HMAS Assault - A Legacy

With the anniversary of VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day being celebrated on 15 August, memories of war time in Australia come to mind.

There is a very significant piece of the Second World War history at Nelson Bay, New South Wales.

It is the site of HMAS Assault at Fly Point, which lies today in and around the Port Stephens Native Flora Gardens, off Victoria Parade

During the Second World War HMAS Assault  was commissioned as a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) amphibious training centre. It comprised buildings, machinery, water and  electricity supply, a slip, a jetty, stores and fuel,and including the armed merchant cruiser HMAS  Westralia, and the tender, HMAS Ping Wo.*

From August 1942 to October1943, it became the base for the Joint Overseas Operational Training School (JOOTS) established by General Douglas MacArthur. During this period there were some 22,000 United States and Australian defence personnel stationed at Port Stephens.

HMAS Assault was used in the training of landing crews, beach parties and signal teams of the allied forces who were preparing the to fight the Japanese advance in the Pacific.

When the JOOTS operation ceased on 12 October 1943, the RAN continued training its own boat and beach crews until August 1944. The base then went into care  and  maintenance  mode until April 1945 when it was handed over to the Royal Navy, for use as a Commando Depot for the Royal Marine units attached to the British Pacific Fleet.

After the War, the facility was taken over by the Commonwealth Employment Service and served a migrant hostel from 1949 to 1953.

The HMAS Assault sick bay served as a hospital during this time, and again from 1956 to 1981 when it was the local community hospital. The buildings were then handed over to the Port Stephens Society of the Arts and on 10 August  1981, the Port Stephens Community Arts Centre was born.

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Today the Arts Centre is the only remaining building of HMAS Assault. The rest of the facility was dismantled in the late 1950s and turned into parkland. Various  concrete slabs, brick foundations and other infrastructure remnants can still be found.

With the help of old photographs and a map**, courtesy of the Port Stephens Historical Society, an exploration of the site gives us valuable information into the "then " and "now". 

 HMAS Assault Plan -
Port Stephens Historical Society

1) Entrance to HMAS Assault from Dieppe Road, as per above map, from what is now Victoria Parade near the music shell.
 

Photo from Port Stephens Historical Society

Probable site of the HMAS Assault gatehouse
today looking up from Victoria Parade.
  Photo taken March 2014 

2) Naval Athletics at the Assault Oval, now the site of W J Strong Memorial Oval.

Photo from Port Stephens Historical Society

W J Strong Memorial Oval - Photo taken May 2104

3) Accommodation Huts at Fly Point on the site of today's Neil Carroll Rotary Park.

Photo from Port Stephens Historical Society

View from Neil Carroll Rotary Park looking towards
 Nelson Bay - Photo taken March 2014

4) HMAS Assault Base Cape at Nelson Bay (western end of Little Beach) in 1943 and the site today with the newly renovated Little Beach Boathouse restaurant.

Photo from Port Stephens Historical Society

Overlooking Port Stephens today from The Little Beach Boathouse.
Photo taken January 2014

5) Brick foundations of a stores building in Tobruk Road as per above map

View of Stores building foundations looking towards Nelson Bay.
Photo taken March 2014

Alternate view of Stores building foundations looking north.
Photo taken March 2014

6) Brick foundations for buildings along Bruneval Road, as per above map.

Photo taken August 2013

Photo taken August 2013

Photo taken August 2013

7) entrance to HMAS Assault mid way along Victoria Parade in what was Algiers Road, as per above map. The remains of a gatepost is  visible in the foreground. 

Side Entrance to Port Stephens Native Flora Reserve - Victoria Avenue.
Photo taken March 2014

Concrete foundation for a gatepost in the foreground.
Photo taken March 2014

A closer view of the gatepost foundation.
Photo taken March 2014

Nearby to this entrance the remains of the  fuel tanks for the facility were located..  

Remains of a fuel tank - photo taken March 2014

8) Brick Foundations of a building, possibly the "ratings drying room" with the Port Stephens Arts Centre in the background.

Photo taken March 2014

Map of Port Stephens Community  Arts Centre.
 Photo taken March 2014

At the rear of the Arts Centre, there are the brick remains of what probably were latrines or ablutions buildings. These may well have been discarded to their present site when work was done on the Arts Centre, as they were once free standing.l

Photo taken May 2014

Photo taken May 2014

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* Armstrong, John: Port Stephens The Ultimate Experience, 2006, page 35.

**Wartime photographs and map sourced from the HMAS Assault Room at the Inner Light Museum, Nelson Head, courtesy of the Port Stephens Historical Society. Photos of these taken by the writer.

All current photos taken and dated by the writer August 2013 - May 2014.

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If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to our website at: http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Blog prepared by Mary McGuinness