'Whyalla' World War II corvette, first ship built at Whyalla from 1940, at South Australian city's Spencer Gulf museum
The Bathurst-class corvette, HMAS Whyalla, was the first vessel built by BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) at its Whyalle shipyards in the South Australian Spencer Gulf city from 1940. The corvette, involved extensively on convoy escorts and survey work during World War II, became the centrepiece of Whyalla Maritime Museum, opened in 1988.
Image courtesy Whyalla Maritme Museum
The HMAS Whyalla, the first ship built in South Australia’s Whyalla shipyards in 1941, became the prime exhibit of the Whyalla Maritime Museum two kilometres from the sea at the northern entrance to the Spencer Gulf city.
The museum documents the Whyalla era of shipbuilding, including Whyalla and three other World War II Bathurst-class corvettes. The need for locally built all-rounder vessels at the start of World War II saw the “Australian minesweepers” (called that to hide their anti-submarine capability but popularly known as corvettes) approved in 1939, with 60 built during the war: 36 ordered by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), 20 (including Whyalla) ordered by the British Admiralty but manned and commissioned as RAN vessels, and four for the Royal Indian Navy.
The Whyalla was laid down by BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) at its Whyalla shipyard in July 1940 at Yard Number 8; launched in 1941 by Muriel Barclay-Harvey, wife of the governor of South Australia; and commissioned in 1942. Whyalla was originally to be named Glenelg after the Adelaide suburb. That name was later used by another Bathurst-class vessel.
In 1942, the Whyalla supported convoys off the southeast Australian coast and was in Sydney Harbor during the Japanese midget submarine attack in 1942. Twelve days later, Whyalla lost its only ship being escorted when the freighter Guatemala, in a southbound convoy, was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine 1-21. Whyalla was assigned to New Guinea for convoy escorts and hydrographic surveys, and involved in the leadup to the Battle of Buna-Gona.
In 1943, Whyalla and small Australian survey ships Stella and Polaris were attacked by Japanese dive bombers in McLaren Harbour, Cape Nelson, New Guinea. The Whyalla had minor damage from near misses, with two crew injured by shrapnel. It continued surveys until relieved by sister ship Shepparton in 1943. At Milne Bay, the Whyalla again escaped major damage in an attack by about 100 Japanese aircraft. It helped sister ships Kapunda and Wagga with rescues and salvage.
Whyalla returned to Australia for refits in 1943 and resumed convoy duty off Australia's east coast until 1944. She was involved in anti-submarine patrols off Sandy Cape and again assigned to New Guinea. In December 1944, Whyalla was one of nine Australian Bathursts joining the British Pacific Fleet’s 21st minesweeping flotilla. It also took part in the occupation of Okinawa from March to May 1944, before a short refit.
When World War II ended, Whyalla was briefly in Hong Kong before returning to Brisbane in 1945 amd decommissioning in 1946. The corvette received wartime battle honours for Pacific 1942-45, New Guinea 1942-44 and Okinawa 1945.
Whyalla was sold to the Victorian state government public works department in 1947. It was modified for civilian service, renamed Rip, and towed to Melbourne to work on lighthouse maintenance at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.
Learning in 1984 that the Rip/Whyalla was to be scrapped, Whyalla city council negotiated to buy the ship for $5,000 and it sailed back to Whyalla with a volunteer crew of 11 and under her own steam to her launching slipway until 1987, when she was moved inland to be the centrepiece of the Whyalla Maritime Museum, opened in 1988.
Whyalla, with HMAS Castlemaine, remained the only Bathurst-class corvettes as museum ships. Daily tours of the Whyalla were arranged through the city’s maritime museum.
