NEIL Armstrong, above, has been appointed CEO for the next two years of the Western Port Oberon Association.
A justice of the peace and a former Mornington Shire councillor and a board member of Metropolitan Ambulance Service and other non-profit organisations Mr Armstrong was awarded an Order Of Australia Medal in 2019.
Western Port Oberon Association president Max Bryant said Mr Armstrong had an “amazing background as an administrator and will bring a strong strategic focus to our current operations and long term plans”.
He said the association’s “key projects to be completed over the next 24 months” were finding permanent homes for the former HMAS Otama submarine (anchored off Crib Point) and the former pilot vessel Wyuna (anchored in Bell Bay, Tasmania).
Mr Bryant said the association planned to bring the Wyuna to Victoria “later next year, with significant celebrations planned for her departure from Bell Bay and arrival in Melbourne”.
“Otama and Wyuna will be preserved and placed on permanent display at Hastings Victoria, once facilities are completed,” Mr Bryant said.
Mr Armstrong’s “maritime connections” included his marine engineer grandfather and uncle and his late father “an experienced deep sea merchant sailor”.
“Neil loves ships, he photographs them and cruises regularly,” Mr Bryant said.
A McCrae resident, Mr Armstrong would be CEO “in an honorary capacity” to help the association “consolidate its overall position”.
First published in the Western Port News – 14 October 2020
