WARRIOR: HMAS Diamantina in her heyday.

The wartime role of the historic South Brisbane Dry Dock was remembered last month in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the commissioning of HMAS Diamantina.

Diamantina is Australia’s largest surviving World War II warship and the last of the world’s steam-driven River Class frigates.

The ship (believed to have fired the Royal Australian Navy’s last shots in World War II) is berthed at the Dry Dock being restored to her World War II condition by members of the Queensland Maritime Museum.

It was at this Dry Dock that she was finally prepared for war in 1945, just months before two Japanese surrender documents were signed on her deck. Diamantina was one of 153 Australian and Allied warships and submarines to be maintained or repaired at the Dry Dock during the war.

At one point, there were as many submarines sailing on patrol from Brisbane as there were from the main US base at Pearl Harbor.

Last month, CAPT Ernst van Buuren (Brisbane Branch Master of the Company of Master Mariners Australia) officially unveiled a sandstone monument recording the names of the naval and merchant ships who berthed at the Dry Dock between 1942 and 1945.

The monument and the ongoing restoration of Diamantina are examples of how the museum is working to grow public awareness of Brisbane’s colourful and significant maritime history. Special guests at the ceremony include a contingent from the HMAS Diamantina II (a Huon Class Mine Hunter), the Lord Mayor Cr Campbell Newman, and the State Minister for the Arts, Anna Bligh.

Last year, the Lord Mayor announced $1.3 million in funding over the next five years to develop the museum as one of the finest private sector museums of its type in Australia. The ceremony followed the launch of the book HMAS Diamantina by Queensland Maritime Museum member, Peter Nunan.

The foreword to the book was written by the Governor General and former SAS officer, Michael Jeffery, whose own recollections of time aboard the Diamantina include coming face to face with a crocodile in 1960.

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