HMAS MELBOURNE at sea
Maker
Alfred William Dufty
(1858 - 1924)
Date1912-1920
Object number00037859
NamePostcard
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 85 x 137 mm
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis postcard shows HMAS MELBOURNE from starboard side at sea. Produced by Alfred William Dufty, this postcard features a photograph taken by Frederick Garner Wilkinson and printed by Kodak Australia.HistoryHMAS MELBOURNE was a Town class light cruiser built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in England in 1911 and launched on 30 May 1912. MELBOURNE was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 18 January 1913. HMAS MELBOURNE served in the Royal Australian Navy 1913 to 1929 being deployed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and then the Atlantic during World War I.
After the war, MELBOURNE was paid off to reserve and laid up inactive at Sydney between 5 August 1919 and 14 April 1920 and again from 29 September 1924 to 8 October 1925. It sailed from Sydney for England on 9 February 1928, arriving at Portsmouth on 12 April 1928. MELBOURNE was finally paid off on 23 April 1928, sold to the Alloa Shipbuilding Company of Rosyth in Scotland in December 1928 and broken up in 1929.SignificanceThis postcard of HMAS MELBOURNE is an important record of a vessel that served during World War I as part of the Royal Australian Navy.
