With Australian’s focussed on celebrating Australia day and long weekends the anniversary of the tragic explosion and fire in HMAS Tarakan (I) on 25 January 1950 passes relatively unnoticed most ...
HMAS Tarakan I
Occasional Paper 96: RAN Encounters with Papua New Guinea’s Big Rivers
By David Michael The passing of Commodore Sam Bateman RAN, (Rtd) in October 2020 reminded many people of his Command of the PNG based patrol boat, HMAS Aitape and its ...
Garden Island Boilermakers – Heroes of the Tarakan Disaster
Australian Naval History on 2 February 1950
A Naval Board of Inquiry reported that the fire in HMAS TARAKAN, which resulted in the loss of eight lives, was caused by a spark from a ventilating fan igniting ...
Australian Naval History on 25 January 1950
HMAS Tarakan was berthed alongside Garden Island, Sydney, making good defects prior to departure for New Guinea, when an explosion occurred aft under the mess decks, resulting in the deaths ...
Australian Naval History on 16 December 1948
The aircraft carrier HMAS SYDNEY, (CAPT R. R. Dowling, DSO, RAN), was commissioned. As HMS TERRIBLE she was laid down in Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, England, on 19 April 1943, and ...
Australian Naval History on 21 November 1947
Nine members of the crew of HMAS TARAKAN, (landing ship tank), were injured, when a box of fuses in a cargo of obsolete ammunition, being dumped off Sydney Heads, exploded. ...