Commodore Greg Yorke’s topic was " Senior Naval Officer Victoria – supporting Navy’s strategic objectives". Greg was appointed Senior Naval Officer Victoria in January 2018 and expects to hold this position until mid 2021.  He is the first ‘flag’ appointment to this role in over a dozen years and uncouples the responsibility from the Commanding Officer HMAS Cerberus.

His talk began with highlights of his naval career:

• Survey operations in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf off the Australian NW coast;
• Navigating to Port Augusta in the very north of the Spencer Gulf and up the beautiful Tamar River to Launceston;
• Navigating the clear waters of a Coral Sea atoll, the Lihou Reef, some 500 miles off the Queensland coast;
• Undertaking the Principal Warfare Officer course in Portsmouth, UK and a Royal Navy 2-year exchange including deployments on HMS Liverpool around UK and Europe and to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia in the South Atlantic;
• Commanding HMAS Gladstone, a Fremantle Class Patrol Boat, and voyaging to the Philippines as Commissioning Commanding Officer HMAS Arunta, an ANZAC Class frigate, and one of the first two Australian ships to visit Vietnam since 1972; 
• Three years serving as Chief Staff Officer Operations at Maritime Headquarters which included Operation Falconer (the second invasion of Iraq) for which he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross.

Greg covered some highlights of his post 2005 management consulting career working with a multinational gold mining company in WA on a major IT upgrade and assisting the NT Government with project management support on the NT National Emergency Response “The Intervention”,

It was easy to see with this background why Deputy Chief of Navy offered him a return to Navy to undertake an important and broad ranging Workforce review and promotion to Commodore.

Greg explained the significance and focus of his role as Senior Naval Officer Victoria.  Melbourne is the home of Australia’s largest training base HMAS Cerberus.  In the next ten years.  Navy will need to significantly increase recruiting.  Despite being Australia’s second most populous state only 12% of recruits that join the Navy are from Victoria.   Over the next 15 to 20 years,  much work with the State Government, Defence industry, manufacturers and academia will be needed to support the Navy’s $90 billion acquisition of warships and submarines.

Thank you Stephen for providing this engaging summary.

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