About This Unit
HMAS Parramatta was a “River” Class torpedo boat destroyed built for the Royal Australian Navy by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland. She was commissioned on 10 September 1910 as a Royal Navy ship for the voyage to Australia where she was handed over to the Australian Government on 15 December 1910.
Four years later, Parramatta, along with the destroyers Warrego (I) and Yarra (I), made up the destroyer component of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary force tasked with capturing German New Guinea at the outbreak of World War I. After her return to Australia, the Parramatta was occupied by patrolling the route south from Cairns to Sydney where she underwent refitting.
The three destroyers spent six months patrolling the waters of Malaya, the East Indies, and the Philippines before the Parramatta resumed her patrol of Australian waters. From May 1917, the three sister destroyers, the Parramatta, Warrego and Yarra, were joined by Swan, Huon and Torrens, completing an Australian flotilla. Based on Brindisi, Italy, the role of the flotilla was to prevent submarines from passing through the Adriatic Narrows.
After refitting and more patrolling, Parramatta’s wartime service concluded with the carrying of despatches and mail between Sebastopol and Constantinople. [1]
[1] Royal Australian Navy, “HMAS Parramatta (I),” http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-parramatta-i (www.navy.gov.au)
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