On This Day

1946-1959 > Post WW2

January 28, 1946

HMAS Benalla (I) paid off into reserve at Fremantle. Benalla (I) remained at Fremantle until 25 March 1955, when the tug HMAS Sprightly sailed for Melbourne with Benalla (I) in tow. The ships arrived at Melbourne on 4 April and Benalla (I) remained in reserve but was later transferred to Geelong. While still remaining in reserve the ship was towed from Geelong to Sydney by Sprightly, departing Geelong on 21 January 1956 and arriving at Sydney on 25 January. On 20 February 1958 Benalla (I) was sold for scrap to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Ltd of Tokyo.

HMAS Bowen paid off into reserve having steamed 95,651 miles on active service. Bowen was sold on 18 May 1956 to Hong Kong Rolling Mills, Hong Kong, to be broken up.

January 17, 1946

HMAS Cairns was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy at Brisbane and was renamed Ambon. She was transferred to the Indonesian Navy on 6 April 1950 and renamed Banteng

January 14, 1946

HMAS Kapunda paid off into Reserve. After being declared for disposal on 30 December 1960 she was sold for scrap to Kinoshita (Australia) Pty Ltd on 6 January 1961

January 12, 1946

The River class frigate HMAS BARWON, was commissioned. BARWON was laid down in Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, on 31 May 1943, and launched on 3 August 1944.

January 10, 1946

HMAS Mulcra decommissioned (without fanfare) and was handed back to her owners having steamed 6896nm on war service with the RAN. Following the war Mulcra returned to trade until 1961 when she was sold by the Adelaide Steamship Company to Hong Kong buyers and renamed La Trinidad. In 1964, under Panamanian registration, she was trading as Tasanee and later as Andes and Veng-An. She was scrapped in 1976.