ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY HARBOUR DEFENCES - DARWIN

Ratings from the Darwin PWSS swimming nude - Xmas Day 1940 The main street of Darwin - Smith Street - October 1939 Aboard the N.T. Patrol Vessel “Kuru” –  October 1939


Prior to World War 2, Darwin was one of just three Australian ports considered essential for harbour defence by the British Admiralty. The other two were Sydney and Fremantle. By 1939 the Admiralty approved a plan for the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy's role in the defence of these three ports.  Their harbour defence proposal consisted of anti-submarine indicator loop installations to work in conjunction with the Army's gun batteries.  This webpage is mostly concerned with the Indicator Loops. The 'Loops' are long lengths of armoured cables laid on the seabed in shipping channels designed to detect submarines passing overhead. More details of how they work can be found on my How an Indicator Loop works webpage. Other Loop installations can be seen on the Indicator Loops around the World (Home Page).

If you worked there or have any feedback please contact me:

Email: Dr. Richard Walding (waldingr49@yahoo.com.au)
Research Fellow - School of Science
Griffith University
Home Phone: 61 (0)7 3206 4976
69 Summit Street, Sheldon, 4157, Queensland, Australia

LINKS TO MY RELATED PAGES:

  • Indicator Loops around the World (Home Page)

  • How an indicator loop works

    Darwin's harbour was first sighted in 1839 by John Stokes of HMS Beagle. The ship's captain, John Clements Wickham, named the port after Charles Darwin, the British naturalist, who had sailed with him on an earlier expedition of Beagle. The earliest European efforts to settle the 'Top End' were mainly due to British fears that other European powers might get a toehold on the Australian continent. Between 1824 and 1829 Fort Dundas on Melville Island and Fort Wellington on the Cobourg Peninsula, 200 km northeast of Darwin, were settled and then abandoned. Darwin itself was finally founded in 1869 - at first called Palmerston (after the British Prime Minister at the time), but this was finally changed to Darwin in 1911.

    DARWIN AT THE START OF WW2
    At the beginning of WW11 Darwin only had a population of 2000 and was extremely isolated with a small airport, unsealed roads to the rest of Australia and little infrastructure. The Royal Australian Navy depot in Darwin in the Northern Territory was named HMAS Penguin IV. On 1 August 1940 it was formally commissioned as HMAS Melville under control of the Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC). Here are some photos of Darwin in mid to late 1939. They have been given to me by RAN Leading Signalman Robert Luxton who was stationed at Darwin Port War Signal Station from October 1939 (copyright):
     

    Darwin from the air - about 1939. The streets running vertically are (L to R) Cavenagh, Smith and Mitchell. HMAS Melville shore station is out of the photo at the bottom of Mitchell St.

    The 'New' Darwin Hotel. There were four hotels in Darwin in 1940: Gordon's 'Don' Hotel in Cavenagh St., The 'Vic' (Victoria), the 'New' Darwin Hotel (opened July 1940) opposite the oval on the Esplanade and the Old Darwin Hotel on the corner of Mitchell and Herbert Streets. The New Darwin Hotel was appropriated by the Navy from 1942-1947.

    Smith Street, Darwin, 1939. The Bank of New South Wales (later Westpac) dominates the scene. Sailors were able to freely visit the town centre when off duty.

    Low water at East Point, Darwin, looking NW from PWSS, 1939

    Approaches to Darwin Jetty, 1939. Main road with a train line to the right.

    Aboriginal gunyah, West Point 1939. The aboriginies spoke a little English and were very friendly to navy visitors.

    Aboriginal grave, West Point 1939

    Fort Hill, Darwin, 1939. Photo taken from the wharf near the end of Chinatown. Fort Hill was a depot for Boom Defence Vessels. Here vessels' stores, nets, drums and so on were stored. Boom vessels moored here when off duty. It was a fair way from the boom net but the deep water here (26') made it more usable than the shallows near the cliffs of the PWSS.

    RAN official examination vessel Flying Foam at Darwin Harbour in October 1939. She was a requisitioned pearl lugger and used as an examination vessel when the Northern Territory patrol boats (Larrakeah and Kuru) were busy. She lasted three days (see below).

