Patrol Boat | |
---|---|
Genre | Action/Drama series |
Created by | James Davern |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Running time | 55 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ABC TV |
Release | 28 June 1979 – 11 August 1983 |
Patrol Boat is an Australian television drama series that screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Patrol Boat was created by James Davern and two series were produced, in 1979 and 1983, with a total of 26 episodes.
Patrol Boat was about the activities of the crew of a Royal Australian Navy patrol boat which patrolled Australia's coastline. The series was produced with the co-operation of the Royal Australian Navy.
Two fictional RAN patrol boats were depicted in the series. Attack-class patrol boat HMAS Ambush (portrayed by HMA Ships Advance and Bombard) was used in the first season, with filming taking place during 1978 and 1979 around Sydney Harbour, Pittwater, Ku-ring-gai Chase, and the Hawkesbury River. [1] For the second season, the crew transferred to the newer Fremantle-class patrol boat HMAS Defiance (portrayed by HMA Ships Launceston, Townsville, Warrnambool, Whyalla, and Wollongong). [2]
The series is similar to the BBC series Warship, made with the co-operation of the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy and screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1976. This was before Patrol Boat which was influenced by Warship. [3] Although the 2007 drama Sea Patrol is based on the same subject, it is not intended to be a follow on to Patrol Boat. [4]
Although ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) originally screened both seasons of the TV series Patrol Boat, during 1992 Channel Ten in Sydney replayed a select few episodes of the 1979 first season of the series weekly on Saturday nights at 7.30pm to capitalise on the nostalgia period that the network was trialling at the time.
Season 1: 1979
Season 2: 1983
The Fremantle-class patrol boats were coastal patrol vessels operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1979 to 2007. Designed by British shipbuilder Brooke Marine and constructed in Australia by NQEA, the Fremantle class were larger, more powerful, and more capable than the preceding Attack class, and the two primary patrol boat bases required infrastructure upgrades to support them. Although up to 30 vessels were planned, fifteen were ordered and constructed, with an unexercised option for five more.
The Armidale class is a class of patrol boats built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for a class of vessels to replace the fifteen Fremantle-class patrol boats began in 1993 as a joint project with the Royal Malaysian Navy, but was cancelled when Malaysia pulled out of the process. The project was reopened in 1999 under the designation SEA 1444, with the RAN as the sole participant. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal/Defence Maritime Services (DMS) proposal for twelve vessels based on an enlarged Bay-class patrol boat was selected. Two additional boats were ordered in 2005 to provide a dedicated patrol force for the North West Shelf Venture.
The first HMAS Bendigo (J187/B237/A111) was a Bathurst-class minesweeper, a group commonly known as corvettes and including escort and patrol duties along with minesweeping.
HMAS Bendigo was a Fremantle-class patrol boat in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Sea Patrol is an Australian television drama that ran from 2007 to 2011, set on board HMAS Hammersley, a fictional patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The series focused on the ship and the lives of its crew members.
HMAS Dubbo, named for the city of Dubbo, New South Wales, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Wollongong, named for the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, was one of fifteen Fremantle-class patrol boats to operate with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Wollongong is the only RAN vessel to have appeared in two television series, portraying a fictional Fremantle-class patrol boat in both.
HMAS Ipswich, named for the city of Ipswich, Queensland, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Townsville, named for the city of Townsville, Queensland, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by NQEA, Cairns, the ship was laid down in 1979, and commissioned into the RAN in 1981.
HMAS Cessnock, named for the city of Cessnock, New South Wales was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Whyalla, named for the city of Whyalla, South Australia, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Fremantle, named for the city of Fremantle, Western Australia, was the lead ship of the Fremantle-class patrol boats, entering service in the Royal Australian Navy in 1980 and decommissioning in 2006. Fremantle was the only ship of the class not constructed in Australia, and it is claimed that her delivery voyage from England to Australia was the longest ever made by a patrol boat.
HMAS Bunbury, named for the city of Bunbury, Western Australia, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Gawler (J188/B241/A115), named for the town of Gawler, was one of 60 constructed during World War II and one of 20 Bathurst-class corvettes built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was laid down by BHP at its Whyalla shipyard in early 1941, launched later that year, and commissioned in 1942.
HMAS Gawler, named for the town of Gawler, South Australia was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The second season of the Australian drama Sea Patrol premiered on the Nine Network on 31 March 2008 and aired on Monday nights at 8:30 PM. The thirteen-episode season ended on 23 June 2008.
HMAS Geelong, named for the city of Geelong, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Launceston, named for the city of Launceston, Tasmania, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Warrnambool, named after the city of Warrnambool, Victoria, was a Fremantle-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
NQEA Pty Ltd is an engineering and shipbuilding company based in Cairns, Australia. The company was founded in 1948 as an engineering supply company named North Queensland Engineers & Agents, then expanded in 1966 into shipbuilding and was renamed.
Launceston, Townsville, Warrnambool, Whyalla and Wollongong were all seen masquerading as the fictitious HMAS Defiance.