Singapore’s northern lights

6.42 am 27 July 2013. The lightening sky at dawn is coloured by the bright lights cast from Sembawang Shipyard at which ship repair work goes on through the night. The two rows of ships and floating docks which can be seen are tied-up along a finger pier which is probably the northern most extension from Singapore. The shipyard, and previously the naval dockyard of the former British naval base which was turned over to Singapore in 1968, has been a feature in the  area since 1938. Under a Land Use Plan released early this year, the yard will be moving out to free the land it now occupies for future development, cutting one of the last links the area has with its past.

The sun sets on the last working remnants of the Naval Base

6.55 pm, 26 April 2013. The sun sets over an area which was once part of the huge British Naval base in the north of Singapore . The base which stretched some six and a half kilometres from where Sembawang Park is today across to the area close to the Causeway, was vacated in 1971. A commercial shiprepair yard, Sembawang Shipyard, was established in 1968, taking over the facilities of the former Naval Dockyard for a token sum of S$1. The yard, the north wall and finger pier of which is seen in the photograph, and the former Stores Basin – now used as a US Navy logistics facility and cargo berth, are the last working parts of the former base still with us. Based on the Land Use Plan recently released to support the somewhat unpopular Population White Paper, the yard will move its operations to the west of Singapore to free the land it now occupies for future development – a move which will erase a significant part of the memory of the  role the area played in Singapore’s economic development