By David Nicolson This story about warship models, photographs and exhibitions is the result of a conversation between the Naval Historical Society’s president and WA Chapter president, David Nicolson about ...
Australian Units
Occasional Paper 208: Sailors in the Sinai – Multi-National Force & Observers’ The Royal Australian Navy in the Sinai 1982 – 1986
By Greg Swinden Following the ceasefire that ended hostilities in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War the United Nations (UN) established a peace keeping force in the Sinai; the United Nations Emergency ...
Occasional Paper 207: HMAS Torrens to the Rescue
A first-hand account provided to the Sydney Morning Herald and published 17 years after the event. ...
Australian Naval History on 4 December 2025
The RAN decommissioned the last three remaining Armidale class patrol boats, HMA Ships Albany, Bathurst and Childers in a ceremony at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin. First introduced in 2005 with ...
Occasional Paper 200: Captain Ralph Frank Marston Lowe DSC, ADC, RAN (RTD)
By Dr John Carroll PhD This story by Dr Carroll was first published by the Naval Association of Australia in the White Ensign Magazine in the Red Watch Issue 25/1, ...
Occasional Paper 203: Battle of Bita Paka – the captured German flag
For many years the Heritage and Learning Centre at HMAS Cerberus has proudly displayed what was believed to be the original German Imperial Flag flying over the German Telegraph Station ...
REMEMBERING HMAS AUSTRALIA (I)
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Forty Years Ago – HMAS Stalwart’s mercy mission to Macquarie Island – December 1985
By late 1985 HMAS Stalwart had been serving as flagship of the RAN for almost four-and-a half-years. A versatile Australian-designed support vessel, originally described as an escort maintenance ship, Stalwart ...
Back in Time – Unveiling four memorials at Garden Island in 1932.
On Friday, 25 November 1932, Sydney newspapers reported that the Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs, would unveil four memorials at Garden Island on 27 November. These were in remembrance of members ...
KEEPING DARWIN STOCKED 1939 to 1945
Graeme Andrews describes the unknown fleet that performed the important supply route from Cairns to Darwin . At 1000 on 19 February 1942 the Northern Territory port town of Darwin ...
HMAS FALIE and the Pacific War – Part 2
by Lyn O’Grady Having been requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy to act as an examination vessel at the entrance to Sydney Harbour from 1940, HMAS Falie began a new ...
HMAS KANIMBLA (II) and HMAS MANOORA (II)
Origin: In Australian service HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were employed as LPAs (amphibious transports). Both were originally constructed for the United States Navy (USN) as members of the ...
Occasional Paper 197: The Countess of Hopetoun Incident, December 1915
By Greg Swinden This article was first published in the Naval Historical Review, June 2000 edition. HMAS Countess of Hopetoun (commanded by Boatswain Samuel Waugh, RN), a 23-year-old Torpedo Boat ...
Occasional Paper 195: Finding the HMAS Melbourne(II) 10th February 1964 Bridge Communication Log Book
By Rob Everett One piece of critical evidence to the Royal Commission into the tragic collision between HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne off Jervis Bay during the first watch of ...
Occasional Paper 194: Reflections on the First Gulf War 1990 – 1991
By CDRE Richard T. Menhinick, AM, CSC, RAN (Retd) The Naval Historical Society is grateful to Commodore Menhinick for allowing publication of this, his 2025 Anzac Day address to the ...
Australian Naval History on 28 June 2025
HMAS Arafura commisisoned at Fremantle WA. HMAS Arafura is the first Arafura class offshore patrol vessel (OPV) of the Navy’s surface fleet. ...
HMAS Encounter and the Raider Seeadler
Colin Randall discusses the loss of the German ship in 1917 The enemy raider Seeadler sailed from Germany in December 1916 and during an extended cruise in the Atlantic and ...
J CLASS SUBMARINES and their WONDERFUL MECHANISM
Intricate Machinery and its Use in War Talking to Ships at the Bottom of the Sea By A.C.C.S., ‘Sunday Times’ – 20 July 1919 “Just about the greasiest job I ...
SERVING ABOARD THE TOWN CLASS CRUISERS
A transcript of the 1972 presentation to the NHSA by naval historian and member John Bastock When the first Australian Fleet Unit arrived in Sydney on 4 October 1913, I ...
NEW ERA WARSHIPS – 1895
Coastal and Harbour defence by torpedo boats – a lecture by Commander Bosanquet, New South Wales Naval Forces. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper of 1 October 1895 featured an informative article ...
Occasional Paper 42: The day the entire German fleet surrendered – 100 years ago
Armistice Day is remembered as the day World War One ended, but for naval historians Britain’s greatest victory came 10 days later. Operation ZZ was the code name for the ...
Occasional Paper 39: Compelled to Resign THE STORY OF COMMANDER PAUL HUGILL HIRST RAN 1899-1963
by Lieutenant Commander Terry Feltham RAN Ret’d “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it never should’ve been. Remember, you lived, you learned, you grew and you moved on”. Anon. Why ...
Occasional Paper 37: ALLAN CHARLES GREEN [1878-1954], the man behind the Photos
In the State Library of Victoria we have an amazing photographic collection of ship photo thanks to Allan Green. He was born in Daylesford, in the Central Victorian goldfields on ...
Occasional Paper 36: HMAS Sydney (3) Delivery to Australia: 1949
Our thanks go to Debbie Irwin for the letter by her uncle, Stoker Mechanician James (Jim) Ashwood of HMAS Sydney (3) to his sister Nancy dated 8 May 1949 about ...
Occasional Paper 35: Loss of HMAS Parramatta (II): First Hand Accounts
Recently the Naval Historical Society of Australia was favoured with two handwritten letters from survivors of the sinking of HMAS Parramatta (II) off Tobruk overnight 27 November 1941. The first ...