By Hector Donohue and Mike Turner Ross Wheatley was born in Adelaide on 19 December 1900, joined the Naval College in 1914 and subsequently specialised as a hydrographer, qualifying as ...
Tulagi: an Historic Outpost of Empire A little island with a big history
Tulagi is one of more than 900 islands and atolls in the nation of the Solomon Islands, a beautiful archipelago stretching over 1,400 kilometres in the Coral Sea. It lies ...
The Battle of Cape Spada – 19 July 1940 Part 1: The Genesis of Italy’s Light Cruiser Force
By Andreas Biermann Introduction This article is the first of two that aim to provide a new perspective on the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July 1940, one of ...
Naval Sub Lieutenant awarded the Distinguished Service Order
By Colin Randall Many years ago I was involved in the coal mining industry based in the Hunter region and became a member of the Newcastle Club. The club remembers ...
Occasional Paper 122: Royal Australia Navy 75th Anniversary Celebrations, 1986: Planning
By CMDR Ken Swain AM RAN Retd – Staff Officer RAN 75th Celebrations 1985/86 I was sitting in my real estate agency in Seaforth on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in July ...
Occasional Paper 120: A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (Part 3)
By Commander Neil Westphalen, Royal Australian Navy Reserve Purpose More than a century after its establishment, many Royal Australian Navy (RAN) uniforms and ranks continue to reflect those used by ...
Occasional Paper 119: Darwin, 19 February 1942: a forgotten moment in the history of naval air operations
By Angus Britts The Japanese air attacks against Port Darwin in the forenoon of 19 February 1942 were a salient moment in Australia’s modern history. For the first time the ...
Occasional Paper 117: A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (Part 2)
By Commander Neil Westphalen, Royal Australian Navy This paper was first published in the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, Volume 26 Number 3 in July 2018. Commander Westphalen is ...
Occasional Paper 118: In his own words: AE2’s skipper, H.G. Stoker
By Bob Hetherington Originally Published in the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) Volunteers’ Quarterly newsletter ‘All Hands’, Issue 114 in March 2021. Many readers will know something of the AE2 ...
Occasional Paper 115: A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (Part 1)
By Commander Neil Westphalen, Royal Australian Navy This paper was first published in the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, Volume 27 Number 2 in April 2019. Commander Westphalen is ...
A Warship named Bradman
By John Smith One would have thought that the Australian Fleet would have been proud to have a warship named BRADMAN to honour our most famous cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman. ...
HMAS Quickmatch to the Rescue
Also published as Occasional Paper 156, March 2023 By Max Hayles and R.C.H. Mason The first part of this story by Max Hayles appeared in the June 2007 edition of ...
The Grounding of HMAS Adelaide (II) FFG01
By Phillip Hart with contribution from Greg Mapson This article is a personal recollection of the grounding of HMAS Adelaide that occurred nearly forty years ago. SBLT Phillip Hart was ...
The Remarkable Cavaye family
A colleague from the United Kingdom conducting research into wartime submarine losses recently contacted the Society seeking information on the Australia- born captain of HMS Tempest which was lost in ...
Port Clearance Parties – the Australian Connection
By Hector Donohue Port Clearance Parties, or P Parties, were established in the Royal Navy (RN) in late 1943 and were trained to clear the ports and harbours of Northern ...
HMAS Melbourne Refugee Rescue Mission
By John Ingram ‘Oh, hear us when we cry to thee, For those in peril on the sea’. Some of the immortal words of the Naval Hymn composed by ...
The Distribution, Design, Construction and Sustainability of Indigenous Watercraft in Australia: Part 2
By David Payne This is a continuation from Part 1 of this series which was published in the March 2021 edition of this magazine. The dugout canoes from the top ...
The Willis Islands
By Walter Burroughs This article continues a story from Weather Islands published in the March 2021 edition of this magazine. The first article told us a lot about the weather ...
Two wrecks linked by one Family
By John McGrath Given that the front cover of this magazine depicts a recent postage stamp with a magnificent image of HMVS Cerberus, this story by one of our contributors ...
Able Seaman Russel Caro RAN: A Survivor’s Story
By Tony Caro The December 2020 edition of this magazine contained a tribute to Teddy Sheean, our Victoria Cross recipient. Also mentioned were survivors rescued by HMAS Kalgoorlie, and amongst ...
Pearls of Controversy: Broome’s British White Divers 1912-1913
By Kate Reid-Smith In February 1912, a group of ex-Royal Navy (RN) men arrived in the northern West Australian town of Broome. They had left Britain on 23 December 1911 ...
Occasional Paper 105: Naval History – Does it Matter?
What is the point of naval history? Is it to provide a rich framework through which contemporary Naval debates can be viewed or is there something more there? Must it always say something about the World we live in today while also addressing the one we hope to inhabit in the future? ...
Occasional Paper 107: Dutch Submarine K IX, Netherlands East Indies Naval Forces, Under US Navy Operational Control, then RAN Control as HMAS K9 In SWPA During WWII
By Peter Dunn OAM The Dutch submarine K IX is known to many who are familiar with the Japanese midget submarine attack in Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 ...
Trouble with the Neighbours
By Colin Randall Garden Island has always had trouble with the neighbours. The earliest recorded was in 1788 and the latest in January 2020. Over the intervening 232 years neighbours ...
The Percy Islands and some Visitors
Continuing the series on islands around our coastline we venture a little further south down the Queensland coast, dropping the pick at that wondrous yachtie escape, Middle Percy Island. The ...
