HMAS ADELAIDE at naval buoy number 1 in Sydney
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date15 October 1923
Object number00037670
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
DimensionsOverall: 82 x 103 mm, 2 mm, 0.04 kg
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionHMAS ADELAIDE is moored at naval buoy number 1 off Farm Cove, Sydney on 15 October 1923. This is one of a number of photographs of naval ships taken by Frederick Wilkinson whilst travelling on board ferries in Sydney Harbour.HistoryHMAS ADELAIDE (I) was a Town class light cruiser commissioned in 1922 and built at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney. It was sent to New Caledonia (French colony) in 1940 to monitor the Vichy French. It took part in the Royal Navy's Special Service Squadron world cruise on the leg from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA to the UK. It was also the first Royal Australian Navy ship to pass through the Panama Canal. In 1928 it was paid off into the Reserves and then taken out to be refitted in 1938 for war duties.
During World War II ADELAIDE conducted operations along Australia's east and west coasts undertaking patrol and escort duties, being one of the navy ships present in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack in May 1942. In 1942 it also sank the German blockade runner RAMSES in the Southern Indian Ocean, stopping to collect the survivors. It was paid off in 1946 and in 1949 ADELAIDE was sold and broken up for scrap metal at Port Kembla.SignificanceThis photograph is representative of HMAS ADELAIDE in Sydney Harbour in 1923.The print is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the decline of the coastal trade. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.
