Mrs Macquarie's view

Lady Elizabeth Macquarie - wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie - used to sit on her convict-carved stone chair, enjoying the best view of Sydney Harbour.

She is said to have made a point of watching ships arriving from England. Maybe a bit like me taking a look at the two 'Canberra class landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships' at nearby Garden Island.

They are said to have been built in Spain, and are being finished off in Melbourne and here in Sydney. But they don't half look like one we saw being built in southern India last year. There had been a strict ban on photography around the shipyard there, and now I see why. The Spaniards contracted the job out to India and don't want anyone to know!

So what do we want our LHDs to do for us? In the words of militaryfactory.com  it's 'to strengthen the RAN inventory against growing regional threats (such as that posed by China)'. You could probably paraphrase that as 'so we could fight a war against China', but put that simply it sounds as stupid as it probably is. That's the navy for you, I guess. There again, watching the news today, it starts to look like we really have been given a role in some geopolitical adventure folly in the South China Sea by our American masters. The Macquaries would have been quite at home with geopolitical adventures, of course. That's why they were here to start with.

What else have we got for Mrs Macquarie to look at? We've got an endless deluge of lunchtime joggers, some of them just running up and down a flight of steps for their whole lunch break. We've got the world's most photographed opera house and bridge. We've got all the tourists photographing them.









So she's got a colourful and lively place to sit and pass the time.

Reviewing the fleet

I reviewed the fleet the other day. Along with a few others, admittedly, I took my place on the walkway on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and on cue, in the warships steamed, single file, projecting their full might and power in a wonderful early twentieth century way. The Opera House and Fort Denison quaked in their boots and instantly surrendered.


It was the Fleet Review, and it celebrated the 100th anniversary of the arrival in Sydney Harbour of the original Royal Australian Navy's seven ships, all state-of-the-then-art vessels made in England.

I pronounced our navy fit and well and reasonably adequate to fight World War One again. I think that's what navies are for after all. Its ships tend to be made here these days, and cost far more than they should, and often don't work. But there are a lot more than seven of them these days, so some of them are always working.

In fact, seeing as they had also invited ships from China, Indonesia, the United States, Japan, and about a dozen other countries, to join in the fun and to party on with pageantry, fireworks, and fun galore, they could have even used the opportunity to fight World War Three while they were here.

The media coverage was all about the fabulousness of the spectacle and the super-eligibility of the redhead bachelor prince who was visiting, but there were comments from the less enamoured in the newspaper letters columns. About, for example, the irony of the extravagant expenditure at a time when the new Federal Government is banging on about 'budget black holes'. About the obscenity of said expenditure when the very navy we're celebrating is actually going to be tasked now mainly with just carrying out the dirty work of said new government, in repelling a small number of desperate refugees they make out we can't possibly support in our rich, comfortable country. Refugees mainly from wars we've been involved with, wars created to keep in business the poor old military-industrial complex that needs to keep building ships (and planes, bombs, and tanks and things) to keep the tired old system ticking over.

It would be nice if the world could work this all out for itself eventually, but it probably won't. So see you again in 100 years time!