Our People in TAS
Shannon Evans - Shannon’s at the heart of the action
At just 26 years of age, Smithton girl Shannon Evans has done a lot in her nine years in the Royal Australian Navy. But nothing has saved more lives than what she is doing right now.
Shannon and her shipmates aboard the Navy’s HMAS Kanimbla are now in Pariaman, north of Padang, and they are disembarking a team of 100 Australian military engineers and their equipment. The team will be working with Indonesia to repair several essential infrastructure sites and develop a temporary medical facility.
Australian Army engineers already on site have been producing up to 100,000 litres of fresh water per day as the local water treatment plant had been damaged in the earthquake.
During all this, Shannon, a Leading Seaman Combat Systems Operator, is one of HMAS Kanimbla’s Operations Rooms supervisors, working at the nerve centre of the ship.
In more warlike operations it’s where the ship is fought from, and it’s home to a vast array of high-tech radar and communications equipment.
Shannon and her fellow combat systems operators use a range of sensors and communications equipment to provide the ship’s command team with a real-time picture of any threats that may be within striking range of the ship.
“We also communicate non-threatening contacts for navigational safety purposes,” she said.
Shannon joined the Navy from Smithton at the age of 17 and this is her second posting to Kanimbla.
“I was on Kanimbla as a Seaman when she went to the Arabian Gulf in 2001,” she said.
“After that I was on HMAS Sydney for another Gulf trip, then two years ashore at the Fleet Weather Station.”
A two-year stint on the Adelaide Class frigate HMAS Newcastle saw Shannon gain more sea time experience, before she was posted back to Kanimbla last year.
HMAS Kanimbla is one of two RAN amphibious transport ships and is based at Garden Island in Sydney.