Task Force 72 Scale Model Ship Association Inc.

Barham Festival Feburary 14th - 15th 2004

It was at this point that communications with Fleet base Wagga indicated that a technical failure was going to keep any ships from Wagga reaching the Festival. This left just the two Sydney based ships, USS Greeneville SSN 772 and USS Enterprise CVN 65. Greeneville and Enterprise entered safe harbour in Barham on the afternoon of Friday the 13th. Crew accommodation and messing was sought. Ship and boat were secured for the night.

In Barham there are only a few shops, a couple of pubs and an RSL, just your typical country town. However the RSL is well appointed and the people there are very friendly.

The festival is held in what used to be a dairy farm, the local Rotary club have turned it into an amazing recreational lake complex, with clean well appointed facilities.

Other clubs were in attendance, they were the St George Model Boat Club, ACT Model boat Club and the Melbourne Model Boat Club. The Melbourne club hold their annual regatta here at Barham each year, mainly because they just have to show up, everything else is provided for them. Very smart really.

Greeneville and Enterprise arrived on station at around 09:00 and Enterprise was readied for sea. At this time of day the temperature was a comfortable 37 degrees, but was really OK if you found some shade.

A couple of boats made it to the water but their skippers decided that it was too hot for any maneuvers. The only ship running during the day was Enterprise, and even that skipper only took her out for short periods. The night run was after 20:30 when it was a bit cooler, it as amazing how many ships and tugs and boats were actually in Barham. The night temperature got down to around 35 degrees.

Sunday was a bit cooler as it started off with some rain, so by 10:00 it was a cool 38 degrees, unfortunately the rain didn't last long.

The lake this day was a little more crowded with a couple of tugs and a Murray paddle wheeler venturing out. USS Greeneville didn't get near the water this time. The lake is quite deep with visibility very limited for submarines.

By 13:00 both Sydney skippers decided to prepare for departure, batteries were unloaded from Enterprise at the wharf, a tug from the ACT model club was enlisted to move Enterprise to her extraction point. This proved to be quite entertaining for a lot of the locals. 13:30 the Sydney contingent departed Barham bound for Sydney.

The Barham weekend proved to be very hot for everyone but the facilities, the locals and other model builders still made it a great weekend and well worth the trip down. Enterprise and Greeneville have already started making plans for next year. Hopefully next year more Sydney members and Wagga will attend making it an even more enjoyable weekend.

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