HMAS Australia
Two ships of the
Royal Australian Navy have borne the name
Australia.
The first
HMAS Australia was an Indefatigable class
battle cruiser laid down by John Brown and Company of Clydebank at
Glasgow in
Scotland on
26 June 1910, launched on
25 October 1911 by Lady Reid, wife of Sir George Reid, the Australian
High Commissioner in
London and former
Prime Minister, completed on
21 June 1913 and commissioned at
Portsmouth in
England on
21 June 1913. She sailed for Australia on
21 July 1913. HMAS Australia paid off on
12 December [[1921] and, in accordance with the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty, was sunk with her main armament 24 miles from
Sydney on
12 April 1924.
The second
HMAS Australia was a County class
cruiser laid down by John Brown and Company of Clydebank at
Glasgow in
Scotland on
26 August 1925, launched on
17 March 1927 and commissioned on
24 April 1928. HMAS Australia paid off for disposal on
31 August 1954 and sold for scrap to the British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage) on
25 January 1955. She left Sydney under tow on
26 March 1955 and was broken up at the Thomas W. Ward Shipbreaking Yard at
Barrow-in-Furness in
1956.