Over recent timeswhat was the Naval Health Services has undergone a significant transformation, becoming part of a unified Defence Health Services organisation. To many past members of the wider naval ...
Ship histories and stories
Letter: HMAS Patricia Cam families visit
The following email was recently received addressed to the President of the Naval Historical Society and your Editor from Michael Owen a Darwin based historian who operates Top End Heritage ...
The Sydney Cove and her impact on early colonial exploration
In an article covering Part 1 of the Australian-Indian Relationship (NHR September 2017) mention is made of the ship Sydney Cove. While she was wrecked on her maiden voyage she ...
HMAS Arunta and Operation Hamburger
Whichever way you looked at a Tribal class destroyer, she was not just handsome, she was beautiful. The balance between hull and superstructure and the proportions of her two funnels ...
Malta Revisited: Wartime Memories of HMAS Vendetta’s Malta Sojourn in World War II
We are indebted to ex Supply Assistant Gordon Hill for this wonderfully illuminating description of his wartime service in the destroyer HMAS Vendetta when based at Malta. The George Cross Island ...
HMAS Suva: the ship that shaped the future of the Australian Naval Station
By John Smith Possibly not many have heard of HMAS Suva as she had an extremely short history as a commissioned Australian warship. She did however have the distinction of wearing ...
Book Review: Aus-Ships 2017 (CD)
Somewhat unusually we have been asked to review a CD. Aus-Ships 2017 by Tony Starke, revised by Rex Cox and Robert Fildes. This is the fourth and greatly improved edition ...
AK 121 Aroetta
A previous edition of this magazine (March 2017) outlined the exploits of HDML 1321 and favourably mentioned her commanding officer, Lieutenant Ambrose Palmer, RANR. This article explores an earlier career of ...
HMAS Platypus – a Submarine Naval Base
By Peter R. Smith This paper was prepared by the Submarine Institute of Australia to help mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the formation of a submarine base ...
Occasional Paper 9: The Sinking of HMAS Armidale on 1 December 1942
July 2017 The following address was delivered by Dr Kevin Smith OAM to members of the Naval Historical Society of Australia in Sydney 18 April 2017. In 1798 at the ...
Occasional Paper 11: The Remarkable Short Life of HMAS Nestor, The Ship That Never Came Home
July 2017 The following address was delivered Commander Walter Burroughs RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by the RAN on Garden Island, Sydney 16 June 2017. I am ...
Book Review: HMAS Sydney II in Peace and War
By Wes Olson, Privately Published at Hilton, WA in 2016, 610 Pages with maps and photographs. Available direct from the author at email: wes.dale@westnet.com.au. Price $60.00 plus postage. Aside from ...
Book Review: HMAS Canberra – Casualty of Circumstance
By Kathryn Spurling, Publishers New Holland, Sydney, 2016. Paperback, 255 pp with b & w illustrations, maps and portraits. Available most bookshops from $33.00 with discounts available. The author served ...
HMAS Leeuwin
Recent planning for the redevelopment of the ex HMAS Leeuwinsite has aroused considerable interest amongst the naval community and we are pleased to have some further thoughts from Roy Stall, ...
The Ship that Started the Second World War
By Walter Burroughs In September 2016 the author was a passenger on a cruise ship which berthed at the Baltic port of Gdansk in almost the same position as a ...
HMAS Patricia Cam
Graeme Andrews, one of our long serving members with a sharp wit and fine pen, wrote an excellent article Cam’s Trawlers first published in the May 2006 edition of Afloat magazine. After ...
Harbour Defence Motor Launches, Seaward Defence Motor Launches & Seaward Defence Boats
Wooden Ships and Iron Men – unofficial motto of RAN HDMLs1 The March 2017 edition of this magazine contained an article HDML 1321 and what she represents which states that after ...
Occasional Paper 8: The Gustavo Stefanini Story
June 2017 The following story was provided by Commander Stephen Youll, OAM RAN Retd in relation to the matter of the first RAN ship to sink a submarine in World ...
Occasional Paper 7: HMAS Vampire Memorial Address (9 April 2017)
May 2017 On 9 April 1942, HMAS Vampire (I) was sunk by Japanese bombers in the vicinity of Batticaloa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with the loss of eight lives. This action was ...
Book review: Flagship: The Cruiser HMAS Australia II and the Pacific War on Japan
By Mike Carlton. Penguin Random House, Sydney, August 2016. Hardcover 642 pages with illustrations and many b&w photographs. RRP $50 – discounts available. Some naval history books traverse well-worn tracks ...
HMAS Nepal and Operation ES – June and July 1942
The Society received the following letter which explains this unusual circumstance. A recent application to the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal has cast light on a hitherto unknown operation undertaken ...
HMAS Norman – far from Home
By Peter Nunan Background The N-class destroyers operated in many parts of the globe but HMAS Norman was the only one of her ilk to have made an operational voyage to ...
HDML 1321 and what she represents
Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short ...
Occasional Paper 5: Ken Brown: Service in HMAS Nestor
February 2017 By Warrant Officer Martin Grogan Mr Ken BROWN (aged 95) a retired RAN Lieutenant Commander and World War Two veteran was recently awarded the British Arctic Star. This ...
Occasional Paper 4: HMAS Melbourne II
December 2016 By Tom de Voil Introduction I recently had a brief article about HMAS Melbourne, the aircraft carrier, published and consequent on that I was asked to give this ...