HMAS Westralia was an auxiliary cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN).

Construction and acquisition

Westralia was built at the Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....

 shipyard in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 for the Huddart Parker

Huddart Parker

Huddart Parker Limited was an Australian shipping company trading in various forms between 1876 and 1961. It was one of the seven major coastal shippers in Australia at a time when shipping was the principal means of interstate and trans-tasman transport. The company started in Geelong, but in 1890...

 company as a twin screw motor vessel, being completed in 1929. Westralia was requisitioned for war service by the Australian government in 1939 as an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). She was fitted with 6 inches (152.4 mm) guns, and 3 inches (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft guns, before commissioning into the RAN in January 1940.

Operational history

Westralias time as an AMC was spent escorting convoys in the Pacific and Indian oceans, primarily from Australia and New Zealand.

In early November, the ship escorted a floating dock

Floating dock

A floating dock is a platform or ramp supported by pontoons. It is usually joined to the shore with a ramp that rests upon the dock on rollers, to adjust for the vertical movement of the dock...

 from Brisbane to Darwin, the commenced patrols of the Arafura Sea

Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea.-Geography:The Arafura Sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram...

. On 8 December 1941, Westralia and left Australia to transport Sparrow Force

Sparrow Force

Sparrow Force was a detachment based on the 2/40th Australian Infantry Battalion and other British and Australian 8th Division units, during World War II. The force was formed to defend the island of Timor, from invasion by the Empire of Japan...

 to Timor. The two ships returned to Darwin on 16 December, then were instructed to make for Cairns; Westralia arrived on 25 December, with 117 soldiers aboard. The calls to transport troops had come at short notice, and feeding the soldiers had put a significant dent in Westralias supplies, with the sailors spending most of December on short rations. After sailing to Cairns for replenishment (most of the commissaries in Darwin had been drained to supply Australian and Dutch forces securing the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

 against a pending Japanese invasion), the sailors had to work all day to disembark the troops, and when the planned evening departure was cancelled because the ship's floatplane could not be reembarked, shore leave was not granted. At midnight, the change of watch did not occur, as the sailors meant to start work did not report for duty. At around 01:50, the deck officer noticed around 100 sailors gathered near the anchor winches, blocking them from use. After the sailors disobeyed orders to disperse, Westralias captain ordered the bridge machine guns trained on the men, then took the ship to Action Stations

Action Stations

Action Stations is the general signal to the personnel of a warship that combat with a hostile attacker is imminent or deemed probable...

 and noted who did not report for duty. The ship's master-at-arms was ordered to arrest those refusing to report for duty; 104 men were arrested and charged with mutiny

Mutiny

Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

 (the largest number in RAN history), with the ringleaders confined in cells, and the rest agreeing to resume duties. Westralia arrived in Darwin on 30 December, then was ordered to Sydney so an inquiry into the incident could be held: the records relating to the legal proceedings and punishments have been lost.

During May 1942, Westralia was present in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack

Attack on Sydney Harbour

In late May and early June 1942, during World War II, submarines belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy made a series of attacks on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia...

.

In 1943, Westralia was converted into a Landing Ship, Infantry

Landing Ship, Infantry

Landing Ship, Infantry was a British term for a type of ship used to transport infantry in amphibious warfare during the Second World War...

 (LSI). In this role, Westralia was used primarily to transport units of the United States Army and Marine Corps. The ship took part in landings at Cape Cretin, Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

.

After the end of the war, Westralia was used for the repatriation of Australian troops, before being paid off in September 1946. The ship earned five battle honour

Battle honour

A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags , uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible....

s for her wartime service: "Pacific 1941–45", "New Guinea 1943–44", "Leyte Gulf 1944", "Lingayen Gulf 1945", and "Borneo 1945".

However, as she was being refitted for a return to civilian service, Westralia was taken up again for use as a troop transport between Sydney and Kure

Kure, Hiroshima

is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...

 for the British Commonwealth Occupation Force

British Commonwealth Occupation Force

The British Commonwealth Occupation Force , was the name of the joint Australian, Canadian, British, Indian and New Zealand military forces in occupied Japan, from 21 February 1946 until the end of occupation in 1952...

. However, she was not commissioned into the RAN in this role, instead having a merchant navy crew.

She ended her time with the BCOF in April 1949, and was then chartered as a troop carrier by the British Ministry of Transport

Department for Transport

In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...

, and served in the Mediterranean until March 1950. Westralia was finally returned to her owners in March 1951. Westralia was sold to the Asian and Pacific Shipping Co Ltd in 1959, serving as a livestock carrier, until she was eventually sold for scrap in 1961.