On This Day
1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars
On This Day - 1919-1938
- May 8, 1928
HMAS Sydney, cruiser, was paid off for breaking up at Sydney and on 10 January 1929 was delivered to Cockatoo Island for breaking up
- April 24, 1928
The County class cruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA, (CAPT F. W. H. Goolden, RN), was commissioned. AUSTRALIA was laid down in John Brown Yard, Clydebank, Scotland, on 9 June 1925, and launched on 17 March 1927. Dame Mary Cook, (Wife of the Australian High Commissioner in London), performed the launching ceremony. RADM G. F. Hyde, RAN, hoisted his flag in AUSTRALIA for her voyage to Australia.
- April 23, 1928
HMAS MELBOURNE decommissioned at Portsmouth. In December 1928 the ship was sold to Alloa Shipbuilding Co, Rosyth, Scotland, for £25,000. She was broken up in 1929.
- April 20, 1928
HMAS Parramatta paid off. On 17 October 1929 she was handed over to Cockatoo Dockyard for dismantling. Her hull was subsequently used as an accommodation vessel, on the Hawkesbury River, NSW, by the New South Wales Department of Prisons before being sold to Mr George Rhodes of Cowan as scrap. The vessel was moored in the river but broke adrift during a storm and ran aground and her wreck remains there to this day. What remained of Parramatta (I) lay derelict on a mud bank north of Milson Island in the Hawkesbury River until 7 July 1973. On that and the following day the bow and stern sections were salvaged by the Naval Historical Spociety of Australia and later transported to a site on the north bank of the Parramatta River, upstream from the Silverwater Bridge. The stern of the ship was later established as a naval memorial at Queens Wharf Reserve. The bow section is mounted at the north end of Garden Island, Sydney, within the grounds of the Naval Cultural and Heritage Centre
- April 19, 1928
HMAS Warrego paid off. She was then handed over to Cockatoo Dockyard in October 1929 and was broken up in 1930.
- March 8, 1928
HMAS SYDNEY, (cruiser), starred in a film, depicting SYDNEY’S victory over the German armed merchant cruiser Emden, in 1914. Australian producer Ken Page made the film at Jervis Bay, NSW.
- February 23, 1928
HMAS ALBATROSS, (seaplane carrier), was launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
- January 14, 1928
The Fleet Air Arm was abolished by Parliament, and the RAAF was directed to provide air support to the RAN. This decision was overturned in 1948 with the re-establishment of the Fleet Air Arm, and the purchase of the aircraft carriers HMAS SYDNEY and HMAS MELBOURNE.
- January 9, 1928
HMAS Tasmania decommissioned and was placed in reserve. Tasmania was eventually sold for breaking up on 4 June 1937.
- November 14, 1927
RAFA Biloela paid off. She was sold to John Hven of Norway in 1931. In 1932, she was renamed Wollert, in 1937 renamed Ivanhoe, and the Yoh Hsing and finally Cree. She was sunk by enemy submarine action on 21-11- 1940.