The first ship to carry this name was a British armoured cruiser built in 1886. She served in the Mediterranean and Home Fleet, and despite her name association with Australia, never visited our country. She was scrapped in 1905.

The first ship to bear the name Australia in the Royal Australian Navy was the Battle Cruiser Australia. She arrived with the first R.A.N. Fleet at Sydney on October 4th. 1913. A 21,300 ton ship, she carried 8 x 12' Guns.

She was the flagship of the second Battle Cruiser Fleet of the Grand Fleet in 1915, and was present in Scapa Flow when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered. She arrived home in Australia in June 1919. For the next two years she was our flagship, then put into reserve. On the 12th. April 1924 she was towed out of Sydney Harbour and scuttled off the coast.

HMAS Australia 2
The second R.A.N. ship to carry the name was a "KENT" class cruiser, keel laid down in a British Shipyard in 1925. She was launched on March 17th, 1927 and fully completed in April 1928.

This ship was our Flagship during the battle of the Coral Sea. During her lifetime, she steamed some 625,000 miles. From September 1939 until her paying off with the Royal Australian Navy, she had covered some 476,300 miles in every one of the worlds oceans.

H.M.A.S Australia served longer than any other Australian warship. Sadly, no RAN ship now carries this proud name. In January 1955 she was sold for scrap, towed out of Sydney Harbour by the Dutch tug Rode Zee on her final journey to Barrow- in Furness to be broken up.