Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to wish the Royal Australian Navy a happy 125th birthday and mark that today, 4 March, marks the 84th anniversary of the sinking of HMAS Yarra in 1942 while escorting a convoy from South-East Asia through to Fremantle in WA during the darkest days of the Second World War. This was within a month of the bombing of Darwin, and Broome had just been bombed the day prior, on 3 March. Australia's fate hung in the balance. It would be six months before the tide started to turn at Milne Bay and on the Kokoda Track.

HMAS Yarra's badge features a kookaburra, and its motto is 'hunt and strike'. But, on that fateful day in March 1942, its mission was to protect and defend the convoy. Encountering a Japanese fleet during the escort, and being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the Yarra's commander, Lieutenant Commander Robert Rankin, laid down a smokescreen and commanded the convoy to scatter. Despite fighting valiantly and bravely, the Yarra and the three ships in the convoy were all sunk. Of the Yarra's complement of 150 souls, only 13 would survive. In 2013, HMAS Yarra and her ship's company were awarded the Unit Citation for Gallantry retroactively. This was a fitting and poetic recognition of her bravery. Well done to HMAS Yarra.

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