My name is Lieutenant Commander Paul Ruhl; I’m a commanding officer of one of the Armadale class patrol boats. The role of the patrol boat itself is maritime security and border protection. We spend most of the time working out of Darwin and Cairns protecting the nation’s borders and economic exclusion zone.
Whilst out on patrol we are conducting mainly surveillance and deterrence. The primary role is generally fisheries, but as an aside to that we also try and combat illegal immigration. We have an environmental role in helping sustain some of our environmental assets out there, including fisheries, wild life and all those sorts of things. And, we also work in conjunction with the Air Force and the Army on coastal areas as well to ensure that our actual land assets are also protected.
The Australian Navy does take its role as a global citizen very seriously. Out on a single day on patrol it can be obvious that there will be pollutants and even animals caught in foreign countries ghost nets and the Navy actively seeks, one, to free these animals and report any sort of pollutants in those sorts of areas. In conjunction with the aircraft spotting these sorts of things the Navy responses and actively seeks to sort of rectify those issues.
I’ve been in the Navy now 18 and a half years. The most, having command of a patrol boat would probably be one of the highlights of my career. But, the thing about the Navy is the variety of jobs and the people you work with. I’ve been fortunate enough to, having worked on Young Endeavour, the tall ship, leading young Australians as well as working with mine hunters and now with patrol boats.
At the moment we’re in, at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin. We’re situated right at the northern part of the Australia’s coast line, with the aim of the base being here to support our patrol craft and any other Australian or foreign vessels, military vessels that come in, that participate in our protection of Australian’s coast.
Look, in terms of representing Australia, any ship flying the Australian white ensign is very cognitive of the fact that they are representing Australia in all that we do. Diplomatically any action that we take is fully recognised at both international and local level. Much of what we do is captured by the local media and we’re very, very conscious of our role as diplomats.