HMQS Gayundah

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Queensland Gunboats

General Characteristics
Displacement:	360 tons
Length:	120 ft (36 m)
Beam:	26 ft (7.8 m)
Draught:	9 ft 6 in (2.85 m)
Builder:	Armstrong Mitchell and Co.
Propulsion:	expansion steam engines, 400 ihp
Speed:	10.5 knots
Armament (as designed):	1 x 8 in 1 x 1 x 6 in 2 x 1.5 in 2 x MG

Named after a local Aboriginal word meaning "lightning" there have been two warships to carry the name Gayundah.

HMQS Gayundah and later HMAS Gayundah was a gunboat built in 1884.
HMAS Gayundah was a small auxiliary requisitioned during World War II.

Also:

TV Gayundah (TV282) was a naval Motor Refrigerator Lighter launched in December 1945 in Melbourne, Victoria, sent to Brisbane, Queensland in 1966 for use by the Royal Australian Naval Reserve unit at the Brisbane Navy base, HMAS Moreton, and in May 1969 designated as Training Vessel 282. It was disposed by sale in the late 1980s.
TS Gayundah is a Training Ship (unit) of the Australian Navy Cadets (youth organisation) based at Newstead, Queensland, established by the Navy League of Australia in July 1954.

1 Summary
2 Class note
3 See also
4 Bibliography
5 External link

[edit] Summary

One of the many outcomes of the Jervois-Scratchley reports was the formation of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force. To equip the new force the colonial government purchased two gunboats and a torpedo boat.

HMQS Gayundah was a gunboat of Queensland's colonial navy. She was launched at Newcastle upon Tyne on May 13, 1884 and commissioned in the United Kingdom during October. Gayundah sailed for Australia in the November of that year under the command of Captain Henry Townley-Wright arriving in Brisbane on the 28 March 1885. Upon arrival in Brisbane, Townley-Wright refused to relinquish his command and was eventually removed by a boarding party of Queensland Police.

Over the next few years she served as a training ship and conducting the first ship to shore radio transmissions in Australia. However with the depression of the 1890s Gayundah was assigned to reserve duties in 1892, being reactivated for annual training at Easter.

Following the federation of the Australian colonies, the gunboats joined the Commonwealth Naval Forces and in 1911 both were integrated into the newly formed Royal Australian Navy.

From 22 April - 25 August 1911, at the instigation of the Departments of External Affairs and Trade & Customs, Gayundah sailed under the command of Commander G.A.H. Curtis from Brisbane to Broome, Western Australia to enforce Australia's territorial boundary and fishing zone along the north-west coast of the continent. At Scott Reef on 25 May Gayundah boarded and detained two Dutch schooners with illegal catches of trepang (sea cucumber) and trochus shell (Trochus niloticus), escorted them into Broome on 29 May, then remained at Broome until mid-July so the officers could appear as witnesses in the resulting court case against the masters of the schooners. For this cruise, the 6" bow gun was removed to provide greater bunkering for coal to increase the ship's range.

Gayundah was extensively refitted in early 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, Gayundah was assigned to coastal patrols of Moreton Bay and the east coast of Australia.

In 1921 she was sold to Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd who employed her as a sand and gravel barge on the Brisbane River.

Gayundah was eventually scrapped sometime in the 1950s before being run aground at Woody Point, at Redcliffe to serve as a breakwater in 1958. Much of her rusting hull can still be seen today.

HMQS Gayundah

[edit] Class note

Gayundah was a sister ship of HMQS Paluma. This class appears to have been a fairly standard design from builders Armstrong Mitchell and Co. The very similar HMVS Albert, was also built in 1884 and served with the colony of Victoria, the Commonwealth Naval Forces and the Royal Australian Navy.