On the 4th of October 1913 HMAS Australia led the new fleet through the heads of Sydney Harbour. HMAS Australia, an Indefatigable-class battle cruiser, was The Royal Australian Navy’s first ...
The Burial of Australia’s First Flagship HMAS Australia
Book Review: Lost – The stories of all ships lost by the Royal Australian Navy.
Lost: The stories of all ships lost by the Royal Australian Navy. Written and published by Allen Lyne in Adelaide, 2013. ISBN 980-0-646-90375-0 in soft cover, 305 pages with plentiful ...
Letter: The Hammerhead Crane
A number of our readers have pointed out an erroneous comment made in the article regarding the Hammerhead Crane contained in the June 2013 edition of this magazine. This concerns ...
RAAF Orions: Watching Over the Middle East
The prominence of ISR … is a clear reflection of its growing importance in enabling operational success in the increasingly complex environments in which the ADF is called upon to ...
Royal Australian Navy Border Protection: A focus on illegal immigration since 1975
By Sub Lieutenant R.E. Whitby, RAN Rian Whitby was born in Bowen and spent his childhood in rural Queensland. There is a strong family tradition of service in the ...
Rugby in the RAN – the Navy’s first Australian Services Rugby Premiership
By Ian Wrigley With a proud sporting heritage we surprisingly hear little in the way of naval sporting activities and achievements in these pages. This short article looks at some ...
HMAS Kuttabul Remembered both sides of the Harbour
As the Naval Historical Society was recently represented at similar events on both sites of the harbour our members might be interested in their reports. Unfortunately restricted access to the ...
Reflections on four decades in the profession of Naval Engineering – and Jacky Fisher got it right!
By Rear Admiral David Holthouse, AO, RAN (Rtd) David Holthouse entered the Australian Naval College in 1950, just a few days after his 14th birthday. He had an outstanding career ...
HMAS Adelaide Memorial Mast Restoration – Two for the Price of One
By Leyland Wilkinson HMAS Adelaide I was a 6 inch cruiser built at Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was originally laid down in November 1915 but was not commissioned until August ...
The Admiral’s Ladies
Two women influenced the greatest naval hero’s life, the first his wife and, the second his mistress of many years. It was perhaps prophetic that the next generation produced no ...
The Phantom Paradise
By Jerry Lattin From the 1960s to the 1990s, I spent several periods driving small ships in PNG waters. When there was spare time on passage I used it to ...
HMA Ships Kuru and Vigilant
The Patrol Vessel Vigilant was a prototype built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was a handsome vessel and the first ship in Australia built with an aluminium hull and superstructure; ...
John Browne: the Navy’s Oldest Man and his Tattoo
This article has been largely prepared from early newspaper cuttings discovered by Mrs Pat Raymond, an alert South Coast reader, and we thank her for the contribution. Over a century ...
HMA SHIPS Kanimbla and Manoora: the final chapter
The two Landing Platform Amphibious class ships HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were respectively paid-off in November and May 2011 and after some time alongside at Garden Island had been ...
1913 RAN Fleet Entry
First entry of the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet into Sydney in 1913. Courtesy of Sea Power Centre – Australia. ...
Book Review: The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928
The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928 By Andrew Kilsby and Greg Swinden, Longueville Media, Woollahra, NSW, 2013. Available from cooeehistory.com RRP $49.95. On 26 March 1913, HMAS Melbourne, Australia’s first ...
Australian Naval History on 11 July 2013
808 Squadron was recommissioned at HMAS Albatross to fly the MRH-90 Taipan ...
Book Review: War to War: Australia’s Navy 1919-1939
War to War: Australia’s Navy 1919-1939 by Bob Nicholls. Australian Military History Publications, Sydney, 2012. ISBN 9780 98077451. rrp $35. (02) 9542 6771 Bob Nicholls died in 2010. After serving ...
Book Review: A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942
A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942 by Terry Jones and Steven Carruthers. Published by Casper Publications Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2013. 320 pages with illustrations and photographs. ...
Obituary: Lieutenant Commander Peter Churchill, RN (Rtd) 1921-2013
One of the founding members of the Naval Historical Society has passed over the bar and this fitting obituary by Paul Cosgrave was recently published in the Blue Mountains Gazette. ...
HMS Penguin (VII) and her 64 Pounder Gun
When I first started work at Garden Island in January 1955, there was a small wharf at the southern end of Riggers Lane known as Kuttabul Steps, not to be ...
Tokyo Rose
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare’s enduring couplet from Romeo and Juliet, now often shortened to ...
Leadership lessons from the Royal Navy: the Nelson touch
By Andrew St. George This article was originally published in McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey and Company. Copyright 2013 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. The Royal Navy is ...
The Loss of HMS Glowworm: an Australian Connection
By Greg Swinden War at sea has no intermissions, none of the periods of recovery between advances or retreats that land warfare enjoys, no breaks safely behind the lines between ...
Going to Sea
By David Simpson David joined the RAN in 1963 as an apprentice at HMAS Nirimba. He served in HMA Ships Vampire, Yarra and Stalwart, paying off in 1974 as an ...