HMAS Leeuwin (naval base)

HMAS Leeuwin was a shore establishment of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), located in Fremantle, Western Australia. Commissioned in August 1940 as the naval depot for Fremantle, the base was adopted for use as a training facility after World War II: initially for reservists and national servicemen, then as the Junior Recruit Training Establishment (JRTE) from 1960 until 1984. Decommissioned from naval service in 1986, the base was later reopened under the control of the Australian Army as Leeuwin Barracks.

History
Leeuwin was commissioned into the RAN on 1 August 1940 as the naval depot for Fremantle. The base was named after the Dutch galleon Leeuwin (lioness), which accidentally discovered the south-east coast of Western Australia in 1622, while sailing to Batavia; this was later recorded on the Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"), a 1627 map by Hessel Gerritsz and one of the earliest maps of Australia. The original facility was centred around a drill hall constructed in 1926 in East Fremantle, but Leeuwin was relocated in 1942 to Preston Point, on the other side of the Swan River.

After World War II, Leeuwin was tasked with training reservists and national servicemen. The base was reclassified as the Junior Recruit Training Establishment (JRTE) in 1960: boys who joined the RAN between the ages of fifteen years and six months and sixteen years and six months, would attend the JRTE for a year of secondary education along with basic naval training, before they were sent to other bases for training in their speciality. Education and training of junior recruits was shared with the Royal Australian Naval College at HMAS Creswell, located on Jervis Bay, New South Wales. The first JRTE intake consisted of 155 recruits, and by the end of the decade, over 800 junior recruits and 100 officer candidates were in residence.

The JRTE was closed in 1984, after having educated 12,074 recruits: the improving quality of education in Australia meant that the RAN no longer felt the need to provide secondary education to those wishing to join the navy. Leeuwin was decommissioned on 11 November 1986: one of several RAN facilities closed during the late 1980s and early 1990s because of funding cuts and the rationalisation and consolidation of shore bases.

Control of the base was handed over to the Australian Army, which operated it as Leeuwin Bararacks. The Army began using the base in 1987 for the Western Australia University Regiment, initially as temporary accommodation along with Irwin Barracks, then permanently by 2009. The Barracks provides support for personnel of all three branches of the Australian military in the Fremantle area. The RAN maintains control of the wharves and boatsheds, and uses the base to host the Fremantle Port Division of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve.