HMAS AUSTRALIA I at Sydney
Date1913
Object number00055236
NameNitrate negative
MediumCellulose nitrate negative, black and white
DimensionsOverall: 1 × 60 × 94 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Patrick B Connolly 2017
DescriptionBlack-and-white negative of the Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA while berthed at Sydney. HMAS AUSTRALIA was the first flagship of the Royal Australian Navy and a source of enormous public pride when it entered Sydney Harbour in October 1913.
HistoryAlmost immediately following its arrival in Sydney arrangements were made for the flagship HMAS AUSTRALIA to visit a number of principal Australian ports. Within a year AUSTRALIA called into Albany, Port Lincoln, Hobart, Glenelg and Melbourne and steamed as far north as Townsville in a deliberate attempt to showcase the RAN to the widest possible national audience. The battlecruiser’s popularity extended to mass entertainment and in addition to becoming the subject of several popular songs it played the starring role in the feature film 'Sea Dogs of Australia’, which opened on 12 August 1914.
Following the outbreak of WWI, HMAS AUSTRALIA operated - in conjunction with other RAN vessels - as a counter to the German East Asia Squadron under the command of Admiral Maximillian van Spree. The battlecruiser’s presence deterred von Spree from operating in Australian and South Pacific waters. It also took part in a series of operations to seize German Pacific colonies and destroy enemy radio networks. AUSTRALIA captured its first prize, the German ship SUMATRA, while operating in the South Pacific.
In late December 1914 AUSTRALIA received orders to sail to England via the Pacific and reached Devonport on 28 January 1915. En route it captured and sank von Spee's supply ship ELEONORE WOERMANN off South America. The battlecruiser served as a flagship of the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron, which comprised of AUSTRALIA and its two sister ships, HMS NEW ZEALAND and HMS INDEFATIGABLE. The squadron conducted a succession of sweeps, patrols and convoy escort tasks across the length and breadth of the North Sea. On 30 December 1917, AUSTRALIA engaged a suspected submarine, the only time the vessel fired shots in anger.
On 22 April 1916 AUSTRALIA collided with HMS NEW ZEALAND in heavy fog and the damage kept it from participating in the Battle of Jutland. Upon returning to service in June 1916, the battlecruiser continued North Sea patrols as a unit of the British Grand Fleet until 12 November 1917 when another collision, this time with HMS REPULSE, put it out of commission for another three weeks. An uneventful routine of patrol and fleet exercises in the North Sea was briefly interrupted when one officer and ten ratings from Australia took part in a bold commando raid on the occupied ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge. The Australian acquitted themselves well, and six received awards for their heroism.
During the final year of the conflict AUSTRALIA was used as a test bed for shipborne aircraft experiments. On 8 March 1918, and again on 14 May, a Sopwith Strutter was successfully launched from a platform erected on one of the ship's 12-inch gun turrets - the world's first launch of a two seater aircraft from a battlecruiser. By the end of the war nearly every British capital ship carried a Strutter aircraft for reconnaissance purposes, as well as a Sopwith Pup or Sopwith Camel fighter.
On 21 November, ten days after the Armistice was signed, the Grand Fleet emerged from the Firth-of-Forth in two divisions to meet the German High Seas Fleet as it arrived to be interned at Scarpa Flow. Once anchored, each German warship was allocated a guard ship. AUSTRALIA was given charge of the battlecruiser HINDENBURG.
AUSTRALIA arrived back in Sydney on 15 June 1919 and resumed its role as RAN flagship. A year later it served as the lead vessel in naval activities associated with the visit of HRH Prince of Wales. Because it consumed a large portion of the RAN's budget and personnel, and as funding was reduced to an economic downturn, the battlecruiser was downgraded to a gunnery and torpedo drill ship at Flinders Naval Depot. It also served a secondary role as a fixed defensive battery. In November 1921 AUSTRALIA returned to Sydney and was paid off into reserve the following month. Less than three years later it was prepared for discard in order to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. On 12 April 1924, AUSTRALIA was towed out of Sydney Harbour and scuttled approximately 24 miles (38.6 kilometres) from Inner South Head.
AUSTRALIA's scuttled hull was accidentally discovered in 1990 during a telecommunications survey. In 2013 CSIRO's Marine National Facility research vessel, SOUTHERN SURVEYOR, used multi-beam sonar to acquire images of the wreck. The 2013 survey revealed that AUSTRALIA's hull is lying inverted on the seabed, but is remarkably intact.
SignificanceHMAS AUSTRALIA (I) was the Royal Australian Navy's first flagship, and formed the centrepiece of the 'Fleet Unit', the acquisition of which signalled the RAN's arrival as a credible ocean-going naval force. HMAS AUSTRALIA's entrance through Sydney Heads at the front of the new Fleet Unit on 4 October 1913 evoked a nationalistic euphoria never before experienced, as the ship was the embodiment of the Commonwealth's own sea power, and unquestionably superior to every other European warship then operating in the Pacific. This photograph is believed to have been taken in October 1913, in conjunction with celebrations marking Australia's inaugural arrival at Sydney.
4 October 1913
