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The 20th Minesweeping Flotilla was a Royal Australian Navy minesweeping flotilla that operated during the Second World War. Formed on 9 December 1939 and styled in the naming convention for minesweeping flotilla names used by the Royal Navy, the flotilla consisted of HMAS Swan, Yarra, Doomba and Orara. The makeup of the flotilla changed during the course of the war.
HMAS Burnie (J198/B238/A112), named for the city of Burnie, Tasmania, was one of 60 Bathurst class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Echuca (J252/M252), named for the town of Echuca, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Maryborough (J195/B248/A122), named for the city of Maryborough, Queensland, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 20 built on Admiralty order but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was the first naval vessel built in Queensland for the Royal Australian Navy during World War II.
HMAS Mildura (J207/M207), named for the city of Mildura, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was laid down by Morts Dock & Engineering Co in 1940 and commissioned into the RAN in 1941.
The first HMAS Bendigo (J187/B237/A111) was a Bathurst-class minesweeper, a group commonly known as corvettes and including escort and patrol duties along with minesweeping.
HMAS Waterhen is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located in Waverton on Sydney's lower north shore, within Sydney Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia. Constructed on the site of a quarry used to expand Garden Island in the 1930s, the location was used during World War II as a boom net maintenance and storage area. In 1962, the area was commissioned as a base of the RAN, and became home to the RAN's mine warfare forces. Waterhen was the first small-ship base established by the RAN, and from 1969 to 1979 was also responsible for the RAN's patrol boat forces.
HMAS Bathurst (J158), named for the city of Bathurst, New South Wales, was the lead ship of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed during 1940, the ship spent most of her early career operating with the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. She returned to Australian waters in late 1944, then was deployed to New Guinea in 1945, but saw little action. Bathurst was paid off in 1946, and sold to a Sydney scrap merchant in 1948.
The history of the Royal Australian Navy traces the development of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788. Until 1859, vessels of the Royal Navy made frequent trips to the new colonies. In 1859, the Australia Squadron was formed as a separate squadron and remained in Australia until 1913. Until Federation, five of the six Australian colonies operated their own colonial naval force, which formed on 1 March 1901 the Australian Navy's (AN) Commonwealth Naval Force which received Royal patronage in July 1911 and was from that time referred to as Royal Australian Navy (RAN). On 4 October 1913 the new replacement fleet for the foundation fleet of 1901 steamed through Sydney Heads for the first time.
HMAS Yarra (U77), named for the Yarra River, was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) that served during World War II. Commissioned in 1936, Yarra spent the early part of the war in Australian waters, then was transferred to the East Indies Station in 1940. The sloop operated in the Red Sea, then was involved in the Anglo-Iraqi War and the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. After operating as part of the Tobruk Ferry Service in the Mediterranean during November, Yarra was reassigned to Southeast Asia in response to Japanese attacks. On 4 March 1942, Yarra was attacked and sunk by a force of Japanese cruisers and destroyers while attempting to protect ships withdrawing to Australia.
The Garden Island Naval Chapel is a heritage-listed non-denominational Christian chapel located in the heritage-listed Garden Island Naval Precinct that comprises a naval base and dockyard in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Garden Island in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia.
HMAS Bunbury (J241/M241), named for the city of Bunbury, Western Australia, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Fremantle (J246/M246), named for the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Vice Admiral Sir Hugh David Stevenson was a senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy, serving as Chief of Naval Staff from 1973 to 1976.
Following World War II the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was required to clear naval mines from the waters around Australia and New Guinea. Minesweeping in these areas began in December 1945 and was completed in August 1948. One ship, the Bathurst class corvetteHMAS Warrnambool, was sunk during these operations.
HMAS Goorangai was a 223-ton auxiliary minesweeper of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built in 1919 for the Government of New South Wales, then sold in 1926 to the fishing company Cam & Sons. The trawler was requisitioned for military service following the outbreak of World War II, converted into a minesweeper, and assigned to Melbourne. She was sunk in an accidental collision with MV Duntroon in 1940, becoming the RAN's first loss of World War II, and the first RAN surface ship to be lost in wartime.
HMAS Durraween (F93) was an auxiliary minesweeper operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II. The ship was built as a trawler by Collingwood Shipbuilding Company at Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, and launched in 1918 as Seville. The ship served briefly in the Royal Canadian Navy during the last months of World War I, before being laid up and sold to a British company. In 1928, she was sold to Sydney-based fishing company and operated in Australian waters until she was requisitioned by the RAN in mid-1940 for use as an auxiliary minesweeper during World War II. Durraween operated in the Bass Strait as part of Minesweeping Group 54, and was responsible for clearing mines laid by German merchant raiders, and then later operated around the Torres Strait. She was returned to civilian service after paying off in late 1945, and was broken up in 1952.
HMAS Terka (FY.98) was an auxiliary minesweeper operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II. The ship was launched as Sir Dudley de Chair in 1925 as one of the three ships used to supply the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and from 1928 operated by the Adelaide Steamship Company until she was requisitioned by the RAN in December 1940. She sank while at her moorings at Madang, New Guinea on 26 March 1945 and was abandoned.
The 24th Minesweeping Flotilla was a minesweeping flotilla of the Royal Australian Navy. It was based at Darwin, Northern Territory during the Second World War and consisted of HMAS Deloraine, Katoomba, Lithgow and later Armidale.
HMAS Orara was a coastal passenger and cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1907 and sunk by a mine in China in 1950. She spent most of her career in the fleet of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company (NCSNC) of New South Wales. In the Second World War she was an auxiliary minesweeper and depot ship in the Royal Australian Navy.
HMAS Tolga was an auxiliary minesweeper which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II.
