Great Barrier Reef International Marine College

From WikiAlpha
(Redirected from Australian Maritime College)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Great Barrier Reef International Marine College had been awarded a contract to train the crews of Pacific Forum Patrol Vessels, from 1992 to 2020.[1] Australia gave 22 Pacific Forum vessels to 12 of its smaller neighbours, in the Pacific Forum, when the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) gave maritime nations a 200 kilometre Exclusive Economic Zone. Australia's small island neighbour suddenly had huge areas to police, without appropriate vessels to patrol them. Australia decided its own security was enhanced if it helped its neighbours police their own territories, with their own resource.

The training program was renewed and updated for the new Guardian class patrol vessels.[2][3][4]

The vessels were built using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology, to make it easier to maintain the vessels in small isolated shipyards. The college equipped a training vessel with duplicate COTS navigation gear, in order to train the crews of the Pacific Forum vessels.

Australia started to retire the worn-out Pacific Forum vessels, and replace them larger and more capable Guardian class patrol vessels, in 2018, and in 2021 the government gave the training contract to TAFE Queensland.[1] The new training facility will be in Cairns, where Australia refits the vessels.[5]

Maritime training facilities at the campus include[6]
  • 20 metre commercially registered vessel
  • Desktop simulators
  • Engineering workshops
  • Full mission bridge simulator
  • Multi-purpose Emergency Response Training Simulator (MERTS)
  • Sea survival training immersion pool
  • Tug optimised bridge

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 April McLennan (2021-03-10). "Tasmanian maritime college loses key Pacific training contract to Queensland TAFE". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2021-03-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20210310022342/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-10/tas-maritime-college-loses-key-contract-to-queensland-tafe/13233018. Retrieved 2021-03-10. "Launceston's Australian Maritime College has lost a multi-million dollar defence contract for a patrol boat training program it has run for almost 30 years — despite Tasmania's Minister for Defence Industries last year boasting the northern rivals could not match "28 years of action, experience, and expertise in Tasmania"." 
  2. "Pacific Maritime Training Services Program". TAFE Queensland. https://www.gbrimc.com.au/pmts. Retrieved 2024-02-21. "The Pacific Maritime Training Services (PMTS) program provides all maritime, technical, seamanship, communications and management training courses to develop the skills and capabilities of crews who operate and maintain Guardian Class Patrol Boats (GPBs)." 
  3. "Pacific-Maritime-Training-Services-Trainee-Handbook". https://www.gbrimc.com.au/files/media/original/0ce/52e/dc7/Pacific-Maritime-Training-Services-Trainee-Handbook-FINAL.pdf. Retrieved 2024-02-21. 
  4. "TAFE Queensland wins naval training contract". 2021-03-10. https://www.naval-technology.com/news/tafe-queensland-wins-naval-training-contract/. Retrieved 2021-03-10. 
  5. Jeni Bone (2010-12-08). "Cairns courts international students with marine training college". Sail World. https://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Cairns-courts-international-students-with-marine-training-college/-77801?source=google. Retrieved 2024-02-21. 
  6. "great-barrier-reef-international-marine-college". https://tafeqld.edu.au/about/campus-locations/far-north-queensland/great-barrier-reef-international-marine-college. Retrieved 2024-02-21.