HMAS Toowoomba arrives back at Garden Island after Chinese warship sonar incident

Hundreds of sailors from a navy vessel caught up in a provocative Chinese sonar incident have been reunited with their loved ones, but media were under strict instructions not to ask families about the dangerous international encounter. HMAS Toowoomba and its 201 navy crew arrived back at Garden Island on Wednesday after three months at sea and about a month after three divers were forced to exit international waters off Japan after a Chinese warship emitted sonar pulses. Stepping onto the port at Fleet Base West, commander Darin MacDonald told Chief of Navy Mark Hammond; “Sir, Toowoomba is home safe and sound”. Vice Admiral Hammond said the three divers in the water and the other crew involved in clearing fishing nets and debris from propellers were “doing great” after the “unsafe and unprofessional conduct”. “Ultimately when you put high pressure, high-intensity sound into the water column, you can physically feel it,” he said. “So it is an unsafe act. There’s a reason we have processes and protocols which are internationally recognised such as communicating what we’re doing on the radio. “It’s unsafe and professional and I hope we don’t see it again.” Journalists attending the event had been told not to ask families reuniting about the incident. Vice Admiral Hammond said he had “given no such order” but that he preferred to give sailors “the space to reconnect with families”. China’s defence ministry has denied any activity that put Australian divers in danger and labelled Canberra’s claims to the contrary as “rude and ridiculous”. With the threat of an increasingly belligerent Chinese military in the South China Sea, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said vessels such as Toowoomba were crucial to “upholding the rules-based order”. Mr Marles said while interactions between navies on the high seas were inevitable, Australia expected those interactions to happen safely. “That’s our expectation in respect of the way in which China ought to behave,” he said. “Certainly that is the way in which we engage and we behave in doing what we can do lawfully in asserting the rules-based order and freedom of navigation on the high seas.” The Acting PM also expressed concern after the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons at Philippines government ships last week. “It is absolutely essential that militaries engage in manners which are safe and professional and that is not what has occurred in that incident as well,” Mr Marles said. After visiting five nations and seven ports on the Indo-Pacific engagement, the excitement of families who had waited months to reunite was palpable. Deputy engineer officer Eren Ulusay was “overjoyed” to see his wife, Lisa, and 13-month-old daughter Arianna again. “I’m still adjusting to the feeling. I deployed to Korea in 2021 for six months so that was twice as long. But when there’s a baby in the picture, it’s four times as hard,” the officer said. A highlight of the deployment for Mr Ulusay was replenishment exercises, where a tanker refuels the ship while they are both in motion. Support operations able seawoman Tayla Pearson said reuniting with her partner, Isla Boland, “did not feel real”. “It was long, it felt like an eternity away,” she said. Navy chef Martin Njoroge said being back with his six-year-old son, James, and wife, Joyce, meant this would be “the best Christmas ever”. James told this dad “Welcome back”. Lisa Ham said her partner Adam Berry’s three-month deployment had been tough for their kids Henry, 7, and Florence, 5, but they were resilient. Henry said he would tell his dad — who is a chief weapons maintainer — “I missed you and I love you”. Rebecca Pinkney said her husband Matthew’s deployment had been hard on her and her four daughters. “Waiting for him to come home, I have goosebumps,” she said. Combat Systems Supervisor Daniel Wales said it was “surreal” to reunite with his wife Teneal, his seven-year-old twin sons Seth and Noah and his four-year-old son Mason. “I’m just really glad to be home in time for Christmas, especially for the little ones,” he said.