HMAS Pioneer paid off at Sydney. Thereafter she was used as an accommodation ship at Garden Island until 1922. In May 1923 she was handed over to Cockatoo Dockyard by the Disposals Board. In 1924 she passed to the control of Commonwealth Shipping Board and during the same year the work of stripping her down to a bare hull was begun. Pioneer’s hull was later bought by HP Stacey of Sydney as scrap.