The crew of HMAS Canberra during the last ‘Freedom of Entry’ parade in 2023. Photo: Defence.
It’s not a prerequisite to commanding the HMAS Canberra III, but growing up in the ship’s namesake city does help, according to Captain Brendan O’Hara.
Technically, the 47-year-old now lives over the border in Carwoola (near Queanbeyan), but his parents moved to Canberra in 1983 and he grew up in Farrer and Wanniassa, went to Marist College in Pearce, studied arts at the ANU, worked in retail first at ‘Venture’ in the Canberra Centre (or as it was known then, the Monaro Mall) then at Big W in Woden “pushing trolleys”, met his wife Megan in Torrens, bought their first house together in Calwell and schooled their kids at St Francis Xavier College in Florey.
“Canberra is home for me,” he says.
“I don’t think it’s a prerequisite or anything, but I tell you what, it helps me.”
He’ll also be marching through Civic this Saturday, alongside more than 200 members of his crew, the Royal Australian Navy Band, cadets and veterans (including 101-year-old Desmond Grieve Jones, the last surviving crew member of the original HMAS Canberra I), for a ‘Freedom of Entry’ parade.
It’s a tradition that goes back a long way.
“So if you can picture the medieval times when you’ve got armies marching across a whole country or region, the highest honour a town can bestow on that army is to welcome them into their city to recover and rearm,” Brendan explains.
“So in the modern-day sense, every ship in the Navy shares a close connection to a city, and ours is Canberra, so Freedom of Entry is an honour the ACT Government bestows on us.”
Captain Brendan O’Hara is thoroughly Canberra-bred. Photo: Royal Australian Navy.
The parade sets off from Veteran’s Park down Northbourne Avenue before they’re stopped on London Circuit by ACT Policing’s Deputy Chief Police Officer and Assistant Commissioner Doug Boudry.
“He’ll be standing in the middle of the road with his hand up, and will yell out, ‘Halt, who goes there?’
“And we as the ship’s company will come to a stop and I will reply that, ‘It is HMAS Canberra, exercising its right and privilege to pass through the city of Canberra with our swords drawn, drums beating, band playing and colours flying’.
“And my chief coxswain will step out from behind me with a big scroll from the ACT Government and read out our right to enter the city.”
Some of the crew has to stay with the ship while it’s in dry dock in Sydney. Photo: ACT Government.
Canberrans last saw one of these in July 2023 when the crew of the USS Canberra visited Canberra.
The USS Canberra is the only ship in the US Navy to be named after a foreign city, in honour of the HMAS Canberra I, which was sunk in August 1942 while defending US troops storming the Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
Up to 84 members of the crew, including a US Navy radio operator, were killed, and this loss is commemorated today by a memorial by the side of Lake Burley Griffin in the form of a large anchor, near the National Carillon.
As for HMAS Canberra II, it was one of six Perry/Adelaide-class frigates commissioned in March 1981, and served until 2005 when it was scuttled as a dive wreck off Ocean Grove in Victoria.
The reason the Freedom of Entry is happening again in 2024 is to mark 10 years since HMAS Canberra III was commissioned.
Brendan has been in command of the ship since May 2023, and will hand it over to his successor in May 2025 after the traditional two-year stint.
It’s a Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD), commissioned in November 2014, and works alongside Adelaide III as a heavy amphibious landing vessel, able to embark 1200 troops, tanks and armoured vehicles, amphibious watercraft, and up to 12 helicopters.
“In a peacetime role, we’re also a valuable asset to Defence through our humanitarian disaster relief response, so … we can provide a lot of assistance to our neighbours in the southwest Pacific after cyclones or flooding,” Brendan says.
The HMAS Canberra III measures 230 metres long and has a top speed of 20 knots (about 37 km/h). Photo: Royal Australian Navy.
The ship won’t exactly be moored in Lake Burley Griffin for Saturday’s parade, as it’s still in dry dock at Garden Island in Sydney for “deep maintenance”. And not all of the crew can make it for various reasons.
But just as towns in medieval times prepared a feast for the incoming army, the ACT Government has put on one for Brendan’s crew too.
“The weather isn’t looking good, but at the moment there’s a plan for a barbecue lunch in Glebe Park and a back-up option at 220 London Circuit, inside the foyer there.”
The day will end at the Australian War Memorial for the 4:30 pm ‘Last Post Ceremony’.
Tanks driving into the hold of HMAS Canberra III. Photo: Royal Australian Navy.
Brendan describes the event as an “opportunity for the whole ship’s company to express our thanks and gratitude to not only the government of Canberra, but also the people of Canberra”.
Next year, the plan is for the crew to visit Canberra’s sister city in New Zealand, Wellington, for a similar Freedom of Entry parade.
But by then, Brendan will be enjoying a few months off with family at his six-acre Carwoola property ahead of starting a new job at the Defence offices in Russel in October 2025.
The public is advised of disruptions to traffic and buses from 10 am today, including rolling road closures on Northbourne Avenue, London Circuit and Akuna Street. All roads will reopen by 12 pm at the latest.
Visit the ACT Government website for more information.
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