Even in its golden era in the 1980s the Australian Oberon squadron struggled to maintain its numbers and needed every sailor it had for its operations. The ideal complement of submariners was over 800 but there were rarely more than 600, and this meant that the squadron was reluctant to release submariners to work with the project or to crew the first two boats, Collins and Farncomb.

In late 1987 the project office prepared a ‘manpower forecasting model’ and told the navy the numbers that would be needed for the new submarines as they were built. The navy assumed that sailors would be excited at the prospect of being part of the first crews and there would be no problems recruiting, but as early as 1989 the project was concerned that the ‘manpower available for early training and trials of the new submarines was critically limited and could disrupt progress’.

The manpower crisis was a constant problem throughout the test and trials phase of the project, and the original intention to have a trials crew and a commissioning crew was abandoned as there were not enough sailors to make up separate crews.

Commander Trevor Robertson, an experienced Oberon captain, was the first commanding officer of Collins, joining the submarine project in 1990. Robertson's primary roles were to assemble the first two crews and supervise their training, and review the trials and operations procedures developed by ASC and the project.