HMAS Bungaree

In September 1940, the War Cabinet approved a naval mining policy which would provide for defensive minefields to prepare for the possibility of Japan entering the war. An agreement had already been reached with the Ford Manufacturing Company of Australia in October 1939 for the production of complete mine units, shells and sinkers at the company’s annexe in Geelong. The policy included the acquisition of a 3000 tonne merchant vessel as a minelayer. The coastal cargo ship Bungaree was requisitioned for this task on 10 October 1940 and immediately began conversion in Sydney. Bungaree was named for the Indigenous guide, interpreter and Aboriginal community leader who is believed to be the first Indigenous Australian to circumnavigate his homeland when he accompanied Commander Matthew Flinders, RN, in HMS Investigator during Flinders’ cartographic exploration of the Australian coastline in 1801-03.

Bungaree’s conversion involved turning its cargo holds into huge mine magazines. A mining control office was installed with a maze of communications lines to the bridge, the mining deck and all other parts of the ships involved in minelaying operations. Two sets of rails were installed on the mining deck to transport the mines, which were all moored contact mines, to the stern of the ship to be deployed into the water.

HMAS Bungaree commissioned at Garden Island, Sydney, under the command of Commander Norman Calder, RAN, on 9 June 1941 as it approached the end of its conversion. It departed Sydney on 19 June and arrived in Geelong four days later. With dummy mines embarked, it recommenced trials and exercises in Port Phillip Bay in company with the mine recovery vessel, HMAS Toorie. It embarked its first load of live mines, 254 in all, on 30 July and departed Geelong the next day in company with HMAS Sydney (II).

It arrived in Sydney on 3 August where it had a 12 pdr HA/LA gun mounted for’d and embarked a 28 foot survey motor boat before departing for Port Moresby that evening, escorted by HMAS Adelaide (I) and later, HMAS Manoora (I). It laid its first defensive minefield near Port Moresby on 15 August before heading back to Australian waters. It went on to lay minefields in the Torres Strait north and west of Prince of Wales Island, and the Great Barrier Reef near Cook’s Passage and Trinity Opening before the end of the year.

It underwent further alterations and additions in Sydney in December 1941 and January 1942 before returning to Geelong on 27 January to embark more mines. It laid minefields in New Caledonian waters in February and in New Zealand waters off Auckland in March. Minelaying operations continued in Palm Passage, Queensland, in April and back in New Caledonian waters in May. It returned to Sydney at the end of May and was present when three Japanese midget submarines launched an attack in Sydney Harbour which resulted in the loss of HMAS Kuttabul in the early hours of 1 June. Bungaree’s crew went to action stations at the first alarm at 22:30 on 31 May but saw no sign of the enemy and the ship survived the night unscathed.

It departed Sydney on 9 June and rendezvoused with Convoy CO1 from Newcastle to act as an additional antisubmarine escort for the voyage to Port Phillip. It launched an attack on a possible submarine contact on 11 June and dropped four depth charges without a result. The convoy arrived in Port Phillip the next day. Bungaree departed Geelong on 16 June to return to New Caledonia and once again acted as an additional antisubmarine escort for part of the voyage for Convoy OC3. Convoy escort duties became a regular additional duty for Bungaree, often acting as an additional escort for convoys between Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Noumea and Port Moresby.

It was back in New Guinea in July and, upon completion of minelaying operations there, returned to Australian waters and launched another attack on a suspected submarine contact off the Queensland coast north of Brisbane which was later classified as a non-submarine.

It continued with minelaying operations in September laying mines in Magnetic Passage north-east of Townsville before returning to Sydney on 19 September for a short refit. It was back at sea on 5 October and, after embarking mines at Geelong, sailed for New Zealand on 10 October for minelaying operations around the Bay of Islands, and again in Queensland waters near Cairns in November, Mackay in December and Townsville in January 1943.

It arrived back in Sydney on 5 February and commenced a refit. It was back at sea on 4 March and recommenced mining operations off the Queensland coast at the end of the month, and again in April and June. It visited New Caledonia twice in July and August to conduct mining operations and on both occasions it embarked mines at Auckland rather than Geelong. It returned to mining the waters of far north Queensland in October and November. It damaged its hull-mounted antisubmarine dome when it touched the bottom north of Cockburn Reef on 23 November but continued mining operations. The dome was repaired in Melbourne in December and finished the year conducting mining operations in New Guinea waters.

It arrived back in Sydney on 6 January 1944 and commenced a self-refit on 10 January. With the tide of the Pacific War turning in the Allies favour, the need for defensive minefields diminished and, on 18 February, Bungaree was officially retasked to surveying operations having laid a total of 9289 defensive mines. It was back at sea on 21 February and proceeded to Brisbane to embark surveying equipment. It continued northward and commenced hydrographic surveys in the Torres Strait from March through to July 1944. Later in the year it began transporting personnel and cargo to and from New Guinea, a task with which it was occupied until the end of the war on 15 August 1945. At the conclusion of hostilities, Bungaree continued to transport stores and equipment and was involved in the repatriation of Allied servicemen and the dumping of ammunition. Bungaree decommissioned on 7 August 1946 and returned to its owners on 5 November 1947.

The conclusion of the war also meant that the mines laid by Bungaree now had to be cleared. That task fell to the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla, a collection of corvettes, general purpose vessels and motor launches led by the sloop, HMAS Swan (II). Tragically, on 13 September 1947, the corvette HMAS Warrnambool (I) struck a mine while conducting sweeping operations near Cockburn Reef off the north Queensland coast. Four sailors lost their lives.

Bungaree was subsequently on-sold twice and in 1960 was renamed Eastern Mariner. While operating in South Vietnamese waters, it ironically struck a mine in the Saigon River and was wrecked on 26 May 1966.