TRAINING YOUNG SAILORS
A Brief History Of The Junior Recruit Training Scheme
(Extract from Navy Quarterly early 1970's)
The Navy's Junior Recruit Training Establishment at Fremantle is not the biggest boys' boarding school in Australia as it was often labelled.
But it can claim to have been the only Australian school of its size (nearly 800 students) taking boys from such a wide variety of home and educational backgrounds to prepare them for a single career.
It is also one of the few places in Australia where students are taught academic and professional subjects side by side, inside a general framework of military discipline.
HMAS LEEUWIN was much more than just a successful school. It was also the headquarters of the Western Australian Naval Command and the training centre of the WA Division of the RANR.
These activities had been part of LEEUWIN long before the Junior Recruit Training Establishment was added in 1960.
The origins of LEEUWIN go back to the creation of the Royal Australian Navy more than 60 years ago. In 1911 a District Naval Officer was appointed to Fremantle. Among his tasks was the job of supervising naval reserve training courses in premises in Croke Lane, Fremantle. This establishment was eventually commissioned as HMAS LEEUWIN on 1 August 1940.
Later, HMAS LEEUWIN moved to Preston Point on a bend of the Swan River a short distance away, where a large brick drill hall was put up on 24 acres of land acquired from the Western Australian Government. Two more acres of land were bought in 1951 and a further six acres added in 1954.
By the time it had been decided to introduce Junior Recruit training and LEEUWIN had been chosen as the most suitable location, the establishment had a first class site, but only two permanent brick buildings. As a result, the first intake of 155 junior recruits who arrived in July 1960 had to be accommodated in temporary buildings left over from war years.
The need for more modern housing became progressively more acute each year as the numbers of junior recruits increased - from 305 in 1961 to 380 in 1963, 407 in 1964 and 619 in 1965.
Eventually LEEUWIN was given a long term development plan and in a sweeping re-building programme since 1965 virtually all the temporary structures have been replaced with modern buildings at a cost of about $3.6 million.
At its heyday in the early seventies, nearly 800 young men are in different stages of their junior recruit year at LEEUWIN, together with about 100 officer candidates. Recruits come from all over Australia and from many different family backgrounds. Nearly all are in the final stages of their third or fourth year high school studies. Recruits have to be between 15 and a half and 16 and a half on entry and satisfy elementary academic tests and pass a medical examination.
A recruit's pay starts from the day he joins the navy and many boys manage to save about $900 during their twelve months at LEEUWIN, while savings of $2.000 and upwards are not uncommon. Four intakes arrive at LEEUWIN each year in January, April, July and October.
During the first 10 days in the establishment a recruit is allocated a division, kitted-up, and given talks on pay naval discipline and conditions of service. On their first weekend, the new classes are taken on bus tours of Perth and Fremantle.
Recruits are organised in six divisions on much the same lines as school houses. Each division is in the charge of an officer helped by a Chief Petty Officer or Petty Officer, a Leading Seaman and one or two Able Seaman. They in turn are aided by selected Leading Junior Recruits organised in a Prefect system.
After a 10 day introduction, class work starts in earnest with a four-week trial study period. The recruits then sit for a simple written examination and the results, together with academic backgrounds and natural talents, are considered when they are placed in classes. The full study programme then begins and continues without interruption until the recruit takes his final examinations 40 weeks later.
Recruits enter one of three streams. They can join the 'advanced' stream that leads to the LEEUWIN educational test, the equivalent of the Services General Certificate of Education. This test is the essential education qualification for a sailor to be considered for promotion to commissioned rank.
The other two streams are 'credit' and 'pass' where the recruit continues normal academic and naval programmes without covering the same amount of ground as the advanced classes.
Recruits also face mid-term and end-of-term examinations, which can result in either promotion or demotion in their classes.
The non-academic content of the studies programme includes parade training, seamanship, fire fighting and damage control, swimming, PT, rifle drill and one period a week of religious instruction.
In the last 6 months at the JRTE, recruits can choose the branch they prefer and personal preferences are considered when the selection board makes its allocations. At an earlier stage, all recruits have been given the chance to leave the Navy without obligation if their parents agree.
When they completed their year at LEEUWIN, junior recruits went to the Fleet for sea experience before starting specialist courses at various Naval establishments. Some recruits are chosen for apprenticeship courses at the Navy's technical and trade training school, HMAS NIRIMBA at Quaker's Hill, NSW. Others may be selected for officer training. They remained at LEEUWIN for a further 18 months to complete the Western Australian matriculation examinations.
Other officer candidates at LEEUWIN came from NIRIMBA and the Fleet and their classes are sometimes joined by apprentices and sailors studying for entry to the Royal Australian Naval College and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Though during a normal working day at LEEUWIN the recruit is kept busy, not all his time is spent in the classroom. There are organised sports programmes arranged every afternoon when school work ends. Australian Rules football, cricket, swimming, rugby and athletics are popular.
Recruits are also encouraged to join voluntary clubs that have sprung up to cater for hobbies like model aeroplane making, or sports like sailing, bushwalking, canoeing and exploring.
Classes frequently visit local industries or places of special geological or historical interest, to broaden the basis of their studies. And most weekends see a party crossing Cockburn Sound to the Navy's camp on nearby Garden Island.
For boys who remain in the metropolitan area, there are visits to sponsors - local families who offer the boys a home-away-from-home - and a chance to picnic or go to the beach.
When they left LEEUWIN, the recruits joined the general service of the RAN on the same footing as adult recruits, but with the advantage of an additional year's schooling and training.
Whatever they made of their subsequent naval career - and some junior recruits have done outstandingly well in the service - LEEUWIN gave them an excellent start in the Navy and in lfe!
On Tuesday 13 July 2010, the RAN dedicated a monument at Leeuwin Barracks in respect of the Junior Recruit Training Scheme. The ceremony was attended by over 3,000 community members including many former Junior Recruits. Over 1,100 former JR' then attended the Golden Junior Recruit Reunion Dinner at the Burswood Casino in Perth with former JR Admiral Russ Crane presiding over both events on the day.
