Clearance Divers demonstrated the discipline and precision required to serve in the Royal Australian Navy on 14 October in a display on Sydney Harbour for the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal (DFRT).
Clearance Diving Team One demonstrate a range of capabilities from dive tank operations and aerial mine disposal.
Commander Damien Scully-O’Shea, Navy’s Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Capability Manager, said it was important to illustrate the working conditions and occupational risks clearance divers face in the course of their duties:
Clearance Diving is a specialist skill and provides the Australian Defence Force with a flexible and valuable capability.
Working with unpredictable explosives and in cold and wet conditions, brings with it unique risks. While we do everything we can to minimise them, it is important to illustrate the hazards, so the Tribunal members have all the information they need as they review the allowance for specialist operations paid to personnel.
During the seven hours of demonstrations, two divers were inserted and recovered from a Navy MRH-90 helicopter off Balls Head. This helped to illustrate how we perform aerial mine disposal tasks.
Tribunal members also visited the Royal Australian Navy Diving School, Submarine and Underwater Medicine Unit and Mine Hunter Coastal, HMAS Gascoyne.
Clearance Divers locate, identify and perform underwater and shipboard Explosive Ordnance and Improvised Explosive Device Disposal tasks for the Navy. This involves making safe and disposing underwater explosives. This role is conducted in approaches to ports and anchorages, potential beach landing sites, in the open ocean and in and around port facilities.
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Press release, Image: Australian Navy