OHS WHAT WAS THAT Your views Please
Well Occupational Health and Safety well this we will all have a lot to say about and by the way I am prompted to write this after a nag with Ron Pope ex Cook who paid off in 1975. He rang me out of the blue last week and we had a good nag as i do anyway, we touched on this briefly he metioned when he was on the Duchess in Dry Dock and they had to rip all the lagging off the Pipes and they done it with no shirts and no masks, SWA is what they had They only had the tools they worked with and precious else. I got to thinking it would be interesting to hear your recollections on this subject Mine are many and I could almost say OHS rules were pretty much non existant when i joined pussers. In most cases those in charge had no idea and if they did then any safety issues in most cases were glossed over. It was get the job done and not too much was taken in to account for the wellbeing of the Sailor performing tasks. Now we have all been on Ships with Guns and all you hear is 'Be warned A or B turret is about to open fire' Then Kaboom well now not once did i hear. shit those guns make a hell of a noise we really should issue all the sailors with Ear Plugs or Ear Muffs to protect their ears, no, did'nt hear it once. It was - 'Here go and draw a Jason Pistol and start chipping away', no ear muffs or nothing in most cases and masks well they were'nt ever used, we got a white paper mask if they had them on board, if not, you went without. Christ knows how much damage I may have caused to myself. It wasnt till i was getting out of Pussers that a lot of these issues were being addressed and the Navy started to take a little more care with its' most valuable resource, its saiors. Now this is going back a bit but if any of you can remember the Atomic Bombs that were set of in SA here at a place called MARLINGA. I have seen pictures and newsreels of these blasts and the blokes that were within 3kilometeres of the blast area were told to turn their backs and put their hands over their eyes. I have actually seen this film so i think a lot of the times those in charge were just as ignorant of the danger of radio active fallout in many cases were were led by the misinformed. I can only hope for you new age Saiors a lot of these problems have been addressed and a lot of the ex Cooks who are now on disability pensions are the legacy of inadequate OHS rules and regulations. As a lot of us are aware the Navy moved at a very slow pace when it came to the welfare of the Sailors and I hope this has changed and I would like if there are some modern day Sailors out reading this post to put your expieriences down. A lot of you young ones these days are now benefiting from the hard learned lessons that those before you had to endure, well at least I hope thats the case. Please don't think im an old salt blowing my horn, If you are put in a compromising position and your Chief or whoever is in charge asks you to do a task that you think could be detrimental to your health if you did'nt have the appropraite safety gear, then don't take the time honoured stance of "DO the job first and then complain later " too much of this went on, I do hope the Navy has moved forward . Hindsight is a wonderful thing and to be fair to a lot of the Chiefs and WOs in charge, well you were only following orders in most cases. I will not go down the track of apportioning blame to any one in particular it was just the way things were done in my time.It was not just a Navy thing but it was widespread in all working environments Civilian and Military . In closing I will say if any one out there reading this that feels that he she has suffered some form disability due to the inadequate OHS whist they were in the service then please contact your local Veterans Affairs Office and lodge a claim. Thanks all I have dribbled on a bit and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this is important to us all. Regards to all and I look forward to reading your replies.

Quinny a very good subject,but,as a cook what the f......hell were you doing with a jason pistol, that crap was for the QMG s ,WMs and what ever paint chippers rate I left out,and that is not being nasty to our seamanship troops as on the Melbourne that is all they did ,scrape the paint off and paint it again,now back to our subject OHS,having only served on one ship during my time (six of my ten years on the Melbourne) i can only speak of what is ahead for sailors who served on our flag ship,a nasty little bug that was sort of wrapped around all heating and forced air cooling was full of asbestos,and I don`t care what anyone tells us ,it will get us all eventually,I don`t have contact with too many ex navy guys,but, the few I do were all on the Melb and all have respitory problems ,don`t get me wrong, i`m not having a sook ,it is just a fact of life we were a number and when our time was up that was the end of it, today it would cost them millions to put there staff in that enviroment

