Centaur (Blue Funnel/Ocean on Loan)

The conversion of Centaur to the hospital ship role took place during 1940. Following the sinking of HMAS “Sydney” on 19 November 1941, she assisted in the rescue of the crew of the German raider Kormoran.

At 4.10 a.m. on 14 May 1943, while fully illuminated and painted in Red Cross colours, she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I.74 off Brisbane while en route Sydney-Papua New Guinea. The ship sank in three minutes, precluding sending a distress call and launching lifeboats. Most on board were asleep and had little chance of escape. From a total of 332 souls on board, only 64 survived, to be picked up after thirty-four hours in the water by USS “Mugford” . Those lost included 45 of the ship’s crew and 223 medical and military personnel of whom 11 were nurses.

Taroona (Tasmanian Steamers)

Serving on the Bass Strait run when the war opened, Taroona was requisitioned in January 1942 by the New Zealand Naval Board to take New Zealand troops to Suva. Following brief operation back on the trans-Bass Strait service she was again requisitioned in March, this time by the Australian Government, for conversion to a troopship, with capacity 678 personnel. Her first trooping voyage, to Port Moresby, saw her aground for several days near the harbour entrance, her crew tense but fortunate while enemy bombers chose the Port  Moresby airfield as their target. Then shuttling northwards from northern Australia ports  she carried thousands of troops, surviving unscathed, her ninety-four voyages involving 173 operational area port calls.

Taroona resumed on the Bass Strait service in 1946.

Kybra (W.A.Shipping)

Requisitioned as an anti-submarine vessel on 21 June 1940.

Koolama (W.A.Shipping)

Requisitioned on 16 January 1942, Koolama then operated, not uneventfully, between Darwin, Koepang and Ambon on troop re-supply and civilian evacuation duties.On 29 February, while in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf near Wyndham, she was attacked and disabled by Japanese aircraft and then beached. Later taken to Wyndham she sank there, alongside the wharf and despite salvage pumping, on 3 March. She was scuttled at sea in 1946.

Caradale (Patricks)

Torpedoed off the New South Wales coast on 12 May 1943, Caradale was fortunate in that the weapon did not explode, and she survived.