HMAS Waterhen

HMAS Waterhen is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located in on Sydney's lower north shore in New South Wales, Australia. Constructed on the site of a quarry used to expand Garden Island in the 1930s, the location was used during World War II as a boom net maintenance and storage area. In 1962, the area was commissioned as a base of the RAN, and became home to the RAN's mine warfare forces. Waterhen was the first small-ship base established by the RAN, and from 1969 to 1979 was also responsible for the RAN's patrol boat forces.HistoryPrior to the 1930s, the area on which Waterhen is constructed was a large hill overlooking Balls Head Bay. In the 1930s, the decision to construct a graving dock and landbridge connecting the naval base at Garden Island to the mainland at Potts Point led to the quarrying of this hill for sandstone, which altered the geography to a sheer cliff-face and near-water level plateau. The site was populated with fibro buildings during the leadup to World War II, and during the war was used to store spare netting for the Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net. The area was under military control from 15 March 1943 until the end of the war: the first three months under joint Royal Australian Navy-United States Navy control.