On 12 April 1924, Australia's first capital ship plunged some 150 fathoms to her last resting place on the seabed off Sydney. But the demise of the battlecruiser Australia was not the result of some fierce naval action, nor of mine, torpedo or bomb; the RAN's first flagship was sunk by 'friendly' politicians.
By 1909, the threat posed to Britain by the German naval building programme was becoming acute, despite the Royal Navy's concentration in Home waters. At the Imperial Conference in July of that year, the Admiralty proposed three 'Fleet Units' for the Pacific - balanced forces that could either act alone or in conjunction with the other Units to form an Eastern Fleet. Australia saw this as an opportunity to acquire its own navy - long resisted by the Admiralty - and quickly agreed to build one armoured and three unarmoured cruisers, six destroyers and three submarines.
Following hard on the heels of the revolutionary battleship Dreadnought, the 'battleship cruiser' was another brainchild of the First Sea Lord, Sir John ('Jacky') Fisher. Intended both to conduct commerce warfare and to prevent an enemy from doing so in distant seas (where it was unlikely modern battleships would be encountered), these ships carried battleship-calibre guns at cruiser speed. This could only be achieved by sacrificing armour, a fatal flaw exposed most notably at Jutland in 1916 and in Denmark Strait 25 years later.
By the time the order was placed with John Brown & Co. of Clydebank, the 'armoured cruiser' envisaged by the Conference had been replaced by an improved version, one of the three-strong Indefatigable-class. HMAS Australia was laid down 23 June 1910 and commissioned just under two years later, on 21 June 1913. The following month, she sailed for Australia in company with HMAS Sydney and on 4 October, she led the first Australian Squadron into Port Jackson.
Australia's early war service reflects confused thinking by the Admiralty at that time, and ultimately led to the Official Historian's statement that she "never saw a battle or fired a gun in action". Instead of immediately being deployed to hunt down and engage the German East Asiatic Squadron (Admiral von Spee feared Australia as the one ship in the Pacific that could overwhelm his armoured cruisers), the battlecruiser - with the rest of the Squadron - was used to cover operations at Rabaul, Samoa and German New Guinea; she was even briefly considered as an escort to the AIF's First Contingent. The ship was finally ordered east following the Coronel disaster on 1 November: firstly to Central America, then the West Indies and, eventually, British waters, where she became the flagship of the Second Battlecruiser Squadron (2nd BCS) at Rosyth.
By then (February 1915), the naval situation in the North Sea had settled down into a game of cat-and-mouse - at least for the heavy units of both the Royal and German navies. The battlecruiser clash at Dogger Bank had taken place a month previously and it was to be more than year before the Battle of Jutland. However, the British Battlecruiser Fleet was kept busy with exercises, monthly firing practice and occasional sweeps into the North Sea. It was during one of the latter that Australia collided with her sister New Zealand in dense fog, necessitating six weeks in dry dock under repair. This mishap prevented her taking part in the most significant naval action of the war. Australia's Ships Company was understandably dejected, their disgust exacerbated by the fact that the 2nd BCS's temporary flagship at Jutland had been HMS New Zealand!
After Jutland the (German) High Seas Fleet never again challenged British dominance of the North Sea and the emphasis shifted to submarine warfare. Australia and her consorts returned to the mundane routine of exercises, patrols, escorting convoys and even covering mine-laying operations until the end of the war. The most significant events in the ship's life during this period were a visit by HM the King; post-in of some of the first Cadet Midshipmen from RANC; a collision with HMS Repulse (followed by three weeks in dock for repairs); the first experiments with launching aircraft; and the detachment of 11 members of the Ships Company to participate in the commando-style raid on Zeebrugge.
To Australia fell the honour of leading the port column of the Grand Fleet at the surrender of the High Seas Fleet on 21 November 1918. Six months later she left Portsmouth for home and arrived in Sydney on 15 June 1919 - just 50 days short of a five-year absence. She again became the RAN flagship and played a leading part in a Royal Visit by the Prince of Wales the following year. Australia spent the final days of her operational career on training duties based on Westernport until she was paid off into reserve on 12 December 1921.
Meanwhile, the Americans had convened a naval disarmament conference in Washington the previous month, the purpose of which was to discuss reduction of the size of the world's major navies and, in particular, to restrict the building of capital ships. It established a maximum limit of 525,000 tons both for the US and British Empire, 315,000 tons for Japan and 175,000 each for France and Italy - the famous 5:5:3 ratio which incensed the Japanese and ultimately was a contributory factor to World War II. The fate of individual ships was decided as the negotiations proceeded, and it was agreed that, of its battlecruisers, the British Empire should retain only the four most modern.
This was the harbinger of doom for the RAN's former flagship, despite having been in commission for less than 10 years and acknowledged as "the least obsolescent of her class." Over the next two years she was stripped of all useful fittings and equipment, and prepared for disposal under the terms of the treaty. Finally, shortly after sunrise on Saturday 12 April 1924, the hulk was towed from her Garden Island moorings by the tugs Champion, St Olvas, Heroic and Heroine, her decks covered with wreaths from community bodies and private citizens. As she moved down the harbour HMAS Brisbane joined as escort, carrying the contingent of journalists, photographers, cameramen and artists who were to record the sad occasion for posterity.
With a heavy list to port, Australia's bows met the open sea as the funereal cortege passed through the Heads, crowded with silent onlookers. She was followed out by four light cruisers of the British Special Service Squadron (then visiting Australian ports), which honoured the battlecruiser with a Royal Salute of 21 guns. Brisbane immediately responded with a similar salute as the British ships altered course for the Australian cruiser's name city.
Soon four sight-seeing vessels, carrying thousands of passengers eager to witness the sinking, emerged from the Heads, while the escort was enlarged by the arrival of HMA Ships Melbourne (with the Prime Minister on board), Adelaide, Stalwart and Anzac, the latter with members of the Naval Board embarked.
Labouring on at 4 knots, Australia did not reach her place of execution - some 24 miles east of Inner South Head - until 1335. The tugs cast off the tow, the other vessels took up their positions at a distance and the warships' ships companies fell in on the upper decks. The battlecruiser lay alone, the Australian flag floating from the jackstaff and the White Ensign aft. At 1430 an explosive charge was fired, the seacocks were opened and her list became more pronounced. As the doomed vessel settled, Brisbane fired a second Royal Salute before another internal explosion occurred. Australia capsized completely and in less than a minute had disappeared stern first. Her final death throes had taken just 21 minutes.
"In the prime of her service," said the Prime Minister (Mr Bruce) regarding the sinking of the Australia.
"This, the first great ship of the young Australian navy, was our contribution to the defence of civilization. In her passing she symbolizes our contribution to the cause of peace. We sacrifice her with a regret rendered poignant by the memory of her great service, but tempered with the hope that the world will see, in the magnitude of our offering and the manner in which we make it, a measure of our practical belief in the principles enumerated at the Washington Conference, which constitute the only hope of a permanent international peace.
"The passing of the Australia 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 civilization hung in the balance, it was the presence in the Pacific of the Australia, manned by Australian seamen, that saved our shores and our shipping from the fate which overtook less fortunate nations."
Return to WWI The Maritime War
Return to WWI Archive main page.