We are indebted to ex Supply Assistant Gordon Hill for this wonderfully illuminating description of his wartime service in the destroyer HMAS Vendetta when based at Malta. The George Cross Island ...
Australian Units
HMAS Suva: the ship that shaped the future of the Australian Naval Station
By John Smith Possibly not many have heard of HMAS Suva as she had an extremely short history as a commissioned Australian warship. She did however have the distinction of wearing ...
Australian Naval History on 1 December 2017
Retirement of the S-70B-2 Seahawk and AS350BA Squirrel helicopters from 723 and 816 Squadrons during a ceremony at Nowra ...
Australian Naval History on 1 December 2017
The AS350BA Squirrel Helicopter was retired from RAN service. ...
Occasional Paper 19: Surgeon Commander Alexander Ruan Caw, RAN
December 2017 Surgeon Commander Alexander Ruan Caw, RAN MB BS. Adelaide. 1879-1924 These biographical notes on CMDR Alexander Caw who served in HMAS Australia during World War 1 were provided ...
Occasional Paper 16: HMAS Australia and Atlantic rescue of Coastal Command Sunderland – 1940
October 2017 On Monday 28th October 1940, I was serving as an eighteen year old Midshipman in HMAS “Australia”, an 8 inch gun cruiser. At that time, we had arrived on ...
Australian Naval History on 23 September 2017
HMAS Hobart III, lead ship of the Hobart Class Airwarfare Destroyers, commissioned ...
‘Mission to Kerguelen’ – An Australian Military Operation in the Sub-Antarctic islands in 1941
By Rohan Goyne I refer to the excellent article Antarctica the forgotten Continent by Hugh Farmer in the Naval Historical Review Vol. 38 No2 June 2017 and offer the following ...
HMAS Platypus – a Submarine Naval Base
By Peter R. Smith This paper was prepared by the Submarine Institute of Australia to help mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the formation of a submarine base ...
Occasional Paper 14: LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory
September 2017 LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory RAN Ret, (9/02/1922- 27/08/2014) was to my mind a fine example of the qualities a Naval Officer needed to have. He could communicate well, ...
Occasional Paper 12: Personal Experiences: Aftermath Of Japanese Submarine Attack: Sydney Harbour
August 2017 The following are accounts of individual contributions made by two remarkable people in the aftermath of the Japanese midget submarine attack in Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942. ...
Occasional Paper 10: The Loss of HMAS Kuttabul
The following address was delivered Captain Christopher Skinner RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by HMAS Kuttabul on Garden Island, Sydney 1 June 2017. Good morning to you ...
Occasional Paper 9: The Sinking of HMAS Armidale on 1 December 1942
July 2017 The following address was delivered by Dr Kevin Smith OAM to members of the Naval Historical Society of Australia in Sydney 18 April 2017. In 1798 at the ...
Occasional Paper 11: The Remarkable Short Life of HMAS Nestor, The Ship That Never Came Home
July 2017 The following address was delivered Commander Walter Burroughs RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by the RAN on Garden Island, Sydney 16 June 2017. I am ...
Book Review: HMAS Sydney II in Peace and War
By Wes Olson, Privately Published at Hilton, WA in 2016, 610 Pages with maps and photographs. Available direct from the author at email: wes.dale@westnet.com.au. Price $60.00 plus postage. Aside from ...
Book Review: HMAS Canberra – Casualty of Circumstance
By Kathryn Spurling, Publishers New Holland, Sydney, 2016. Paperback, 255 pp with b & w illustrations, maps and portraits. Available most bookshops from $33.00 with discounts available. The author served ...
HMAS Leeuwin
Recent planning for the redevelopment of the ex HMAS Leeuwinsite has aroused considerable interest amongst the naval community and we are pleased to have some further thoughts from Roy Stall, ...
Antarctica – the forgotten continent
This article has been compiled from research conducted by Hugh Farmer, one of our new members providing invaluable volunteer assistance at the Boathouse. Antarctica occupies about 14,000,000 km2of mainly mysterious ...
The ‘Battle’ of May Island
By Laurie Watson In the many memorial services to commemorate the centenary of World War I events, that commemorating the Battle of May Island is very likely to pass under ...
The Gospel of St John and LCDR Donald Mckenzie RAN
Recently one of our members and cherished chaplains, the Reverend Dr Gareth Clayton, presented the Society with a copy of the Gospel of St John which had been given into ...
HMAS Patricia Cam
Graeme Andrews, one of our long serving members with a sharp wit and fine pen, wrote an excellent article Cam’s Trawlers first published in the May 2006 edition of Afloat magazine. After ...
Commander Frederick Campbell Darley 1886 – 1926
Frederick Campbell Darley was born at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, NSW on 12 February 1886, the eldest child of Cecil West Darley (Public Works Engineer) and Constance Leila Annette Darley (nee ...
Australian Naval History on 6 June 2017
The ADV Cape Inscription was commissioned at Fleet Base West. The two Cape-class patrol boats for the navy were built by Austal under a AU$63 million project and leased for ...
Occasional Paper 8: The Gustavo Stefanini Story
June 2017 The following story was provided by Commander Stephen Youll, OAM RAN Retd in relation to the matter of the first RAN ship to sink a submarine in World ...
Australian Naval History on 29 May 2017
After almost two years of operations with the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Defence Vessel Cape Byron was returned to the original owner, Australian Border Force. Since July 2015, Cape Byron ...