'Still so much trauma': documentary reflects on tragic training exercise

It was meant to be a standard training exercise, but the routine operation off Newcastle's shore ended in tragedy and has now been immortalised in a documentary.

The 72^nd anniversary of the Stockton Bight disaster, which claimed the lives of three men, will be marked with a special screening of a documentary by local history buff and filmmaker Jacob Ure, of Our Past.

The film, Operation Seagull: The Stockton Bight Disaster, will be screened at Tower Cinemas at 11.30am on March 8.

Mr Ure spent the past year researching and conducting interviews with survivors of the 1954 tragedy, which took place between Newcastle Harbour and Mungo Brush near Myall Lakes.

A convoy of 20 amphibious vehicles left Camp Shortland about 2am on March 8 on smooth waters and under clear skies.

But about an hour into the journey, sudden southerly winds created waves up to six metres high, smashing the vehicles and capsizing some.

Eight vehicles sank and about 100 soldiers were tipped overboard.

By dawn the convoy was scattered along Stockton beach.

Three soldiers, Corporal N Moran, Trooper N Mornement and Private R Blackie, did not survive.

Mr Ure decided to create the documentary after meeting Stockton Bight survivor Warren Moxey a few years ago.

"I chatted with him for a little bit and he told me all about the disaster and the impact it had on him and how that led him to volunteer for the RSL," he said.

Mr Moxey sadly died before Mr Ure started interviewing, but the filmmaker was able to find 10 survivors who were willing to take part in the documentary.

"The most impactful part was the fact that these men who are now in their 90s, more than seven decades later still held on to so much of that trauma and so much of the emotion from that night," Mr Ure said.

"A lot of them hadn't spoken to family about it.

"When I was doing the interviews, often their children or grandchildren were present, and they said they never knew that their father or grandfather had gone through that experience.

"There wasn't much information available.

"There were some military records digitised online and some newspaper articles from the time, of course, but getting the first-hand accounts from these men and the personal impact it had rather than the bureaucratic reflection on the event was really important I feel."

Mr Ure said a few of the men said at the time there was a general feeling they shouldn't talk about the incident.

"There were 184 men involved and some of them were doing mandatory national service," he said.

"Newcastle back then, it certainly wasn't as large as it is today, so it would have had a massive impact on the community.

"It's great that we're able to still have some of those guys around to be there and to show that their story is going to be told into the future and that people do care about and acknowledge what they went through."