HMAS TOBRUK was paid off for disposal in Sydney. Tobruk was sold for scrap on 15 February 1972 to the Fujita Salvage Company Limited of Osaka, Japan. On 10 April ...
On This Day
Australian Naval History on 28 October 1960
HMAS Wagga paid off. She was the last of the Bathurst Class in seagoing commission in the Royal Australian Navy. Wagga was declared for disposal on 31 May 1961 and ...
Australian Naval History on 11 October 1960
HMAS WOOMERA, (ammunition ship), was lost when dumping obsolete ammunition at sea, off Sydney Heads. A violent explosion, followed by a fierce fire, caused WOOMERA to sink in a few ...
Australian Naval History on 14 September 1960
A shell fired by HMAS ANZAC in gunnery exercises off Jervis Bay hit the hull of HMAS TOBRUK. ...
Australian Naval History on 9 September 1960
HMA Ships QUIBERON and VAMPIRE represented Australia at the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of North Borneo ...
Australian Naval History on 30 July 1960
The state of emergency in Malaya is formally lifted after 12 years in force. ...
Australian Naval History on 18 July 1960
The first Junior Recruits, (boys aged between 15 and 17), commenced training at HMAS LEEUWIN, at Fremantle WA. The scheme was designed to provide boys with a year of academic ...
Australian Naval History on 18 June 1960
HMA Ships WARREGO, (sloop), and KIMBLA, (trials vessel), with Clearance Diving Teams, recovered bodies and wreckage from a Fokker Friendship airliner which crashed with the loss of 29 lives in ...
Australian Naval History on 25 May 1960
HMAS BASS, (general purpose vessel), was commissioned. ...
Australian Naval History on 9 May 1960
Whilst in the China Sea HMAS MELBOURNE lost an XA359 Gannet aircraft. The aircraft lost on engine whilst being catapulted and ditched ahead of the ship. LCDR Rowland was the ...
Australian Naval History on 30 April 1960
The Foundation-stone of the HMAS WATSON Memorial Chapel, also known as the Chapel of St. George the Martyr, was laid by a young man, a ward of Legacy, who remained ...
Australian Naval History on 6 March 1960
HMAS QUICKMATCH, (frigate), was dispatched from Darwin to search for survivors from the Indonesian lugger SEMANGAT BARU. The wreck of the vessel was found 400 miles south of Bathurst Island, ...
Australian Naval History on 16 February 1960
HMAS BANKS, (general purpose vessel), was commissioned. BANKS was laid down at Walker’s Yard, Maryborough, QLD in 1959, and launched on 15 December 1959. She and her sister ship BASS, ...
Australian Naval History on 7 December 1959
HMAS Warramunga paid off. After 18 months in reserve she was declared for disposal on 22 May 1961. On 15 February 1963 she was sold to the Japanese firm Kinoshita ...
Australian Naval History on 25 November 1959
The Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Bill was passed by the Australian Parliament. This was the first comprehensive retirement scheme for all ranks of the RAN. ...
Australian Naval History on 13 November 1959
HMAS DIAMANTINA, (oceanographic survey ship), obtained samples from the sea floor at a depth of 5,706 m off Bali. ...
Australian Naval History on 7 November 1959
HMAS WARRAMUNGA, (Tribal class destroyer), was paid off for disposal at Sydney. ...
Australian Naval History on 20 October 1959
The RAN’s three Daring Class destroyers operated together for the first time, when Vendetta II, Vampire II and Voyager II conducted a series of exercises and manoeuvres in Jervis Bay ...
Australian Naval History on 26 September 1959
HMAS QUIBERON, (frigate), escorted the Bass Strait ferry PRINCESS OF TASMANIA on her maiden voyage from Melbourne to Devonport. ...
Australian Naval History on 18 August 1959
817 squadron, flying the Fairey Gannet AS.1, decommissioned. ...
Australian Naval History on 24 July 1959
HMS TELEMACHUS, (submarine), returned to Sydney after an exercise in which whales were tagged from the submarine. Professor Dawbin, of Sydney University, fired the tags into the whales, using a ...
Australian Naval History on 23 June 1959
The Daring class destroyer HMAS VAMPIRE, (CAPT E. J. Peel, DSC, RAN), was commissioned at Sydney. VAMPIRE was laid down in Cockatoo Island Dockyard Sydney, on 1 July 1952, and ...
Australian Naval History on 22 June 1959
HMAS Diamantina was recommissioned into the RAN as a survey and oceanographic research vessel. Diamantina had previously paid off to the reserve in August 1946 after service in New Guinea ...
Australian Naval History on 8 June 1959
HMAS Cootamundra paid off. Declared for disposal on 27 September 1961, she was sold to Banks Bros & Street on 28 March 1962 ...
Australian Naval History on 20 May 1959
LEUT(P) Stanley Ray Carmichael RAN & ASLT(O) Mike Williams RAN lost their lives when their Sea Venom aircraft of 724 Squadron flew into the sea whilst on a photographic exercise ...