By John McGrath This article is a complement to that on officers’ swords which appeared in the March 2018 issue of the Naval Historical Review. Like that article, it does ...
History - general
Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps: Forerunner of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service
By Dr J. K. Haken The Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) was formed by Mrs. Florence Violet McKenzie in March 1939 at 9 Clarence Street, Sydney, months before WWII was ...
Two Osborne Houses
To add confusion to our early naval history there are two residences named Osborne House which both became naval academies. The first of these was in England and the second ...
Naval Fuel Oil
By Peter Colthorpe With recent announcements that the redundant naval oil fuel installation beneath the Sydney Domain is to be used in an extension to the Art Gallery of NSW, ...
Officers’ Swords of the Royal Navy – A Brief History
By John McGrath Captain John McGrath, RN is a retired officer with a lifelong interest in naval swords. With Mark Barton he co-authored British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship published by Seaforth ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 3
Previous editions of this magazine examined the Australian – Indian relationship from the establishment of the first Australian colony in 1788 to the conclusion of the Second World War. This ...
Submarine Mining in the Australian Colonial and Commonwealth Armies
Dr J. K. Haken Mines and submarine mining are always associated with the Navy, but internationally and locally the early development was with the Army Engineers. Mines and underwater explosives ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 2
Like some sections of our own armed forces who fail to acknowledge a period of colonial rule over which we had no direct control, there are those within the Indian ...
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 ...
Our Spanish Cousins: Politics and shipbuilding capabilities
Political Intrigues For centuries there was natural rivalry between Britain and Spain in the fields of colonial expansion, maritime trade and commerce. Relationships, at least from the time of the ...
Occasional Paper 18: Ensigns Associated With Ships Based at Garden Island
November 2017 Flags have a long been a fascination of founding Society member Mr Norman Rivett as well as Garden Island in Sydney where he has worked and volunteered for ...
Letter: More on “Who Took the Flag?”
Dear Editor I refer to David Quick’s letter ‘Who Took the Flag’ in the June 2017 edition of the NHR. A quick look at the RoPs of HMAS Supply tells us ...
Letter: Some Additional Aspects to the RAN’s Antarctic Involvement
Dear Editor, Further to Hugh Farmer’s article Antarctica –the forgotten Continent in the Naval Historical Review Vol. 38 No. 2 (June 2017), there are two aspects of RAN participation in ...
Book review: The Flag’s Up
By Peter Poland. Published by Halstead Press, Sydney in 2017. Soft cover of 176 pages with plentiful supply of black & white and colour photographs. Available from booksellers and online ...
Outsourcing in the Australian Defence Forces
Sooner or later, everything old is new again From The Colorado Kid by Stephen King Outsourcing Outsourcing is a practice used to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to ...
The Spectacle Island Railway
By Fred Haynes Spectacle Island is located near the suburb of Drummoyne at the confluence of Iron Cove and Parramatta rivers. It was originally named Dawes Island when surveyed in ...
Australian – Indian Relationship: Part 1
This is the first of a three part series covering the Australian-Indian relationship. Australians fought alongside Indian troops in two world wars, but what do we know about them? Both ...
Letter: Who Took the Flag – QC Owns Up
I read with interest Fifty Years under the Australian White Ensign by Norman Rivett (Naval Historical Review Vol 38 No 1 March 2017). I have a story of my own to ...
Antarctica – the forgotten continent
This article has been compiled from research conducted by Hugh Farmer, one of our new members providing invaluable volunteer assistance at the Boathouse. Antarctica occupies about 14,000,000 km2of mainly mysterious ...
Navy Training Today
By Captain Mal Ralston, RAN In 1903, the Commonwealth Naval Board was constituted under the Defence Act. One of its first responsibilities was to commence home-based naval training of young ...
The Albert Medal
By John Ellis Queen Victoria instituted the Albert Medal in 1866 to recognise those civilians who had attempted to prevent the loss of life at sea. A year later the ...
Fifty Years under the Australian White Ensign
With the Australian White Ensign approaching its fiftieth anniversary on 1 March 2017 it is appropriate to reflect on the history of the revered ensign in its various forms with ...
Occasional Paper 6: Royal Australian Navy Ships Honour Roll
March 2017 Given the 75th anniversary commemoration events taking place around Australia and overseas in 2017 to honour ships lost in the RAN’s darkest year, 1942 it is timely to ...
Centenary of Shackleton’s Antarctic Rescue by the Chilean Navy
By Dr. Carlos Tromben-Corbalán, Centre for Strategic Studies, Chilean Navy Tuesday 30 August 2016 was an auspicious day in the Chilean naval calendar marking the centennial of the rescue of ...
Women in the RAN: The Conflict of Equality
By MIDN Jaycob Humphreys, RAN We have had other essays on this topic by female officers, but this perceptive discussion from a recent New Entry Officer Course student, is by ...