SVC 1974-81
Michael was raised in Moonah by his parents Doris and Tony – Tony had attended St Virgil’s from 1944-51. Stephen was the middle of five children with two older sisters and two younger brothers, David and Peter. Both brothers also attended the College, David in 1977-85 and Peter in 1979-87.
Tony’s brother Patrick and his son Tim also attended St Virgil’s.
At SVC, Stephen proved to be a good student and had a n involvement with rowing, football and cadets.
During high school he had already decided that he would pursue a life at sea, and had applied to join the Navy as a Junior Entry sailor in 1979, but was about three months too young. With his good academic results he was advised to re-apply as an officer when he was older, which he did during Year 11, when he applied for a Year 12 scholarship.
He successfully passed the Officer Selection Board and was offered the Year 12 scholarship and Senior Entry as a Midshipman in 1983. However, when Navy Careers saw his Year 11 results in early January 1982 the Petty Officer from recruiting told him he had a good enough score for University of NSW enrolment, so why doesn't he join now.
After a short discussion with his parents, he rang back the next day and joined the Navy. In a couple of weeks, he packed my bags and flew off to Sydney on the 15 January, meeting up with the rest of his class to pick up uniforms and start training at the Royal Australian Naval College at HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay Territory.
He completed his new entry training and first year of university at the College, before moving to HMAS Watson in Sydney to complete his studies at the University of NSW. Sometime during his first year in the Navy he picked up the nickname ‘Sid’, which has stuck ever since. He graduated from the Royal Australian Naval College with a Bachelor of Science in 1984, and completed his professional training aboard HMA Ships Jervis Bay and Tobruk and Geelong.
Transferring to submarines in 1986, he completed his Submarine Officers Training Course at HMAS Platypus before qualifying as a submariner and being awarded 'dolphins' in 1987 in HMAS Oxley.
For the next few years he progressed through various jobs in the submarines Oxley, Orion and Otway, and the guided missile frigate Adelaide to broaden his experience, which included a deployment to New Zealand and Hawaii for RIMPAC 90.
During this time Stephen married his wife Janice, whom he’d met during his submarine training time.
After brief service at Maritime Headquarters – where they welcomed their first son into the world - he completed the Submarine Warfare Officers Course in 1992 and was awarded the inaugural Sword of Honour as the top student.
He then served as Operations and Executive Officer (2nd in command) in Orion. He completed the first Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Command Course ('Perisher') – during which time his wife gave birth to twins – in November 1995 and commanded the submarine HMAS Onslow from April 1996 to October 1997.
Promoted to Captain in October 2005, he served as Captain Submarines at the Submarine Headquarters in Western Australia until December 2008.
Next he completed the Defence Strategic Studies Course in 2009, graduating with a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies, then served at Headquarters Joint Operations Command at Bungendore near Canberra from January 2010 to January 2013. His next role was as Director Submarine Development, which included developing requirements for the Future Submarine project, Navy capability representative for the Competitive Evaluation Process that advised Government on selecting the strategic partner for what became the Attack class submarine program, and oversight of the various Collins upgrade projects.
He transitioned to the Navy Reserves in February 2017.
Returning to Navy on Reserve Days after a brief period with Navantia in June 2017, Stephen served as the initial Director Undersea Warfare and Advanced Submarine Systems, which included initiating a project for an Integrated Undersea Surveillance System and a number of related undersea capability initiatives. In February 2021 he joined the Defence Capability Enhancement Review under VADM Mead, and transferred to his current role as Director General Nuclear Powered Submarine Capability Development in September 2021, as part of the Nuclear Powered Submarine Taskforce. He was promoted to Commodore as a full-time Reserve officer in December 2021 and clocked up 41 years of service in January 2022.
A reflection on this journey by Stephen:
Looking back over the years, growing up in Tasmania and my schooling gave me a good base to move on to the challenges of service life, dealing with the myriad of people one serves with in submarines, the Navy, Defence Forces, and broader Defence Department and industry. Despite the enormous changes that have happened over the years, and the challenges of various operations, deployments and work-related travel that I have been involved, I have been very fortunate to have a supportive family and network of friends, colleagues and shipmates that have helped along the way. I have enjoyed all of my time with the Navy and would recommend it to anyone up for the challenge, especially service in submarines. And though it was never easy, I have been blessed with a wonderful wife together with whom we raised four excellent children who are now making their own way in the world, which to me is a greater achievement than anything I’ve done in the Navy.
