HMAS Gayundah finally paid off in Melbourne. Sold in 1921 to Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd, she returned to Queensland and began a long and useful career as a sand and gravel barge. She sank at her moorings at Melton Reach in October 1930 but was soon raised and back at work. Early in 1958 she was towed to Bulimba Wharf in Brisbane and stripped, with the hull then sold to the Redcliffe Town Council. On 2 June 1958 after seventy four years afloat, Gayundah was beached as a breakwater off the Woody Point cliffs on the Redcliffe Peninsula just north of Brisbane. Her remains are still visible