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 ...
Naval Historical Review
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 ...
Singapore Dockyard: The ‘Truncated Scheme’ and construction of the ‘missing’ wharf walls 1938–1941
By Bernard Mennell This article was published in the May 2019 (Vol 24/No 1) issue of Dockyards, the newsletter of the Naval Dockyards Society (UK) and is re-published with kind ...
Captain Valentina Orlikova – Soviet Maritime Hero
By Alexandra Murtazaeva Readers may remember Alexandra who while completing her studies in Australia helped out as a volunteer at the Boatshed. Now back at home in Moscow, she tells ...
Commander Guy Alexander Beange DSC RAN
By Hector Donohue Commander Guy Alexander Beange DSC RAN served with the Royal New Zealand Navy Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War and trained as a Fleet Air Arm ...
The Solomon Islands Part 2: from WWII to Present
This article forms part of a trilogy covering the history of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. Part 1, discussing the Solomon Islands from European discovery to the Second World War, ...
Exmouth Gulf – Submariners’ Haven
By Colin Randall Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia In 1618, the Dutch East India Company ship Mauritius, under command of Willem Janszoon, landed near North West Cape and named Willem’s River, ...
The HMAS Parramatta Memorials
In this our 50th year it is well to reflect on some of the more important projects undertaken by the Society and none is perhaps more worthy than conceiving a ...
A Tribute to Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean VC RANR
After many years of failure to gain recognition for the heroic deeds performed by Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, the posthumous award of his Victoria Cross came as a sudden but ...
Book Review: Radio Girl
Radio Girl. By David Dufty. Allen and Unwin, Sydney 2020. Paperback of 301 pages. rrp $29.99. ISBN 978 1 76087 665 4 This biographical work details the life of Violet ...
Book Review: Wyatt Earp – The Little Ship with Many Names
Wyatt Earp: The Little Ship with Many Names. By Trish Burgess. Connorcourt Publishing, Cleveland, Queensland. Paperback, 124 pages. rrp $29.95 This book review follows closely in the wake of the ...
Letter: The Palace letters
On 14 July 2020 previously secret correspondence between the then Governor General Sir John Kerr and Her Majesty the Queen was published by the National Archives of Australia 45 years ...
The Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme – Australian Volunteers in the Normandy Landings, June 1944
By Janet Roberts Billett This article follows from Part 1 by the same author on the contribution made by members of the Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme, which appeared in the December ...
Dr Frederick Wheatley, Headmaster and Cryptographer
A new book, Australian Code Breakers by James Phelps, has recently been published on the fascinating topic of wartime code breaking. As the front cover tells us this is the ...
Heart of Oak and Jolly Tars: a short reflection
By John McGrath The refrain of Heart of Oak (yes, it is Heart not Hearts) are our ships, begins: ‘Heart of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men’. ...
Mine warfare roles for Australian Women during the Second World War
By Mike Turner During WWII many Australian women worked in new defence support roles. The mine warfare roles were manning Mine Watching Posts, manufacturing moored mines and manning the RAN ...
An Essay on the Forming of the Royal Australian Navy
By Midshipman Lloyd Skinner Lloyd Skinner attended Melbourne Grammar School, where he discovered a passion for Australian political and military history. Shortly after completing secondary education in 2019 Lloyd joined ...
RFA Bishopdale
By Greg Swinden RFA Bishopdale was a Royal Fleet Auxiliary Dale class freighting tanker that saw service during the period 1939-1959. As a freighting tanker her main role was to ...
The Ephemeral Commission of the Fremantle Naval Volunteers, Western Australia, 1879 – 1888
By Ron and Ian Forsyth New information on the Fremantle Naval Volunteers, the only naval defence force to be established in the Colony of Western Australia, is documented in our ...
MV Ramses – Blockade Runner
By Alan Bourne This paper was prepared by Alan Bourne, son of Herbert (Bill) Thomas Bourne. Herbert was christened Hubert, which he disliked, and he enlisted in the RAN under ...
Chief of Navy grants permission for the Australian White Ensign to fly over the HMAS Sydney (II) Memorial at Geraldton, WA
By LCDR Desmond Woods The HMAS Sydney (II) Memorial at Geraldton in WA has become a place of pilgrimage for 65,000 visitors each year. Some 20,000 arrive by sea on ...
Kings Cross in World War II
By Nick Hordern In 2020 we celebrate the 75th anniversary year of the opening of the Captain Cook Dock which joined Garden Island to the mainland and we gained a ...
Palm Islands – a Naval Connection
By Walter Burroughs The Palm Islands and Challenger Bay affords a large sheltered deep-water anchorage, the last such facility on Australia’s east coast before reaching the northern extremity of the ...
The Navy and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic
The world is currently combatting the Coronavirus 19 (COVID 19) which originated in China and has now spread throughout the globe. So far, Australia has fortunately been spared the worst ...
Finding of Akagi and Kaga focuses attention on Japan’s formidable aircraft carriers and the Darwin raid
By Tom Lewis Dr. Tom Lewis OAM is a retired naval officer, and the author of 14 books. Some of this text was drawn from Carrier Attack, published in 2013 ...