    A few more notes about the Flying Foam: She was a 45 ft wooden vessel but there were few facilities aboard. In early October 1939 there were many pearling luggers moored to the east of the jetty in an area now known as Fisherman's Wharf. The Ran picked one out without inspecting it and requisitioned it for naval duties.  Drinking water was held in a large steel tank with a hose and wooden plug at the bottom. Sailors would hang their backsides over the rail for a toilet. After three days use an Army Captain condemned it and it was never used again. It was crewed by RAN seamen as well as the signalman and officer for examination duties. It had a native Malaysian crew member named Dhatu. The Foam had a 'hot bulb diesel' engine. You'd heat up a hot bulb on top of the engine with a blowtorch and when a match ignited on it's surface you'd start the engine. You could hear it for miles. Crew slept on deck as the hold stunk too much from dead shellfish and other detritus. When it rained the crew would pull sails over themselves to keep from getting too wet. Robert Luxton was the signalman and the Boarding Officer was Lt Clarence Williams from Perth.
     

    Fanny Bay Gaol, Darwin 1939. You passed this on way to PWSS.

    Smith Street Darwin, looking east, 1939. This group of shops were opposite the Bank of NSW and consisted of a mixed business, an electrician and a men's outfitters.

    HARBOUR DEFENCES 1939-1945
    With increasing tensions between Germany and her neighbours making war seem a possibility, the Admiralty sent Commander Bannister RN - an expert on harbour defences - to Australia to advise the Naval Board on necessary defence procedures. In late 1939 an Indicator Loop system consisting of two loops was laid at Port Darwin between West Point and Dudley Point requiring some 276,000 feet of cable supplied by Cable and Wireless Ltd, Victoria Embankment, London (as shown on the map below). An antisubmarine boom was also recommended but laying of the boom net did not begin until the end of 1940 and was not finished until the end of 1942.This is also shown. The shore station where the Naval Officer In Charge (NOIC) worked - HMAS Melville is in the town and not shown.

     

    By November 1941 it was realised that the two Darwin indicator loops were giving frequent cable faults ('sea-cells' - that is, breakages causing short circuits) due to the force of water caused by the changing tides and the rough seabed in Darwin and that relaying the system with heavily armoured cable might be necessary. Two HDAs were still on order from the UK but had not arrived. The RN proposed lending 61 year-old Cmr Vindon RN now resident in Australia to assist with maintenance of fixed naval harbour defences for the duration of the war. The ship Bangalow was taken over by the RAN on 16 March 1942 for cable-laying duties. The Indicator Loop Hut and the Port War Signal Station (PWSS) were both controlled by the navy and were located beside each other between East Point and Dudley Point (as shown in the photos below).
     

    PWSS in 1939: the Loop Hut is on the right; in the centre is the Officer's Quarters and behind that the Rating's Mess & Dormitory. Half-tide PWSS Darwin 1939. At low tide the water was about 50 yards from the shore.

    William 'Happy' Johnson, the Steward at PWSS PWSS Signal Tower 1939. An air-raid shelter was build nearby in 1942.

    PWSS 'Cottage' (Ratings' Sleeping and Mess Quarters) 1939. By 1942 more building had been constructed and the Mess was in separate building. Here the men slung their hammocks at night and stowed them away 'Navy Style' in the morning. The procedures in a shore station had much in common with shipboard routines. The building was on a concrete slab with steel corrugated iron walls and a corrugated fibro (Super Six) roof. RAN Examination Vessel HMAS Adele in Port Darwin 1949. It was a coal-fired, single screw yacht requisitioned by the RAN. The ship was unarmed - not even a rifle was aboard. Signalman and officer would pull alongside and board ship being inspected. A Verey's Pistol (signal flares) and semaphore flags would be used to signal PWSS. If it was an enemy ship, red flares could be fired and signalman was expected to jump overboard. With a 6 knot current and crocodiles, they were very happy no enemy made it into the harbour. She was wrecked in Kiama harbour NSW.
    Note: one of the signalmen aboard the Adele was Victor Glanfield. His story can be read by downloading Victor Glanfield.
    PWSS Darwin Xmas 1940 PWSS Darwin Xmas 1940

    The Japanese Midget submarine attack on Sydney on 31 May 1942 caused a great deal of consternation amongst navy planners. One concern was with the ability of the two inner loops at Sydney to detect midget submarines. One of the 'outer' loops was out of action and the depth of the water in the harbour (6-7 fathoms) was at the limit of detectability for Midgets.

