On This Day

1946-1959 > Post WW2

April 1, 1947

The modified River class frigate HMAS CULGOA, (CMDR H. L. Gunn, RAN), was commissioned. CULGOA was laid down at Williamstown Naval Dockyard, VIC on 15 July 1943, and launched on 22 September 1945. On completion she had been immediately placed into Reserve Mrs Showers, (Wife of CAPT H. A. Showers, RAN), performed the launching ceremony. She was to have originally to have been called Macquarie, but the name was changed while she was still on the stocks.

March 31, 1947

After a short commission, which lasted only 15 months, HMAS Barwon paid off into Reserve. Barwon was sold as scrap to HC Sleigh for Mitsubishi (Australia) Pty Ltd. She was later resold to the Japanese firm Amakasu Sangyo Kisen Co Ltd.

March 16, 1947

HMAS GOULBURN, (minesweeper), was sold out of service and renamed BENITA.

February 7, 1947

HMAS Dubbo paid off into Reserve at Sydney. On 20 February 1958 she was sold for scrap to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd, Tokyo. In June 1958 the Japanese salvage vessel Tukoshima Maru departed Sydney for Japan with Dubbo and another former RAN vessel, the repair and maintenance vessel Platypus, in tow

February 3, 1947

HMAS STUART, (destroyer), was sold out of service and broken up at Ryde, Sydney.

January 10, 1947

HMAS Koopa was returned to her owners, Brisbane Tug and Steamship Company Ltd, on 10 January 1947

September 30, 1946

Three seamen from HMAS QUIBERON, (destroyer), were washed overboard during exercise off Port Phillip, VIC. Despite immediate action to recover the sailors, two, Ordinary Seamen, D.R. Egglestone and C. E. Revitt, were lost.

September 27, 1946

HMAS Ballarat paid off into Reserve at Sydney and was sold to a Hong Kong shipping company, China Traders Ltd, on 10 July 1947. Ballarat (I) did not leave Australian waters and in December 1950 she was resold to the Ta Hing Company (Hong Kong) Ltd. She was subsequently refitted for the Chinese coastal trade and renamed Carmencita. In January 1951, however, the Commonwealth Government issued a Statutory Order banning her from proceeding to Chinese waters. In 1953 she was again sold, on this occasion to John Manners and Co (Aust) Pty Ltd, Sydney. It has been reported that the ship was broken up in 1953.

HMAS Bathurst was placed in Reserve for disposal after steaming 160,165 miles. She was sold on 21 June 1948 to T Carr and Co of Sydney as scrap.

HMAS Bendigo paid off at Sydney. Since commissioning she had steamed 280,100 kilometres. Bendigo was sold as a seagoing vessel on 5 May 1947 to Ta Hing Co (Hong Kong) and was renamed Cheung Hing. She was later acquired by the Navy of the People’s Republic of China, converted from a merchant ship and rearmed for naval service under the name of Loyang.

HMAS Goulburn paid off. She was sold as a seagoing vessel to Captain SP Bell, of Pacific Enterprise Incorporated, for £12,500 on 13 October 1947. She was later resold to PJ Lobo & Co, Hong Kong, for £15,000, and again to AH Carrol, acting as agent for Ta Hing Co (Hong Kong) Ltd, in December 1950. However, a Commonwealth Statutory Order issued in January 1951 barred her removal from Australian waters. Goulburn was resold to John Manners & Co (Aust) Pty Ltd, of Sydney, in 1953 and renamed Benita

September 24, 1946

The merchant ship BANTAM was sunk as a gunnery target off Sydney by HMAS CONDAMINE, (frigate).

September 19, 1946

HMAS Westralia paid off at Sydney after steaming 120,978 miles in naval service. She subsequently provided a service between Sydney and Kure for the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces from December 1947 until April 1949 with a merchant seaman crew. She was then chartered to the British Ministry of Transport for use as a Troop Carrier and left Sydney in August 1949 and after service in the Mediterranean returned to Sydney in March 1950. Reconversion for peacetime service was again begun and on 27 March 1951 Westralia was returned to her owners