Many stories of Australians’ involvement in WWII have been researched. However, only a few of these stories have taken place in Australia, away from the European theatre of war. Aside from the aerial attacks on Darwin by Japanese forces (1942), and the battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran (1941), the Goorangai tragedy, taking place at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay (1940), remains little known. Join us in the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum’s Gil Allbutt Boatshed on May 3rd to hear historian Andrew Campbell present the full story of the HMAS Goorangai, and its little-known collision with the passenger motorship MV Duntroon. This collision resulted in the sinking of the HMAS Goorangai, which became the first Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship lost in WW II, and the first RAN surface ship lost in wartime with all hands.

Learn More

Book Now