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Ghost ship believed to be HMAS Townsville .
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For well over a year this blog's roaming, at times raving,maritime reporter has been keeping watch on the tied up , decommissioned Fremantle class patrol boat , HMAS Townsville . It seems almost abandoned,no visible activity going on ; its name was even removed as if it were about to be sent to scrapmetal dealers.
Nobody in the local landlubber media apparently noticed that this once proud naval vessel was a nameless hulk tied up in the Ross Creek, Townsville, North Queensland, a military garrison town , its numbers recently boosted by arrivals from Darwin.
HMAS Townsville played the part of HMAS Defiance in the popular ABC series, Patrol Boat .
The government gave the vessel to the Townsville Maritime Museum in 2007 to be looked after by volunteers and placed in a dry dock for display.
Work on the dry dock was scheduled to start in mid-2012, pending council approval of building plans and obtaining additional funds. Thankfully,the ship's name has been restored . But what is its future ?
In the poorly presented text messages to the editor page of the Townsville Bulletin of February 24 the following pertinent item appeared, probably not noticed by the newspaper , but worth a follow up : Can someone please take responsibility for the patrol boat Townsville rotting at CB (Curtin Brothers) Marine , put it on concrete blocks as a static display at Jazzine Barracks ,scrap it or sink it as a dive site. It's embarrassing as a city to have it sitting there rotting and a danger in cyclone season . If you can't afford to maintain or display an object you shouldn't be given it to start with. Embarrassing waste. Archie, North Ward.
