ON July 1, 1956, 50 young men from around Australia met for the first time, the first intake of apprentices to serve with the Royal Australian Navy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Exactly 60 years later a dozen of those men met in Bendigo to catch up and celebrate the lifelong friendships that began that day.
The occasion was celebrated over three days with drinks, a tour of the Thales facility, lunch, dinner and a barbecue.
“We’re the first 50 and we never let anyone forget it,” Bendigo resident Colin Fowler said.
Mr Fowler said the group met up about once every 10 years, but stayed in contact in the intervening years.
The men signed up to the navy as teenagers and served as apprentices in a range of fields, including boilermaking, electrical, marine engineering, aircraft and shipbuilding.
The oldest of the men joined as an apprentice at the age of 17, while the youngest was 15, committing themselves to a minimum of 12 years of service.
Mr Fowler said all went on to have fairly long careers with the navy, he himself serving for 21 years before moving on.
