The Royal Australian Naval Reserves (RANR) can trace its origins back to at least 1863 and the formation of the New South Wales Naval Brigade. By 1884 most of the Australian colonies had established volunteer citizen reserve Naval Brigades, their fortunes waxing and waning in accordance with the financial and political interest displayed by colonial administrators. The Commonwealth assumed overall responsibility for these forces at Federation, at which time their strength numbered 1684. However, with federal policy primarily relying on the Royal Navy to provide for naval defence needs, the State-based forces languished with few resources and declining numbers. As part of the 1903 Naval Agreement, the Royal Navy was at least required to establish training facilities for a Royal Naval Reserve (Australasian Branch) numbering some 33 officers and 700 ratings.
The State Naval Brigades continued to exist as separate organisations until 1907 when they were finally disbanded and the Commonwealth Naval Militia was formed. Maintained on similar lines to the Royal Navy Reserve, and on a voluntary basis, the Naval Militia continued until 1911 when Reserve training in Australia became subject to the provisions of the Commonwealth Defence Acts of 1909-10, which introduced a Universal Training Scheme. The Scheme provided for six years elementary training for boys under military age followed by seven years intensive training as adult members of the Citizen Navy. To administer naval participation in the Scheme, the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board established a Directorate of Naval Reserves under Captain F Tickell, CMG, CNF.
As a Letterbox Hybrid cache, you will find a logbook AND a Stamp. The stamp is not a trade item but intended to stay within the cache. Use it to stamp your own notebook, and stamp the logbook with your own personal stamp, OR alternatively, simply date and sign the logbook as you would normally do at any other geocache. Again, the stamp and logbook remain in the letterbox for the next visitor to use.