of the project on Fremantle and Cockburn Sound right from the get-go. Hopefully, the Politics in the Pub event of Monday night was a first important step in that direction.

And folks, if you have time, you can actually watch the entire Monday night proceedings for yourselves right here on YouTube .

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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