    In the meantime, the Boom net between West Point and East Point continued to be installed and it became fully operational on 14 February 1942. For a excellent description of the Boom defences of Darwin see Darwin - Fixed Naval Defences 1939-1945 by Lt Pat Forster RANVR (Ret'd), historian at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. He joined the RANR in October 1940 and from October 1941 to September 1943 he served in Darwin, first as a signalman and later as a draughtsman in the Boom Defence Office. After receiving his commission he joined HMAS Whyalla as the anti-submarine officer and completed his war service in the Pacific. His email is supytalp@octa4.net.au.

    On 26th June 1942 it was decided to modify the existing Indicator Loop system at Darwin by replacing the two loops with a set of four (later increased to five on 3rd July 1942.  It was also decided to proceed with the installation of two Harbour Defence Asdics (HDAs) - that is, fixed Asdic (sonar) devices in the harbour. The total amount of cable required was 35200 yds of Pattern 1989 Lead-loaded armoured loop cable and 14500 yds of Patt. 7048 tail cable. Composition of both these cables can be seen on my Cablemakers web page. The new loops were expected to be able to detect on the surface a degaussed submarine of 1600 tons in 60 fathoms of water (or a 900 ton degaussed submarine in 45 fathoms). To detect a 50 ton Japanese midget submarine the submarine would have to be at a depth of only 5 fathoms from the loop.  The Commander of HMAS Rushcutter Harvey Newcomb (responsible for loop laying and HDAs) rejected the offer of assistance from Cmr Vinden RN as the existing RAN COs were quite capable of managing.

    Following a survey conducted of the seabed, by HMA Ships Vigilant, Kiara and Wato, it was decided (on the 16th November 1942) to shift the Indicator Loop Control Station from East Point to Nightcliffe and lay the five loops about 3 km further north - between 'Midway' and the new Loop Control station at Nightcliffe on the eastern side of the harbour. After cableship HMAS Bangalow completed laying loops in Moreton Bay (Brisbane) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) it proceeded to Darwin arriving there on 19th March 1944 to begin laying the loops. The new station commenced operations on 25th April 1944 just using No. 3 and No. 4 loops (see map above). The laying was completed on 18th May 1944 and all loops were in operation on 1st December 1944. Ten months later (10th September 1945) it was decided to raise the Darwin loops.

    LOOP STATION AND OTHER NAVAL STAFF
     
    Personnel PWSS, Xmas 1940. Back: Edward Easton, David ‘Jock’ Cargill, Robert Luxton, Gordon Johnston, (Ernest) John Spicer, Lyall Jarvis, Ken Moir, C. Leopold ‘Percy’ Gledhill, Lt William ‘Happy’ Johnson, Maurice Kirk, Frank Newman, Lennard Mews, Lawrence Gearin, P.O. William Bennetts HSD; Middle: William Mann, R. Smith, Lloyd Hughes HSD, Brian Fitzgerald, Eric McKinna, Thomas Scott, Ivor Tuddenham, Robert Gemmell; Sitting: James Carr, Norman Evans, Sub Lt Charles Nott, Lt Frederick Mackay, Sub Lt Haydon Farr, Norman Lancefield, Graham Colborne; Front: Roy McManus (& Boonga), J. S., T. Smith, Robert Wynne SD (& Bluey). Staff of PWSS, Darwin December 1940. Standing: Roy McManus, Graham Colborne, T. Smith, Norman Lancefield, Jarvis, R. Smith, Thomson, Gordon Johnston, Donald Sharples, Lennard Mews, Frank Newman, E. John Spicer. Squatting: George Lawrie, C. Leopold ‘Percy’Gledhill, Robert Wynne, James Carr, David ‘Jock’ Cargill; Sitting: Robert Luxton, Scott.

