"SILENCE IS GOLDEN"
 15 April 1969 - 1 December 1995

HMAS Ovens was named by Lady Slim, wife of Viscount Slim, a former Governor General of Australia, at Scott's shipyard when launched on the 4th December, 1967. Ovens commissioned into the RAN at Greenock, Scotland on 15 April 1969 and decommissioned for the final time at HMAS Stirling on Friday, 1st December 1995 after 26 years of active service.

She was named after the Irishman John Ovens (1778-1825) who first went to the colony of New South Wales in 1810 as a Lieutenant of the 73rd regiment. He returned to England the following year, but after serving with distinction in the Peninsular war he went back to NSW in 1821.

He was made Aide-de-camp to Governor Brisbane and became chief Engineer of the colony. In 1823 Brigade Major Ovens explored some of the southern areas of NSW, and was responsible for naming the Murrumbidgee and Monroe rivers. He also noted that "the down country was bounded in the west by a snowy range of mountains". The Ovens river in NE Victoria was named after John Ovens. He died in Australia in 1825.

The significant aspects of the submarines crest is a sixteenth century cupellation oven used for refining gold - an allusion to the submarine's motto "Silence is Golden".
During her 26 years of service she steamed over 420,000 nautical miles, and was the first conventional submarine to fire a Harpoon anti ship missile and followed this up with the sinking of HMAS Colac with a Mk 48 Torpedo in 1987 (on purpose, not a stuff up).

HMAS Ovens was adopted by the shire of Coffs Harbour (NSW) in 1972 and on 10th July 1979 the ship's company were given the title, privilege, honour and distinction of the Freedom of entry into the Shire of Coffs Harbour.

HMAS Ovens was the first of the RAN's submarines to be fitted with a long range sonar system. This was installed during her refit at Cockatoo Island Dockyard in 1975 HMAS Ovens underwent a major modernisation between March 1980 and August 1982. This saw the fitting of a completely redesigned bow dome necessary to accommodate a new sonar system and a new fire control system.

Whilst participating in exercises off Sydney and Jervis Bay in November 1983, HMAS Ovens was accidentally dented by a torpedo fired by the destroyer escort HMAS Parramatta.

HMAS Ovens was again in refit in Sydney for the period of September 1987 to May 1988. HMAS Ovens has been a regular participant in major exercises, attending RIMPAC exercises in 1977, 1978, 1984, and 1986.

HMAS Ovens completed her third (and final) main refit on 11 April 1991 at a cost of $A64 million and was decommissioned in order to make way for the Collins class submarines that were being constructed in Adelaide. However, her period of service to the RAN was to continue for a short time, as she was reconfigured in order to be used as a working training platform for trainee submariners at HMAS Stirling

Today Ovens lives on, the centrepiece of the Maritime Museum at Fremantle (WA) and having visited her recently, am pleased to say that they are going to have a wonderful exhibit when the infrastructure of the new facilities have been completed.

Images of HMAS OVENS Keel laying and Launch

HMAS OVENS RAN review PDF  HMAS OVENS

HMAS OVENS 1983 Floor report