Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Print Page

The plaque commemorates the personnel who served in the Corvettes of the Royal Australian Navy during World War Two.

Originally classified as minesweepers, but widely referred to as corvettes, the Bathurst-class vessels fulfilled a broad anti-submarine, anti-mine, and convoy escort role.

Sixty Bathurst-class corvettes were built in eight Australian shipyards to an Australian design. 36 were constructed for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), 20 were built on British Admiralty orders but manned and commissioned by the RAN, and 4 served in the Royal Indian Navy. Although designed for the anti-submarine and anti-mine role, the Bathursts operated as "maids-of-all-work" during the war; serving as troop and supply transports, supporting amphibious landings, providing air defence for convoys and disabled ships, participating in shore bombardments, and undertaking hydrographic surveys. Three ships were lost during the war—one to Japanese air attack and two to collisions with friendly merchant ships—while a fourth struck a friendly mine while sweeping the Great Barrier Reef in 1947 and sank.

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