    Xmas Party 1940. Alcohol was allowed on shore but not at sea (officer's excepted, and wasn't this unpopular). Beer in 'tallies' (26 oz) cost 1/6 (one shilling and sixpence) in Brisbane but when the Swan Lager was sent from Perth it cost an extra 1/- (one shilling) for freight. One shilling is equivalent to 10 cents. 1/6 in 1940 is worth $5 today (2009). Ratings were paid 6/- per day in 1940 ($20 in 2009 dollars). So a bottle of Swan Lager cost 40% of a day's pay.

    Aboard the N.T Patrol Vessel “Kuru” – on the Poop Deck, October 1939. Back: unnamed NT Patrol Boat crewman, PO Harry ?, unnamed NT Patrol Boat crewman; Seated: Roy Brook, Lt Stanley William Hall (Master), Robert Luxton, two unnamed NT Patrol Boat crewmen.  Kuru was a small motor-boat of just 55 tons, and she later became famous on the "Timor Ferry Service" in early 1942 ferrying refugees, commandos, stores and equipment between Fremantle and the Timor coast - a round trip of more than 6000 kilometres.
     
    Darwin Golf Club 1940. Darwin had a sparse population and the only members of the Golf Club were Commonwealth Government employees. No one else bothered, especially RAN ratings. Arrival of the mail plane, Darwin 1939. The only communication was by a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Flying Boat which came from Brisbane via Cairns and one of the the Gulf  towns of Normanton, Groote Eylandt, or Burketown. Before landing, men from the Civil Aviation Dept would scour the landing site and remove or sink debris such as wood and bottles with a boat hook.

    Rating's Quarters "The Cottage" (EMOH RUO), PWSS, October 1939. The walls were made from woven bamboo leaves - very weak but common in Darwin. Robert Luxton and Roy McManus in Sydney, on a fortnight's leave from Darwin. This was their first leave in 2¼ years. In 7 years they had only 3 leaves.

    Signalman Robert Luxton on top of the Signal Tower. The 20" signal lamp was inside a small shelter on the top and this was a favourite place for mozzies.

    Two signalmen manned the signal lamp and took it in 4 hour watches (4 hours on, 8 hours off) so that it was manned 24 hours per day. PWSS would ring through when a boat was due to arrive. As soon as the mast was seen over the horizon a Morse code challenge would be issued with the light. If the correct code was used in response all would be okay. Codes were changed daily and a list issued to ships at their previous port of call. If a ship was overpowered by the enemy  the code books would be placed in a lead-weighted canvas bag and thrown overboard,
       

    adelaide river war cemetary
    Photos by Peter Glanfiled 8 October 2009
    Petty Officer David John Seaton, RANR, S2055, b Sydney 1915. Served on Adele and Penguin V; died of peritonitis due to war service 24 July 1940. As an aside, David Seaton's father, William Seaton enlisted in the Army for WWI, and was involved in riots in Sydney when Army recruits ran amok in 1915. Several rioters were shot or beaten by MPs or Police (one fatally shot). William was one of those shot by the MP's, but survived. He was discharged from the Army, but was able to re-enlist again in 1916, and served on the Western Front with 20th Battalion. Ernest Joseph Salter RANR, S4075, Cook, b Sydney 1907, served hmas Penguin II, V, Melville, Koala. Accidentally drowned while aboard Koala 27 Dec 1941.

    Robert Henry Stobo, b Sydney 1925, Merchant Navy, Cadet aboard Neptuna. He was killed in Darwin Harbour on 19 Feb 1942 during a Japanese air raid. He was only 16 years old and is the youngest person to be buried here. Bernard Philip Gaffney, RAN, b 1929, Naracoorte, South Australia. Served post-war at HMAS Melville. Accidentally electrocuted 29 Nov 1947.

    REMAINS OF WW2 NAVAL DEFENCES

    Buoys from boom net WW2

    Remains of naval jetty 2009


    If you have any further details of Darwin harbour defences or antisubmarine harbour defences in general (Indicator Loops and Harbour Defence Asdic) that may help with this research project please email me at the address at the top of the page.

    Richard Walding, Brisbane, Australia.