Bob, I spent nearly every spare minute on the Uppers or inside the Ship and over the Ships Side on a Pontoon (alongside of course) hanging off a Jason Pistol, or alternatively a Paint Brush, Scraper etc. When we were'nt doing that, we were dogging down all types of vehicles - from APC's, Trucks Landrovers to Bulldozers and Scrapers and Loaders and LARC's and assorted General Cargo and Container Cargo. Then there was the Tank Deck which had to be painted over with a Tar Epoxy mix fairly regularly.(using Rollers for most of the Deck and Brushes for cutting In around the edges. This was on LCH's where the Ships Cook makes up the numbers as an extra Dibbie. (My Action Station on both LCH's was the Port 50 Cal as the extra Dibbie) and I was part of the Landing Party. You are also allocated a Berthing Line or Spring when tying up or leaving alongside. (I had the Headline on both Tarakan and Betano, because I could chuck a Heaving Line better than the replacement Dibbies who started arriving straight from Cerberus instead of doing Ords time first) I even recall Painting and Chipping in the Main Galley on the Melbourne behind the Ovens. (the 2nd time round as Ships Company - not CAG) and a Chipping Hammer penetrated through the Bulkhead into the Cafe. On The Hobart, most of the Cooks worked in the Magazines, First aiders and /or damage control whilst closed up for action. (just a couple stayed back to man the Galley) My Station was Damage Control down below the After Seamans Mess with a set of headphones on and connected to HQ2 - spooky being shut in down there by yourself with the hatches closed over you. I learnt to Splice, make Monkeys Fists and Turks Heads from Tony Mayes who was an ABQMG and Buffer on Tarakan. ( I believe Tony is still in Pussers as a Rocky WO Coxswain) Sorry mate, got a bit carried away there, not complaining, at the time I loved it. :P

Well there ya go! Yep! flexibility....and please take note, I was also made quite welcome in the galley rather than skulking around in the uppers with a chippin' hammer or over the side on a bosuns chair with Jasons pistol, (which incidentally we called needle guns) On the point of ear protection/muffs, if I didn't use them whether it be in the turret, on the uppers during shoots like down on the quarterdeck, out on the rifle range, using jason pistols etc etc.,? I'd be stone deaf right now. Guess it was just self preservation. When we had a shoot lets say a 50 cal, lot of crewmembers used to come up and have a look. Dump the 44 gallon drum overboard, move away and then blat away trying to sink the perfectly safe, drum hahaa! None of the ones watching from the quarterdeck and fcstle protected their ear drums, guess for many it was a she'll be right, 'bravado' thing to not use them. The hands would do the trick....there were times I would use clean cigarette butts.

Yes when I was an Ord straight out of Cerberus I was posted to the Sydney and because it was on a run to VUNG TAU I filled in on the Melbourne until she came back. As an Ord Ck you did'nt see much Galley time you we were either Cafe Party or on the upper deck doing basic seamanship duties, watch on deck and part of ship duties for the rest of the day. I was flight deck part of ship on the Sydney and we done a lot of chipping and painting. Id go as far to say there would'nt have been too many Ords of that era that hadnt used a Jason Pistol. It was all the go in those days. Bob you must have been one of the lucky ones. Multi skilled we all were and as always you just were'nt a Cook, now they have these minimum manned ships this really comes into its own. Your part of Ship - Galley and Cafe Party etc - If it needed painting then you done it. Yes Bob a lot of us suffering now from that Asbestos Dust, I was on the top bunk on the Vendetta in 1974 and I had a hot water line running over my bunk and when we done a Gunnery Shoot the dust of the lagging would cover my rack. We were unaware of the dangers, so I just shook or brushed the Dust off all through the mess everyone who had a Top Bunk was in the same predicament as there were overhead pipies lagged with Asbestos all through the Mess. I was in 3CZ Mess in those days and I have memories of this occuring, and not once did we think this dust we all inhaled would come back and bite us on the arse. Regards Quinny

And no Bob I dont think any one thinks you are a sook, we were'nt allowed to whinge in those days. It's a different story now and we must all get the word out.We are all getting older now and not one of us has'nt been affected to some degree by our Navy Service . Sure, I loved my time in Pussers, we all did, but we are paying the penaly in some way now.

