The first HMAS Tobruk (D-37) was a Battle class destroyer laid down by The Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 5 August 1946, launched on 20 December 1947 by Mrs. W. J. F. Riordan, wife of the Minister for Navy and commissioned at Sydney on 8 May 1950. Tobruk was accidentally hit by a shell from HMAS Anzac while exercising with the fleet off the east coast of Australia in September 1960. HMAS Tobruk paid off into reserve on 29 October 1960, was sold for scrap to Fujita Salvage Company Limited of Osaka in Japan on 15 February 1972 and departed Sydney under tow on 10 April 1972.