Toowoomba crew to star in TV series

The Anzac frigate HMAS Toowoomba and its crew are to feature in a major new documentary series produced by the same people who produced Navy Divers.

A film crew from the Fremantle-based Prospero Productions has spent the past five months aboard Toowoomba, filming all aspects of the ship and its 190-member crew during an operational deployment to the Middle East.

The format is likely to be a multi-part TV series, produced from hundreds of hours of video shot as the ship travelled from Fremantle, WA to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, visiting foreign ports, conducting counter-terrorist and anti-piracy patrols and working with the giant nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Throughout this time, a three-member Prospero film crew has lived and worked with Toowoomba crew members.

Director Will Minchin said a camera crew had been aboard pretty much every day of the ship's workup and deployment.

"It's an observational documentary. We attempt to tell the story of an Australian warship on deployment," he said.

"You can't tell every story but you certainly give it your best shot," he said as the ship sailed in the Persian Gulf.

Mr Minchin said the biggest moment involved the apprehension of a Somali pirate gang that had tried to hijack a Portuguese freighter.

This is perhaps the first up-close vision of a modern day pirate band, as distinct from those depicted in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

"We had fantastic coverage of that. After the boat was secured and the weapons had been secured, the camera team went over and got pretty extraordinary vision of it," he said.

Mr Minchin said there was a good cross-section of characters aboard the ship and that was needed for good story telling.

They range from Leading Seaman Adam Baskett, Toowoomba's showman who organised the ship's Melbourne Cup carnival, trivia quiz nights and much else, to highly respected figures such Chief Petty Officer Kelvin Harris, aboard Toowoomba since she was commissioned and soon to depart.

Mr Minchin said it was an extraordinary experience living and working on a warship.

"You come into their world and it's so ordinary for these guys. Maybe they find it difficult to recognise that for us it is so extraordinary," he said.