Nigel Townsend Australian Marine Sciences Association 2022

Nigel Townsend

CMDR Nigel Townsend commenced his career joining the Royal Australian Navy College in 1984 completing a BSc majoring in Hydrographic Science at the University of NSW in 1986. He undertook initial seaman officer training and served on HMA Ships Canberra, Tobruk, Torrens, Flinders and Cook. He served as a survey boat officer on HMAS Moresby undertaking surveys in off northern Australia in 1989 before joining the commissioning crew of HMAS Mermaid. CMDR Townsend completed the RAN IHO Cat B Hydrographic Survey course in 1990 and then took up a posting to HMAS Flinders as Navigating Officer where he served until 1993 and undertook deployments to Papua New Guinea and the Coral Sea. After a brief stint in the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO), CMDR Townsend joined the RAN LADS Flight unit during its early operational years. In 1996 Commander Townsend joined HMAS Shepperton as the Executive Officer, prior to taking up a Royal Navy (RN) exchange in Plymouth where he served on HMS Bulldog as the Executive Officer undertaking survey task in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. This was followed by a stint with a RN Naval party deployed to a commercial vessel working in the Irish Sea. In 1999 CMDR Townsend completed the RN Long H course (IHO Cat A), winning the Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors (RICS) Geomatics Prize for excellence. On return to Australia CMDR Townsend re-joined the RAN LADS unit and undertook survey operations in East Timor during the early stages of the East Timor operations. In early 2000 CMDR Townsend assumed command of HMAS Shepperton which he commanded until late 2001, undertaking operations in East Timor, PNG and the Great Barrier Reef. Commander Townsend was awarded his Charge Survey qualification and CPHS1 during his command. In 2002 CMDR Townsend departed the Navy to commence a career in the commercial survey industry, working as Survey Manger with Fugro LADS Corporation until 2013. During this time, he led survey projects in Norway, Ireland, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Qatar, and Australia. Highlights of his commercial career included managing projects to survey the entire Victorian coastline, the entire south coast of France, and operations north of polar circle on the Norwegian Coastline. In 2011 CMDR Townsend was awarded the US JALBTCX LCDR Peter Johnson Prize for Industry Best Practice in Project Management for a survey pioneering the use of LiDAR and MBES concurrently in Qatar. CMDR Townsend departed Fugro in 2014 and completed an MBA at the University of Adelaide prior to starting his own survey consultancy undertaking projects in France, Finland and Japan. CMDR Townsend re-joined the RAN in 2017 and was posted to the AHO as the Staff Office Quality Control. Promoted to Commander in Dec 2019, CMDRT Townsend assumed duties as the Assistant Director National Hydrography where he is responsible for the planning, issuing, award and operational management and acceptance of all National Survey tasks issued to the HIPP Panel.