HMAS Diamantina
Australia’s Last River Class Frigate, 1945 -1980

By Peter Nunan
Published by Boolarong Press  BUY HERE
RRP $29.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781925522358

First published in 2005, this revised edition traces the voyage of HMAS Diamantina from its commissioning in 1945 through to its decommissioning in 1980 and subsequent return to Queensland where it is on permanent display at the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane. Diamantina is Australia’s largest surviving World War II warship and the last of the world’s steam driven River Class frigates.

Although commissioned not long before the end of the war, Diamantina saw active service, providing fire support to the Army on Bougainville from mid-1945, and is believed to have fired the RAN’s last shots of World War II. She also carried the Japanese high command to surrender at Torokina and hosted the signing of surrender documents for Nauru and Ocean Islands. After the war, Diamantina was recommissioned as an oceanographic research vessel undertaking tasks in the Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans. Along with her sister ship, HMAS Gascoyne, she was instrumental in discovering the greatest depth then recorded in the Indian Ocean.

If you have a family member with connections to this historic ship, the book would be a marvellous Christmas Present.