On This Day
1946-1959 > Post WW2
On This Day - 1946-1959
- May 16, 1946
HMAS Whyalla paid off at Brisbane. On 10 February 1947 Whyalla was sold to the Victorian Public Works Department. On 8 November 1947 the tug HMAS Reserve departed Brisbane for Melbourne with Whyalla in tow. The vessels arrived at Melbourne on 14 November. Whyalla (I) was handed over to her new owner and renamed Rip, being employed as a lights maintenance vessel. She ceased service as Rip in 1984. When the Whyalla City Council became aware that the ship was to sold as scrap, successful negotiations resulted in the Council purchasing her for $5,000. She returned to Whyalla under her own power later in 1984. Between February and April 1987, Whyalla was slowly moved up the slipway from which she was launched in 1941, and then relocated two kilometres inland and placed on permanent foundations, becoming the centrepiece for the Whyalla Maritime Museum which was officially opened on 29 October 1988. Whyalla is one of only two Bathurst Class preserved as museum ships, the other being HMAS Castlemaine in Williamstown, Victoria.
- May 13, 1946
HMAS Platypus paid off into Reserve at Sydney. She was sold on 20 February 1958 to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd, of Tokyo, Japan, for scrap. In June 1958 the Japanese salvage vessel Tukoshima Maru departed Sydney for Japan with Platypus and the former Bathurst Class minesweeper, HMAS Dubbo (I), in tow.
HMAS Adelaide paid off after service as a depot ship from May 1945
- May 10, 1946
HMAS Shepparton paid off into Reserve at Brisbane. On 4 November 1947 Shepparton’s sister ship HMAS Deloraine (I) sailed from Brisbane for Sydney with Shepparton in tow. On 7 November the ships arrived at Sydney, where Shepparton remained in Reserve. On 20 February 1958 the ship was sold for scrap to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd of Tokyo.
- May 8, 1946
HMAS Kalgoorlie paid off at Melbourne, having steamed 131,607 miles. On the same day Kalgoorlie was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy and renamed Ternate
- May 2, 1946
The modified River class frigate HMAS SHOALHAVEN, (CMDR R. Rhoades, RAN), was commissioned. SHOALHAVEN was laid down at Walker’s Yard, Maryborough, QLD, on 1 December 1943, and launched on 14 December 1944.