Rear Admiral Matthew Buckley reassures Rockingham community about Navy submarine safety

A Navy admiral has moved to reassure Rockingham residents of the safety of nuclear submarines as more vessels begin rotating through HMAS Stirling as part of the AUKUS pact.

Community concerns began to increase after the nuclear safety watchdog approved a radioactive waste facility at HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island.

But Head of Nuclear Submarine Capability Rear Admiral Matthew Buckley said the Navy was committed to the highest standards of nuclear stewardship.

He said the Navy was partnering with the US Navy and the Royal Navy, “who’ve been safely and effectively operating nuclear-powered submarines for more than six decades”.

“In fact, they’ve never had a single incident that’s caused any harm to human health or the environment,” he said.

“And you know, I’ve been asked would I be happy to live or for my family to live near the submarines — well, my dad lives in Rockingham.

“But you know, most of our sailors and our families live there, so (safety is) really important to us because that’s where our kids live, it’s where they go to school as part of the community and will be the same for the US people, they’ll be there, and their families are there.

“So from our point of view, no one is closer to making sure our submarines are safe.”

He said submarine crew members wore radiation detection devices and received less exposure than sunbathers or passengers on a flight.

There have also been community concerns for the wildlife around Garden Island, but Rear Admiral Buckley spoke in awe of the animals submariners encountered beneath the waves and on Garden Island.

“We don’t have any impact really on the environment and in fact you see marine life all the time and we keep out of the way,” he said.

“People often ask me about whales and what’s really cool is, like in a submarine, you can hear the whale and we can keep out of one another’s way, but we can hear one another and it’s really incredible.

“And then we’ve got the penguin colonies on Garden Island.

“They’re really happy because they don’t get disturbed by anyone. There’s no sort of general public coming to annoy them when they’re swimming around.

“I was looking off the submarine (the USS Hawaii) and you could see them swimming around catching their fish out there.

“We’ve got a lot of marine life out there and we rate our environmental standards really highly on the island, where the Navy’s a really good steward for the environment, working with the rangers out there to look after that beautiful part of the world.”

Rear Admiral Buckley said the Navy was regularly meeting the City of Rockingham mayor and CEO to prepare for the influx of sailors from the USA.

Currently there are less than 10 US personnel living locally but this number will increase to about 30 to 50 within the year.

It is expected that members of the US and Royal Navy will live in a mix of defence housing Australia homes at Garden Island, with just a few expected to live in private rentals.

Rear Admiral Buckley also credited the local community for their support of defence personnel.

“We like to think in the Navy that Rockingham is a city that has really supports us,” he said.

“The majority of the sailors and officers based at HMAS Stirling live in the City of Rockingham, so a large number of their families are there — they go to school there.

“And for our US and UK personnel, they’re really interested in having a similar relationship and really getting embedded into the community.

“And when you’re in submarines and you’re deploying and you’re at sea for a while, then having your family really integrated with the community is a reassuring thing and really important to us.”

There have also been community concerns about traffic coming into Garden Island and the associated pressure on local road networks.

“Defence has contributed to the Point Perron road study,” Read Admiral Buckley said.

“Also, because we’re doing a lot of work on the base, we’re working with our construction companies to come up with alternate means of getting materials on to the island.

“So one of the things we’re looking at is barging goods over to the island rather than taking them through Rockingham.

“The other things we’re looking at is doing the concrete batching and works on the island, rather than the trucks going through town.

“Then we’re also looking at park-and-ride bus services and we’re trialling that at the moment.

“So some of the residents might see shuttle busses or larger busses coming off the island, going to Rockingham station, or to Rockingham City, and to the foreshore.”