As AUKUS accelerates, is Rockingham ready for what comes next?

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Sailors are champing at the bit to get a posting to HMAS Stirling, according to the commander in charge of the US Navy’s submarine force in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean.

“Everybody wants to be in Stirling, they’re lining up 10 deep to get every spot,” Rear Admiral Lincoln Reifsteck told media during a tour on Wednesday of the USS Vermont, the latest nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarine to dock at Garden Island for maintenance.

Rear Admiral Lincoln Reifsteck, left, speaks to media during a tour of the USS Vermont.

“I think what I was looking at when I was running this morning makes it very attractive.

“I had USS Annapolis visiting me in Japan last week in their deployment, and I had an all-hands call on the pier to thank them … very first question was, ‘What’s it going to take for Annapolis to get to Australia?’

“And so it’s on everybody’s bucket list. There’s going to be no shortage of folks that want to sign up as those ships come here.”

And more ships – and sailors, and workers – will come as the AUKUS partnership between the US, Australia and the United Kingdom gathers pace.

But, across the water from Garden Island, the prospect of hundreds more families jostling for accommodation in an already tight housing market looms over the southern beachside city of Rockingham.

Not even 24 hours earlier, Rockingham Mayor Lorna Buchan had flagged that more than 1200 US and UK personnel and their families were expected to call the city home by 2030.

But Buchan was adamant Rockingham could handle the influx. She flagged a Defence Housing plan to build 440 apartments and townhouses, as well as a new precinct structure plan for the city’s strategic centre.

“The City of Rockingham has long been a navy town, and as AUKUS ramps up, our connection to defence will only grow stronger, socially and economically,” Buchan said.

Once media had disembarked the USS Vermont – the same model of submarine Australia will acquire three of under AUKUS – Reifsteck hosted another tour, this one comprising VIPs including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and WA Premier Roger Cook, among other dignitaries.

Speaking after the tour, Albanese was confident in the work already under way to house the influx of people to the region.

Queried on the housing stresses Rockingham could face, Albanese pointed to an under-construction building behind the media pack: “That’s housing. It’s being built here right now for the people who will work here, and this will be an enormous benefit for Rockingham.”

Resources Minister Madeleine King – who is also the federal member for Brand, which encompasses Rockingham – was also among the delegates who toured the USS Vermont.

“Australian Defence Housing and Housing Australia are combining to work on over 600 houses in the nearby region,” she said.

“Of course, people that live around here and work on the base do travel from a lot of surrounding suburbs like Baldivis and Secret Harbor, Port Kennedy and so forth.

“What we’re working on in AUKUS is a nation-building project. A nation-building project for our nation, but also for the capabilities of our friends in the US, and in the UK.

“I can assure the community, we are well aware of the challenges ahead, and I know the community supports facing those challenges, because they want this to happen and to happen really well, because it’s in their benefit and in the national benefit.”

The USS Vermont in dock at HMAS Stirling in Perth on Wednesday.

Maintenance milestone eases AUKUS doubts

The USS Vermont slipped quietly through the busy waters south of Perth’s only container port earlier this month for a 28-day maintenance period at HMAS Stirling.

Increasing the maintenance capability at the naval base, as well as across the water at the Henderson defence precinct, is a key pillar of the AUKUS deal.

This time around, a small but noticeable difference – the lack of a tender boat supporting the submarine maintenance – marked another step towards the AUKUS vision being realised, with the required infrastructure now in place at HMAS Stirling.

There are hundreds of workers from both the United States and Australia embedded in one another’s naval programs, learning from one another.

“We can certainly benefit as our Australian counterparts learn on our systems, and we will benefit as the Australians come up,” Reifsteck said

“And so, when Australia has their own submarines here, they will have fully become expert [in maintenance].

“That will have benefited the US submarines who were worked on while they became experts.”

Asked by the press pack whether Australia could actually pull off the AUKUS plans – against the backdrop of a Trump administration review, albeit with a more positive tone in recent weeks – Albanese was resolute.

“This isn’t some theory. This is the 13 officers and seafarers who are on the USS Vermont right now getting training,” he said.

“Two of them who I was able to have a chat with, have been on board there for 18 months.

“This is happening. This is real. This is of great benefit to Australia.”