by Walter Burroughs In the far west of New South Wales, near its border with South Australia, lies the city of Broken Hill. Being much closer to Adelaide than Sydney, ...
Naval history
HMAS FALIE and the Pacific War – Part 2
by Lyn O’Grady Having been requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy to act as an examination vessel at the entrance to Sydney Harbour from 1940, HMAS Falie began a new ...
FULL CIRCLE – Part II: To Hell, and then home by submarine
Tony Vine continues the story of Able Seaman Hilton (Harry) George Weigand, RAN When the Burma railway was completed, Harry Weigand and most of the men were moved to Tamarkan ...
HMAS KANIMBLA (II) and HMAS MANOORA (II)
Origin: In Australian service HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were employed as LPAs (amphibious transports). Both were originally constructed for the United States Navy (USN) as members of the ...
Occasional Paper 197: The Countess of Hopetoun Incident, December 1915
By Greg Swinden This article was first published in the Naval Historical Review, June 2000 edition. HMAS Countess of Hopetoun (commanded by Boatswain Samuel Waugh, RN), a 23-year-old Torpedo Boat ...
Occasional Paper 198: OPERATION TAMAR – THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY IN RWANDA 1994 – 1995
By Greg Swinden The second United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR II) was named Operation TAMAR by the Australian Defence Force; commencing on 25 July 1994 and ending on ...
Occasional Paper 196: Rosa Angela Kirkcaldie, World War (I) Pioneer Nurse
Rosa Kirkcaldie (1887-1972) was a hospital matron and army nurse born at Homebush, Sydney and trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney between 1910 and 1914. She gained her ...
Occasional Paper 195: Finding the HMAS Melbourne(II) 10th February 1964 Bridge Communication Log Book
By Rob Everett One piece of critical evidence to the Royal Commission into the tragic collision between HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne off Jervis Bay during the first watch of ...
Occasional Paper 194: Reflections on the First Gulf War 1990 – 1991
By CDRE Richard T. Menhinick, AM, CSC, RAN (Retd) The Naval Historical Society is grateful to Commodore Menhinick for allowing publication of this, his 2025 Anzac Day address to the ...
Book Review: The Secret Submarine
Book Review by ‘Subconscious’ The Secret Submarine by Tom Lewis is a paperback of 315-pages, published by Big Sky Publishing, of Sydney. It was released in early 2025. The book ...
PORT JACKSON AND MANUKAU and Some ‘Fencibles’
By Walter Burroughs This story is a tribute to Gerald Ellott our New Zealand correspondent whom we unfortunately, never met. At the age of 99 he passed away on 6 ...
THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANY
The final cruise – A report from ‘our cruiser‘ RMS STRATHAIRD For more than two centuries shipping interests that eventually became the iconic Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company built an ...
HMAS Encounter and the Raider Seeadler
Colin Randall discusses the loss of the German ship in 1917 The enemy raider Seeadler sailed from Germany in December 1916 and during an extended cruise in the Atlantic and ...
J CLASS SUBMARINES and their WONDERFUL MECHANISM
Intricate Machinery and its Use in War Talking to Ships at the Bottom of the Sea By A.C.C.S., ‘Sunday Times’ – 20 July 1919 “Just about the greasiest job I ...
SERVING ABOARD THE TOWN CLASS CRUISERS
A transcript of the 1972 presentation to the NHSA by naval historian and member John Bastock When the first Australian Fleet Unit arrived in Sydney on 4 October 1913, I ...
NEW ERA WARSHIPS – 1895
Coastal and Harbour defence by torpedo boats – a lecture by Commander Bosanquet, New South Wales Naval Forces. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper of 1 October 1895 featured an informative article ...
FULL CIRCLE To hell, and then home by submarine
The story of Able Seaman Hilton (Harry) George Weigand, RAN by Tony Vine When Harry Weigand walked off the submarine HMAS Oxley in Malta in 1928 to return home to ...
Occasional Paper 43: The Press vs RAN Cricket Match 25 January 1933
Following the 1932-33 Ashes series held in Australia in which English captain Douglas Jardine employed ‘Bodyline’ tactics to combat the batting skills of Don Bradman a much lighter match was ...
Occasional Paper 42: The day the entire German fleet surrendered – 100 years ago
Armistice Day is remembered as the day World War One ended, but for naval historians Britain’s greatest victory came 10 days later. Operation ZZ was the code name for the ...
Occasional Paper 41: SS William Dawes – A Ship is Burning (1942)
This account records an incident in the Japanese submarine campaign off Australia and the efforts of the RAAF and VAOC to protect coastal shipping. As the attractive blonde 17 year ...
Occasional Paper 40: Secret History of the First Australian to be given Penicillin
On Thursday 9th August 2018 the ABC 7.30 Report broadcast a story by Tracy Bowden about the first use of penicillin in Australia. Tracy has given permission to the Naval ...
Occasional Paper 39: Compelled to Resign THE STORY OF COMMANDER PAUL HUGILL HIRST RAN 1899-1963
by Lieutenant Commander Terry Feltham RAN Ret’d “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it never should’ve been. Remember, you lived, you learned, you grew and you moved on”. Anon. Why ...
Occasional Paper 38: RAN Returns to the Unit System of Machinery Layout
Peter Calthorpe is a member of the Society, married to Liz Calthorpe, the NHSA Librarian and they have two adult daughters. Peter completed 27 years’ service in the Royal Australian ...
Occasional Paper 37: ALLAN CHARLES GREEN [1878-1954], the man behind the Photos
In the State Library of Victoria we have an amazing photographic collection of ship photo thanks to Allan Green. He was born in Daylesford, in the Central Victorian goldfields on ...
Occasional Paper 36: HMAS Sydney (3) Delivery to Australia: 1949
Our thanks go to Debbie Irwin for the letter by her uncle, Stoker Mechanician James (Jim) Ashwood of HMAS Sydney (3) to his sister Nancy dated 8 May 1949 about ...