General News
28 December, 2022
War veteran dies suddenly
Loddon war veteran Jimmy Watson has died suddenly after a Christmas Day luncheon in Wedderburn. Jimmy had served in the Vietnam War and earlier survived the infamous collision between HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne. He told his story to the Loddon...
Loddon war veteran Jimmy Watson has died suddenly after a Christmas Day luncheon in Wedderburn.
Jimmy had served in the Vietnam War and earlier survived the infamous collision between HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne.
He told his story to the Loddon Herald in a special feature story before Remembrance Day this year.
By CHRIS EARL
JIM WATSON had gone to his bunk in the stern of HMAS Voyager while other sailors were in the mess playing tambola.
He was filling in as an ordinary season, already three years in the senior service, the Royal Australia Navy, waiting for another crack to become a qualified diver.
The 120-metre long Australian-built Daring-class destroyer was 37km south-east of Jarvis Bay.
So, too was HMAS Melbourne, the lead ship of the Majestic-class of light fleet aircraft carriers performing night flying exercises.
Jim remembers what happened just before 9pm that February 1964 night. He was tipped from his bunk when Melbourne and Voyager collided.
The service veteran, who has lived in Wedderburn since coming to work on a house 20 years ago, remembers there was a big swell in the sea and oil everywhere.
He was picked up by one of the rescue craft and bussed to Sydney “cooling heels at the base and doing odd jobs”.
Fourteen officers and 67 sailors were killed on the Voyager on February 10, 1964.
HMAS Melbourne was put into dock for a new bow. Ironically, that ship would be Jim’s next posting. Jim says he was later petrified of the sea and would always stay on the upper deck of ships.
Eventually, on his third attempt, Jim passed the strenuous nine-month shallow water diving course that had sailors duck walking on a jetty and clothed in heavy overalls, jumping into water.
He was sent to the Pacific Islands and Vietnam working as a diver and assisting with clearing rivers.
“It was pretty hectic ... we were at an American base and they had Australian beer flown up to us. We also had two poker machines brought in,” he said.
Working below the surface followed Jim into the navy. He had left school at 14 and spent three years underground in the mines at Kalgoorlie.
“I was always interested in the sea. I used to get the train to Fremantle to look around the ships ... so eventually I just joined the navy.
“My grandfather signed my (enlistment) papers. My father was ex-army and wouldn’t sign.”
Jim’s mining background soon had him earmarked by an early commanding officer.
“I had experience handling explosives and the lieutenant-commander said the navy would teach me to swim,” he said. “It took me three attempts to get my clearance diver’s ticket.
“When I got out of the navy after 15 years, I went working on oil rigs and then as a shot firer in the mines - coal in Queensland and gold in northern Queensland and Western Australia.
“I was working in the superpit at Kalgoorlie from 1991 to 1998 as drill and blast foreman.
“Drove over there in the middle of summer from Queensland,” Jim said.
The decorated veteran then headed off touring Australia with his wife and got as far as Rockhampton.
When his wife died soon after, Jim came south to Melbourne to work with his brother and then ended up in Wedderburn when an offer of work came along, always living in his motorhome.
“Gavan Holt also had some work for me to do at the hotel and I lived out the back for 10 years,” Jim said.
In recent years he has lived in a unit, happily settled in one place and above ground.
“The people in town are really good,” he said.
Next week, Jim will be in the Wedderburn-Korong Vale sub-branch’s memorial garden for the Remembrance Day commemoration.
“I’ve always gone to commemorations since I was a kid in Kalgoorlie,” he said.
He’ll probably act as flag marshal again, lowering and raising the Australian flag that he served under during those 15 years in the Royal Australian Navy.
It will be a time for reflection on his service career and the “pretty full” life he had above and below ground, running a hotel and touring Australia.
And, of course, reflection on his place in history. The Melbourne-Voyager collision is one of the navy’s most devastating disasters.
The Naval Historical Society of Australia says: “For so many men to be killed in a training exercise severely damaged the RAN’s standing with the Australian Government and public.
“The collision also spurred the inertial RAN through significant cultural change with an increased focus on safety and the correct following of procedures.
“Whilst the collision itself is one of the service’s most damaging events, it and the resulting alterations laid the foundations for many practices of the modern RAN.”
Wedderburn’s Jim Watson was there that night in history. Sixty years on he still remembers.
Vale Jimmy Watson