The story begins during World War I. Then Holbrook was known as Germanton. Given that Australia was engaged in war with Germany, the town elders wisely decided that a name-change was in order.
At about this time Lieutenant Norman Holbrook became the first naval Victoria Cross winner of the war for his gallantry in sinking a Turkish battleship with the submarine he commanded.
In 1914, British submarine commander Lieutenant Norman Holbrook guided the submarine HMS B11 below a minefield in the Dardanelles to torpedo an enemy Turkish battleship, the Messudiyeh.
Destroyers and on-shore forts immediately attacked B11 and during the trip back through the minefields Holbrook and his crew were forced to stay submerged for nine hours, an incredible feat for a submarine built in 1905.
Holbrook was later awarded the Victoria Cross.
It was soon decided that the town could do no better than be named after a great war hero, and so in 1915, Germanton became Holbrook. Ever since then it has maintained a special link with submarines.
Holbrook Council acquired the HMAS Otway when it was decommissioned and scrapped. The above-the-water section was rebuilt and is now on permanent display in Holbrook's Germanton Park. It measures 90 metres from bow to stern.
HISTORY OF THE HMAS OTWAY: The Oberon class Submarine HMAS Otway (S59) served in the RAN from 1968-1995. The submarine was laid down by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Greenock in Scotland on 29 June 1965. She had been named by Her Royal Highness Princess Marina at Scotts’ Yard, and launched on the 29th. of November in 1966, and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on the 24th. of April 1968.
HMAS Otway decommissioned on 17 February 1994 and was sold in November 1995.
General characteristics are available on this webpage.
Otway was named after a cliffy promontory on the coastline of the State of Victoria, in turn, it had been named originally by Lieutenant James Grant, Commander of HMS Lady Nelson, in 1800, Cape Albany Otway, after a Royal Navy Captain of that name, who later went on to be promoted to Admiral.
Over her 27 years of service, Otway steamed some 415,000 miles.
After Otway decommissioned, the RAN presented her Casing and Fin to the town of Holbrook, but finance to cover its cutting into several parts, transport from Sydney to Holbrook, about 500 kilometres, and then her reconstruction presented the town Council with a real hurdle.
Gundula Holbrook, widow of Holbrook, came up with an amazing gift of $100,000 to allow this project to proceed.
Otway’s structure was cut into several sections, and together with the imposing Fin, was transported by semi trailer down the Hume Highway from Sydney to Holbrook.
There it was reconstructed, and bedded down into a concrete dock, and on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend over 7/8th. of June in 1997, in the presence of it’s benefactor Gundula Holbrook, this Submarine Memorial was dedicated.
Also on display, are an actual torpedo of the kind used by Lieutenant Holbrook. Nearby, at the Woolpack Inn Museum you'll find an extensive collection of Lieutenant Holbrook memorabilia, including replicas of his VC.
Perhaps next time you're down Holbrook way you'll stop awhile, and "submerge" yourself in the town's unusual history.