HMAS Australia (I)

The first flagship of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the battle cruiser HMAS Australia (I) was the centrepiece of the ‘Fleet Unit’ of warships that signalled the RAN’s arrival as a credible ocean-going navy. The Commonwealth government decided upon the name Australia. It proved popular because it avoided any suggestion of favouritism towards a particular state. Ordered from John Brown and Company in March 1910, construction began three months later. The total cost of the ship and fittings was expected to be £2 million.

Notwithstanding some construction delays, John Brown delivered Australia £295,000 under budget. Following successful gun, torpedo and machinery trials Australia commissioned at Portsmouth on 21 June 1913 under the command of Captain Stephen H Radcliffe RN. Two days later, the ship hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral George Edwin Patey MVO (later Vice Admiral Sir George Patey KCMG KCVO), who had been selected to command the Australian Fleet.

In company with the new light cruiser HMAS Sydney (I), on 21 July 1913 Australia sailed from Portsmouth for Sydney. Their voyage home was seen as an opportunity to stimulate public awareness and naval sentiment around the British Empire. Australia called at Capetown, South Africa, where Patey and his officers were directed to extend every possible courtesy. The visit proved successful and demonstrated that Australian authorities understood the diplomatic leverage obtainable from the presence of a large capital ship.

On the morning of 4 October 1913, Australia led the ships of the Fleet Unit—the cruisers Melbourne (I), Sydney (I), the training ship Encounter, and the destroyers Warrego (I), Parramatta (I) and Yarra (I)—into Sydney harbour for the first time. Majestic and forbidding at the same time, Australia was the embodiment of the Commonwealth’s sea power, and unquestionably superior to every other European power’s warship in the Pacific. Australia’s entry at the head of the fleet evoked a nationalistic pride. The Sydney Mail wrote: ‘The sight of the fleet meant more to the Australian people than the visit of any foreign fleet. It was our expression of patriotism, ships of defence bought in love of country and empire.’ The Minister of Defence, Senator Edward Millen, remarked:

The Australian Fleet is not merely the embodiment of force. It is the expression of Australia’s resolve to pursue, in freedom, its national ideals, and to hand down unimpaired and unsullied the heritage it has received, and which it holds and cherishes as an inviolable trust. 

Australia promptly departed on a tour of Australia’s principal ports. The public’s affection for the ship was evident in popular songs and a starring role in the feature film Sea Dogs of Australia, which opened on 12 August 1914.

On the outbreak of the First World War, Australia, along with other ships of the Australian Fleet, drove Admiral Graf von Spee’s German East Asian Cruiser Squadron from the Pacific. As Prime Minister WM ‘Billy’ Hughes later stated: ‘but for the Australia [...] the great cities of Australia would have been reduced to ruins, oversea trade paralysed, coastal shipping sunk, and communications with the outside world cut off.’ Australia also took part in a series of operations to seize German colonies and destroy the enemy’s radio network in the Pacific. 

In late December 1914, Australia received orders to sail to Britain. En route it stopped and sank von Spee’s 5000-ton supply ship, Eleonore Woermann. Australia reached Devonport on 28 January 1915. It then proceeded to Rosyth in Scotland, where in February 1915 it became flagship of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Sir William Pakenham KCB MVO. The initial squadron included Australia’s two sister ships, HM Ships New Zealand and Indefatigable. Based at Rosyth (Edinburgh), Australia accompanied the Battle Cruiser Fleet on a succession of sweeps, patrols, and convoy escort tasks in the North Sea. The enemy was rarely seen. A shot at a suspected submarine on 30 December 1917 was the only occasion Australia fired her guns in anger.

On 22 April 1916 Australia collided with New Zealand in heavy fog. The resultant damage kept Australia in dockyard hands until 9 June 1916, which meant it missed participating in the Battle of Jutland. After its return to service in June 1916, Australia continued North Sea patrols as a unit of the British Grand Fleet. In November 1917, another collision, this time with HMS Repulse, caused Australia to be docked for three weeks. Repairs completed, Australia resumed a mostly uneventful routine of patrol and fleet exercises in the North Sea.

The routine of mostly uneventful patrolling was briefly broken in February 1918 by a call for volunteers for special service. One officer and ten sailors from Australia were among 1300 other volunteers who took part in a bold commando raid on the occupied Belgian ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge in April of that year.

Australia was used for aircraft experiments in the last year of the war because the ship’s echelon turrets (on the beam of a ship) were thought to offer better wind exposure and a safer take-off position than other aircraft-launching platforms. On 7 March 1918, a Sopwith 1½ Strutter was launched from a platform erected on one of Australia’s 12-inch gun turrets—the first launching of a two-seater aircraft from a battle cruiser. Australia conducted the first fully-loaded aircraft take-off on 4 April 1918 and launched several more flights without difficulty, including one while anchored. By the end of the war, nearly every British capital ship carried a Strutter for reconnaissance and a Sopwith Pup or Sopwith Camel as a fighter. Ten days after the signing of the Armistice (11 November 1918), the Grand Fleet, including Australia, sortied to meet the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea and escort it to Scapa Flow for internment. 

On 23 April 1919 Australia sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Fremantle on 28 May for a four-day visit. As the ship prepared to leave, a body of more than 80 sailors assembled on the quarterdeck and requested that the sailing be delayed so that they could entertain civilian friends and repay their hospitality. The commanding officer, Captain Claude Cumberlege RN explained that delay was impossible. The group dispersed, muttering their displeasure. When Cumberlege gave the order to ‘let go aft’, he was told that the stokers had left the boiler rooms. The incident spread no further, but some time passed before the ship could sail. After an internal investigation, twelve sailors were arrested and charged with mutiny. Five were subsequently court-martialled and gaoled. Australia reached Sydney on 15 June 1919 after an absence of 1775 days.

Back in home waters, Australia resumed its role as RAN flagship. In 1920, the ship played a leading role in the naval activities associated with the visit of the Prince of Wales, but her time was rapidly running out. The battle cruiser had always consumed a large proportion of the RAN’s budget and personnel. As post-war funding was reduced, it was decided that resources could be better applied elsewhere. Australia received a nucleus crew and was downgraded to a gunnery and torpedo-drill ship, with a secondary role as a fixed defensive battery. In November 1921 Australia returned to Sydney where it was paid off into reserve. In order to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which mandated reductions in naval strengths, Australia was prepared for scuttling.

The RAN had removed some equipment for use in other warships, and stripped Australia of piping and small fittings. More than £30,000-worth of materiel was recovered for future naval use. A further £35,000-worth of fittings was removed and given to universities and technical colleges. At least some of these items remained in use as teaching aids for over fifty years. A commercial syndicate was contracted to cut off and sell of parts of the ship before Australia was towed 24 miles out from South Head, Sydney, and sunk on 12 April 1924. Prime Minister Stanley Bruce stated:

The passing of Australia (I) closes a glorious chapter in the history of the Australian Navy. We shall never forget that in the eventful days of 1914, when the fate of civilisation hung in the balance, it was the presence of Australia (I), manned by Australian seamen, that saved our shores and our shipping from the fate which overtook less fortunate nations.

In 1928 the RAN launched Australia (II), a County-class heavy cruiser that saw action in numerous theatres in the Second World War.

Memorials

Australia (I)’s fame ensured that relics were retained widely around Australia. For example, her steam siren remained in use for many years on top of the Powerhouse in Canberra, while the table from the Admiral’s cabin is now on display in the Senate Opposition Party Room at Parliament House, Canberra. Several Australian streets are also named after the first flagship including one in St Marys, NSW, where in 1919 the new streets in the Oxley Park subdivision were all named after Australian warships.