HMAS Sydney II: End caps of torpedo tubesCopyright: Australian War Memorial.

History of the Search Definition Debate inside the Finding Sydney Foundation

(2001-2008)

7

Mearns (2004a, 2004b)

Position of Kormoran established by FSF

(2008)

Red rectangle is Search Box

recommended for Kormoran by Mearns

(2004)

Red circles are search positions

recommended for Kormoran by Mearns

(2004)

Mearns (2004): Positions and Search Box for Kormoran recommended during

presentations to: The West Australian Maritime Museum

(Mearns, 2004a)The Directors of the FSF (Mearns, 2004b)

111° East

26° South

Mearns 3

Mearns 1

Kirsner & Dunn (2004)

Mearns 2

Position established for Kormoran in 2008

(2) Positions recommended by David Mearns at a meeting with FSF Directors

Keith Rowe and Kim Kirsner, as recorded by Keith Rowe (December, 2004)

Mearns (2008)

Search Box adopted for Kormoran

FSF (2005)Recommended Search Box for Kormoran

Kirsner & Dunn (2004)

Predicted position of Kormoran

Mearns (2004; FSF,

2005)Predicted position of KormoranMearns

(2004; FSF, 2005)

Predicted position of KormoranMearns

(2004; FSF, 2005)

Recommended Search Box for

KormoranMearns (FSF, 2007)

Recommended Search Box for

Kormoran

FSF (2008)Position of Kormoran

(3) Search positions and search boxes recommended by the FSF (2004/5) and David Mearns in 2004/5, 2007 and 2008

Mearns / FSF (2008)

Search box adopted for Kormoran

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

Mearns / FSF (2008)

Observed position of Kormoran

Kirsner & Dunn (2004); FSF (2005-7)

Recommended position and search box for Kormoran

(4) Search tracks followed by the FSF / David Mearns in 2008

Cole Commission

The position of Kormoran provided by Kirsner and Dunn in 2004 was adopted and published in FSF PowerPoint displays used for presentations to the Commonwealth, the states, the RAN, and corporate and private donors during 2005, 2006 and early 2007.

A paper and the Kormoran Database were provided to the Cole Commission of Inquiry in 2008 at the request of the Commission. The material was prepared for defence under oath.

Accountability

If consideration is extended to the RAN, corporate search projects, the Cole Commission, and the funds provided to the FSF, expenditure on the search for Kormoran and Sydney was c. $15M.

Australian universities receive hundreds of millions of dollars for research, and they encourage their staff to engage in outreach projects including work for the Museums as well as organizations such as the Finding Sydney Foundation.

Perhaps understandably, Australian scientists and universities expect to be recognized for the contribution. In the search for Sydney, Australian scientists got the position right more than three years before the Chief of Navy ‘advised’ the FSF to hire David Mearns.