Eighty years ago, in 1943 the tide of the war in the Pacific was at last turning for the better. After four long years of war and significant RAN ship ...
Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy: Fleet Reviews over the Years
By Dr J.K. Haken A Fleet Review is a British tradition where the monarch inspects the massed ships of the navy. It originally occurred when the fleet was mobilised for ...
Book Review: Flying Stations II
Flying Stations II. The Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Air Arm 1998-2022. This fine book edited by Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods OAM RAN is published by the RAN Fleet Air Arm ...
Occasional Paper 151: The Christmas Books
By Geoff Barnes This story first appeared in ‘All Hands’, the quarterly volunteers’ journal at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Our thanks to the ANMM Volunteers for allowing us to ...
Occasional Paper 132: The First Admiral: Admiral Sir G. Francis Hyde, KCB, CVO, CBE
By Lieutenant Commander A.W. Grazebrook First published in the June 1974 edition of the Naval Historical Review. The majority of the more senior retired officers of the Royal Australian Navy ...
Occasional Paper 123: Royal Australian Navy 75th Anniversary Year: 1986
By Ross Gillett During 1986, more than any other time since the formation of the RAN, the focus of public and media attention was directed at events both naval and ...
Book Review: Aus-Ships 2021: Fifth Edition
Aus-Ships 2021: Fifth Edition by Robert Fildes and Rex Cox. The previous edition was offered as a CD and now this revised and improved edition comes as a USB. This ...
An Essay on the Forming of the Royal Australian Navy
By Midshipman Lloyd Skinner Lloyd Skinner attended Melbourne Grammar School, where he discovered a passion for Australian political and military history. Shortly after completing secondary education in 2019 Lloyd joined ...
Occasional Paper 86: Royal Australian Navy in the Pacific War
By Richard H Pelvin and Jozef H Straczek This paper was provided courtesy of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It was first published in 2003 and is available on ...
Palm Islands – a Naval Connection
By Walter Burroughs The Palm Islands and Challenger Bay affords a large sheltered deep-water anchorage, the last such facility on Australia’s east coast before reaching the northern extremity of the ...
The Navy and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic
The world is currently combatting the Coronavirus 19 (COVID 19) which originated in China and has now spread throughout the globe. So far, Australia has fortunately been spared the worst ...
Prime Minister William Morris Hughes and his impact on Australian naval and maritime affairs: All at Sea with Billy
To the returning servicemen Hughes was ‘the Little Digger’ a symbol of Australian self-confidence. Geoffrey Button Formative years William Hughes, the father of William Morris Hughes, came from ...
The Royal Australian Naval College’s debt to Admiral Creswell
The following article is based on an address by Robert Hyslop to the Canberra and District Historical Society which appeared in that Society’s journal of September 1986, and still relevant ...
RAN controlled minefields in World War 2
By Mike Turner and Hector Donohue Very little has ever been reported about the controlled minefields laid at ports along Australia’s east coast in 1942 as part of Australia’s defence ...
Admiral Sir George King-Hall – The last Royal Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Australia Station
Admiral Sir George King-Hall, the last Royal Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Australia Station, was a proponent of an Australian navy and friend to Rear Admiral William Creswell. Sir George came ...
Jack – The Australian Sailor Monument
By Gavin Ryan Gavin Ryan a retired RAN leading signalman is convenor and director of The Australian Sailor Pty Ltd, an important project to provide a suitable mark of respect to ...
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 ...
Outsourcing in the Australian Defence Forces
Sooner or later, everything old is new again From The Colorado Kid by Stephen King Outsourcing Outsourcing is a practice used to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to ...
Navy Training Today
By Captain Mal Ralston, RAN In 1903, the Commonwealth Naval Board was constituted under the Defence Act. One of its first responsibilities was to commence home-based naval training of young ...
Fifty Years under the Australian White Ensign
With the Australian White Ensign approaching its fiftieth anniversary on 1 March 2017 it is appropriate to reflect on the history of the revered ensign in its various forms with ...
Women in the RAN: The Conflict of Equality
By MIDN Jaycob Humphreys, RAN We have had other essays on this topic by female officers, but this perceptive discussion from a recent New Entry Officer Course student, is by ...
The Development of Catering in the RAN and the Role of Victualling Allowance
By CMDR Robert McNeill, RAN, Rtd. The role of an effective food service system in navies has been prominent for centuries. That is, a viable fighting force needs to be ...
Women in the Royal Australian Navy
By MIDN M. S. SCHIMMEL, RAN – WINNER OF THE NAVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRIZE Midshipman Mariella Savanna van der Riet Schimmel hails from Perth where she commenced a science degree ...
Shades of Grey
As Father Time catches up with us all strands of hair turn to lighter shades, perhaps not unlike warship livery which is again changing to a different shade of grey. ...
Thirteen Year Old Entries as Potential Admirals
By John Smith When naval training establishments were first introduced on home soil the system of entry into the Royal Australian Navy closely followed Royal Naval traditions. From the first ...