The Wessex celebrated 21 years of service in the RAN and the occasion was marked with a flypast of RAN Wessex, Iroquois and Sea King helicopters as well Royal Navy ...
Australian Units
HMAS Canberra’s 1935 cruise
Showing the Flag Around Australia By Civilian Observer This account of HMAS Canberra’s 1935 cruise was printed in the Sun & Guardian dated 8 December, 1935. The cruise was made ...
Australian Naval History on 30 September 1983
Former HMAS Colac ceased service as a tank cleaning vessel. After nine years in Reserve, Colac had been taken in hand in 1962 for conversion to a tank cleaning vessel. ...
The Loss of HMAS Armidale
Australian Naval History on 27 August 1983
The Fremantle class patrol boat HMAS GAWLER, was commissioned at Cairns, QLD. ...
Australian Naval History on 26 August 1983
In a small ceremony conducted in the small boats harbour at HMAS Stirling HMAS Adroit was turned over to the Commanding Officer of the Fremantle Port Division Commander Don Bantock, ...
Australian Naval History on 2 August 1983
HMAS GAWLER, (Fremantle class patrol boat), was commissioned. ...
Australian Naval History on 9 July 1983
HMAS GAWLER, (Fremantle class patrol boat), was commissioned at Cairns, QLD. ...
The J Class Submarines
Letters – Cradle of the RAN
Williamstown may have been the cradle of the Victorian Naval Forces and the Commonwealth Naval Forces, but there seems little doubt that from the inception of Australia’s own Naval Forces ...
HMAS Australia – Visit to Gallipoli – 1936
During the Abyssinian crisis in 1936, H.M.A.S. Australia and Sydney were serving with the Mediterranean Fleet, the former having been on exchange with H.M.S. Sussex and the latter was temporarily serving ...
Obituary: Harry Adlam
HAROLD CHARLES (HARRY) ADLAM grew up in Penshurst, Sydney. Economics dictated that he leave school at the age of 14. However, he educated himself and ended up with a better ...
Australian Naval History on 17 June 1983
HMAS Snipe decommissioned. Snipe remained in the Reserve Fleet until she was sold in 1985 to be broken up. ...
Australian Naval History on 14 June 1983
HMAS BENDIGO, (patrol boat), rescued the cross-Pacific rower Peter Bird, after his boat broke up off Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, QLD. ...
Australian Naval History on 3 June 1983
HMAS SNIPE, (Ton class minesweeper), was decommissioned at Sydney. ...
Australian Naval History on 28 May 1983
The Fremantle class patrol boat HMAS BENDIGO, was commissioned. BENDIGO was laid down at North Queensland EA, Cairns, QLD, and launched on 9 May 1983. Mrs Lynam, (Wife of RADM ...
Australian Naval History on 20 May 1983
HMAS ACUTE, (patrol boat),was paid off in Darwin and commissioned into the Indonesian Navy as the KRI SILEA. She joined her sistership, HMAS BARRICADE, renamed KRI SIGALU, which was given ...
Australian Naval History on 28 April 1983
HMAS BENDIGO, (Fremantle class patrol boat), was commissioned. ...
Australian Naval History on 15 April 1983
The Australian Government announced that HMS INVINCIBLE, (aircraft carrier), would be renamed HMAS AUSTRALIA when she joined the RAN. As a result of the Falkland’s War the British Government decided to retain ...
HMAS Fantome 1901 – 1956
IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS of ‘gunboat diplomacy’, the Royal Navy maintained a large number of sloops designed for overseas service, powered by both steam and sail. By the turn ...
HMAS Una – a Work Horse – 1914
ONE OF THE SPOILS from the capture of the German New Guinea colonies in 1914 was the steam yacht Komet. Built in 1911 as the Government yacht for the colonies, ...
Spakhia
ON A SMALL BAY on the south coast of Crete is a village or township called Spakhia. Landward approaches are steep-to and the harbour has – or had – no ...
A Peaceful Scene – Sydney 1921
H.M.A. Ships Encounter and Australia with Huon and two other “Rivers”, and Tattoo and two other S class boats laid up in Sydney Harbour in 1921. ...
Detail Action
The following poem “Detail Action” has been attributed to CPO Fred “Gaity” Crawford, the well known identity of the Boys Training Ship “Tingira”, and this could quite possibly be true. ...
Letters – HMAS Pioneer as a Midshipman
Early in 1914 1 did an extended period of training in HMAS Pioneer, as a Midshipman RANR. One Saturday in April, 1914, when Pioneer was in Corio Bay to give weekend ...