Amber Phineasa – Leading Seaman

We recently caught up with Yalari alumna Amber Phineasa to see what she’s been up to since she graduated from The Glennie School in 2011 –

I joined the Royal Australian Navy in 2014 as a Boatswains Mate. Since then I’ve gone through Recruit school where it all began in Melbourne for 13 weeks, graduated and became a sailor in the RAN. I then moved into Category School to study for about 6 months and then graduated and become a rated sailor in the Navy, which means I received my first promotion to Seaman. I joined HMAS DARWIN 04 in 2015 for 2 years based in Sydney, where I received my next promotion to the rank of Able Seaman. During my time on HMAS DARWIN, I’ve done a few deployments around the world – South East Asia (4 months), OP MANITOU in the Middle East (7 months), International Fleet review in India with Navy from across the world, New Zealand fleet review (3 months), a trip around Australia and helped in the Earthquake in Kaikoura, New Zealand. In 2017 I decommissioned HMAS DARWIN.

In 2018 I joined NUSHIP BRISBANE (which are the new destroyer ships we have in the Navy) and became a part of the commissioning team. We commissioned the NUSHIP BRISBANE to Her Majesty Australian Ships – HMAS BRISBANE in October 2018. We continued to do training out at sea to get the ship up to speed with everything. Late last year, we deployed to America for 5 months for our Combat System Trials with the US. I visited a few places, like Tahiti and Canada and New Caledonia, it was beautiful!

It has been exhausting and tough, especially being away from loved ones for so many years. I haven’t had a proper Christmas holiday or any holiday with my families, friends and partner. It has been challenging being away on deployments for several months. Had a lot pass whilst being away and a lot missed out on a lot of family events, especially my sister’s wedding (which I’ll never ever forget) but they were very understanding of why I couldn’t make it and a lot of them were proud of what I’ve achieved, where I’ve been around the world and how I’m a role model to my community. They are the reason why I am still going strong through all of the tough times being away on deployments and living away from home. It’s definitely worth coming home to them every time.

Recently, I was promoted to the rank of Leading Seaman which comes with more responsibilities. During my sea posting on HMAS BRISBANE I also received a commanding officer commendation award for being the ship’s survival equipment maintainer on board the ship. I look after all the survival equipment and make sure they are serviced and always in date before we set sail.

If you want to know more about the ships as well. We have a Facebook page for HMAS DARWIN l and HMAS BRISBANE III. These pages show photos as well of all my promotions and trips I’ve done overseas and around Australia.