Rogers Park named for disaster hero
A memorial service is held every year at Rogers Park, Woy Woy, to remember the sinking of the HMAS Voyager on 10 February 1964, after colliding with HMAS Melbourne while conducting exercises off the NSW South Coast.
The Woy Woy Peninsula has a close association with the disaster and Rogers Park was named in 1977 in memory of Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Rogers who lost his life while saving other young sailors.
Chief Petty Officer Rogers, who was born in north-east Wales, served in the Royal Navy with distinction before coming to Australia and joining the Royal Australian Navy in 1950.
Moving with his wife and young family to Ettalong Beach in 1955, Chief Petty Officer Rogers - known to his friends as "Buck" Rogers - served on several vessels before joining HMAS Voyager in January 1963 as her coxswain.
Survivors of the disaster told of the courage of Chief Petty Officer Rogers amidst the turmoil following the collision, which claimed the lives of 82 persons on board the Voyager - 14 officers, including the commanding officer D H Stevens, 67 sailors and one civilian dockyard employee.
There were 232 survivors.
It was later reported that Rogers was heard leading his remaining doomed comrades in prayer and a hymn during their final moments.
Chief Petty Officer Rogers was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest bravery award then available in peacetime "for organising the escape of as many as possible and encouraging those few who could not escape to meet death alongside himself with dignity and honour".
All of Chief Petty Officer Rogers' medals are on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Chief Petty Officer Rogers was survived by his wife, Lorraine, who has since died, and his four children, Peter, June, Cheryl and Rhonda, who were aged from two to 17 years at the time of the accident.
The family attend the service at Woy Woy each year.
This year, Cheryl, who resides on the Central Coast, was in attendance, together with her sister June, who had travelled from Wales with her husband, Peter; and Jonathan Rogers' grandson, also named Jonathan Rogers, with his son Ethan.
Three other local men connected with HMAS Voyager were Able Seaman Ronald William Michael Parker, who spent most of his working life in the Navy and who was among those who lost their lives in 1964; survivor George Weir, who passed away in 1995 and Richard "Dick" Gough, a survivor who resided at Umina Beach until his death in 2007.
State Parliament Hansard, 15 May 2009
Marie Andrews, Member for Gosford