Naval Historical Society of Australia
Preserving Australia's Naval History
The following videos produced by the Royal Australian Navy and other organisations are of historical significance to the RAN.
Curator Richard Dunn from the Royal Museums Greenwich discusses some of the highlights of Ships, Clocks & Stars. The exhibition offers visitors the rare chance to see the extraordinary nautical instruments that led to maritime history’s greatest scientific breakthroughs – the quest for longitude.
Liberty Industrial carried out the deconstruction of the historic Hammerhead Crane located at the Garden Island Naval Base on Sydney Harbour. The project involved dismantling the giant cantilevered dockside crane for the Department of Defence. The structure was progressively dismantled in large sections in a highly choreographed sequence, engineered to maintain the structural stability of the crane. In addition to the removal of the structure, the project had a substantial salvage component with the preservation and restoration of numerous heritage significant components of the crane.
On the 4th of October 1913 HMAS Australia led the new fleet through the heads of Sydney Harbour. HMAS Australia, an Indefatigable-class battle cruiser, was The Royal Australian Navy’s first flagship. A year later it was serving Australia in World War I. After distinguished service HMAS Australia was decommissioned and eventually scuttled off Sydney Heads on April 12 1924. This film records the last moments of that important piece of Australian Naval history.
First entry of the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet into Sydney in 1913.
Courtesy of Sea Power Centre – Australia.
The International Fleet Review was held to commemorate the centenary of the first entry of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet into Sydney which occurred on 4 October 1913. The International Fleet Review was Navy’s signature commemorative event for 2013. More than 30 foreign warships and 12 tall ships participated.