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nswsailor said...
I pulled into Broome mid 1976.

There were 3 cars in the main street and 2 of those belonged to our group.

The third may have been a local!

Nah that was me.

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MorningBird said..
We had 3 Navy Grumman Trackers up there patrolling the north west. About 30 of us based at an oil camp in Broome.
Broome then, about 300 non aboriginal and about 1500 aboriginal. Lots of female backpackers, nurses and teachers and 30 sailors. We had the only pool and bar in town outside the rough pubs. Brilliant place back then and great time had by all.

What surprised me was the number of people hiding out there including runaways. One of them being one of the senior sailors teenage daughter found romping in the surf topless!

We spent 30 days there then 30 days or so back in Nowra before returning to Broome. I can't remember how many shifts I had now. Some of the junior sailors handed over girlfriends to their mates on shift changes!

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Ramona said..
Some of the junior sailors handed over girlfriends to their mates on shift changes!

Might be another variation on hot bunking.

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slammin said..

nswsailor said...
I pulled into Broome mid 1976.

There were 3 cars in the main street and 2 of those belonged to our group.

The third may have been a local!

Nah that was me.

Said there was nobody there

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LooseChange said..

Ramona said..
Some of the junior sailors handed over girlfriends to their mates on shift changes!

Might be another variation on hot bunking.

What goes unsaid is that the girls were actually handing the Sailors over !

I used to live in a house in Townsville with 33 people 29 ladies and 3 guys Showers were interesting among other things.
I hated asking "any one like a coffee "
First off there were four of use they all left when the wet started so I just kept inviting back packers home
I think rent and food worked out around the $12a week back in 1976. Had a giant Wok

Nothing like a stirfry .

I did two 6 week stints.
Many officers had a handover/takeover routine. Even the CO as I recall.
Not me. She was in love really truly. I did wonder how my best mate knew some private details but she assured me he was just guessing.