Have to agree with all the above comments. Also did the Ords time on the uppers on the Vung Tau ferry and did heaps of chipping and painting etc with the rattling guns. Another thing with pussers when away up top or in the tropics was to get the clobber off and get as much of the gamma rays as possible. We were encouraged to do so because it was good for you. No such thing as slip slop slap in those days.I wonder how many sailors have skin cancers etc from those days.

Mate I'm gonna tread very carefully when I say this, and if anyone gets offended I sincerely apologise ok. But back in them days, beepin asbestos was EVERYWHERE in the air that we breathed. One of the first tips I got from an old school motor mechanic was that before you remove brake drums from a car, always wet it first. As this was a well known practice for those in the know, to stabilize asbestos dust which was commonly used in brake linings way back then. So, we breathed the stuff in no matter where we went, the only way the stuff was cleared from the air was when it rained and washed out to sea? All our buildings had asbestos in the board materials, insulation around piping etc., even the toaster had blue asbestos in it....you know them insulators between the elements? It was the best fire retardent/insulation stuff around, and still is. And I've got bad news for all of ya's, the BS continues....they may have banned asbestos ok, but what about all the manmade ceramic fibres around which are JUST AS DANGEROUS as asbestos fibre, only under a different name. Oh it isn't asbestos we're using anymore, the stuff they/we use runs under different more 'friendly' name?..but is just as deadly if it is lodged in ones lungs. For a while after pussers, I was in the building demolitions game, and also a casual insulation lagging contractor, and asbestos remover. Got some stories which would bowl some of you over bigtime concerning alternative materials used, today!

On the Melbourne they used to send half a dozen Cooks into the fresh water tanks to chip back and repaint it with that silver paint i think to memory it was suppose to 15mins in and 1/2 an hr out but as usual you went in came out at break time the paint fumes were great as well as the dust ,heat etc

Don`t think i was a lucky one Quinny,I pulled a lot of moves to get out of that seaman ship and watch on deck routine,in six or seven months as an od/ck on the flat top I did one watch of I think they called it watch on deck.it was in early hours of morning and I spent two hours on the bridge as bridge messenger, Messenger my arse,spent two hours polishing brass,that was my one and only day playing sailors,was back working in cafe party for rest of my time as an od,did spend a month en route from recruit scool to join Melb at the Tross painting street gutters and anything else that stood still getting the joint ready for admirals

talk about painting gutters i must have done them 1/2 dozen times at coonawarra on no9s i think the worst i did while i was on punishment was paint the coonawarra bell with clear varnish after i had polished it on no9s then took a couple of weeks to fix it after they woke up to what i had done

Oops! doesn't cut it when you are told to lift/off caps does it?

na but i had a DO that hated me before i got there when he was a middy got one of his mates booted out on racism so at coonawarra i could be 24 off and still front for what ever happened while i was gone but the icing on the cake was withe doc when he told me i had a problem with alcohol and had heard from the wardroom stewards that he was a heavy drinker through it back at him went up on contempt to the queen no9s for a couple of months then 10s and back to a seaman rating for the third time

Here are a couple of photos showing what Cooks got up to on Smallies.(HMAS Tarakan) I am on top of the container in the top photo and in the lower left in the bottom photo. It was taken in Townsville either in '76 or '77. WPHS had'nt been in for long then, they made us wear Bash Hats. (but it was ok to be a dogman)

Geez Cliff! I am so envious that you've got all these photos, much like Russ Graystone you have one mean collection. And I can only wish I had a few of all those awesome piss runs I had in places like Mauritius, Mombasa, Karachi, Bombay, Bahrain, Ethiopia etc..