Seaplanes

Patrol Boats And

To Guard Northern and N. Guinea Waters

IT is officially announced that the Commonwealth Government will provide three fast patrol boats and two seaplanes for the North Australian and New Guinea waters, to be used in an attempt to put an end to illegal fishing and the illicit drug traffic in these waters. A boat and sea plane will be stationed at Rabaul and Thursday Island and the third launch at Darwin.

The launches, it is understood, will be built at Cockatoo Island Dockyards, New South Wales, and will cost approximately £5000 each. They will be equipped with three oil-burning engines and will have a long cruising range and be fitted with wireless. The size of the launches will be 43 feet in length, though the boat to be stationed at Darwin may be larger, in order to patrol the Timor-Darwin section of the air mail route from London.

The patrol boats at Rabaul and Thurs day Island will be controlled by the Aus tralian Department of Customs, while at Darwin the vessel will be under the joint control of the Department of Defence and the Department of the Interior. The Royal Australian Air Force will control and supply the personnel for the two seaplanes.

A Moth aeroplane of the R.A.A.F. is now being fitted with seaplane floats and will go to Darwin shortly to co-operate with H.M.A.S. Moresby in coastal survey work.

The ’plane will assist in the preparation of naval charts of the more remote parts of the northern coastline, where operations by land parties would be difficult.