HMAS Hawkesbury (K363/F363) was a River class frigate

River class frigate

The River class frigate was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic....

 of the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN). Hawkesbury saw action during World War II. She entered service with the RAN in mid-1944 and was decommissioned in 1955.

Construction

Hawkesbury was laid down by Mort's Dock & Engineering Company

Mort's Dock

Mort's Dock is a former dry dock, slipway, and shipyard in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. It was the first dry dock in Australia, opening for business in 1855 and closing more than a century later in 1959.-Sydney's first dry dock:...

 in Sydney on 24 August 1942. She was launched on 24 July 1943, and commissioned into the RAN in Sydney on 5 July 1944.

World War II

After conducting trials off the Australian east coast she proceeded to New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 to undertake convoy escort duties. She escorted convoys in the South West Pacific Area

South West Pacific Area

South West Pacific Area was the name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific theatres of World War II, during 1942–45...

 until December when she returned to Brisbane.

Hawkesbury began her second operational deployment in January 1945, and conducted escort duties in New Guinea and Philippine waters until mid-April. On 27 April, she formed part of the escort for the convoy which landed Australian troops

Battle of Tarakan (1945)

The Battle of Tarakan was the first stage in the Borneo campaign of 1945. It began with an amphibious landing by Australian forces on 1 May, code-named Operation Oboe One...

 at Tarakan

Tarakan Island

Tarakan is an island off the coast of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is a marshy island situated in the eastern Celebes Sea, off the northeastern coast of Borneo. The island occupies an area of .-Petroleum:...

 on 1 May. Hawkesbury provided fire support

Naval gunfire support

Naval gunfire support is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of a number of disciplines encompassed by the term Naval Fires...

 for the landing force until 7 May. After another period of escort duties, Hawkesbury took part in in the Australian Brunei Bay landings in Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 in June. In July she spent a period collecting intelligence in the Maluku Islands

Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...

 and established lighthouses with HMAS Cape Leeuwin

HMAS Cape Leeuwin

HMAS Cape Leeuwin was a lighthouse tender which was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy between mid-1943 and the end of 1945.-Operational history:...

 to open a route between Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 and Morotai

Morotai

Morotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...

. She returned to Sydney in July for a short refit.

The frigate received three battle honour

Battle honour

A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags , uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible....

s for her wartime service: "Pacific 1944–45", "New Guinea 1944", and "Borneo 1945".

Post-war

Following the surrender of Japan

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...

, Hawkesbury escorted the repatriation transport Duntroon to Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 in August. After escorting the transport to Darwin she took part in the Japanese surrender ceremony at Koepang, Timor

Timor

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...

 on 3 October. Hawkesbury operated in the eastern Netherlands East Indies until mid-November when she returned to Sydney. She received a four month refit at Melbourne and operated off the Australian east coast until 31 May 1947, when she paid off to reserve.

After five years in reserve, Hawkesbury was recommissioned on 14 May 1952. From late July she conducted operations in support of the British atomic bomb test

Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon between the Montebello Islands, Western Australia....

 in the Montebello Islands

Montebello Islands

The Montebello Islands, also known as the Monte Bello Islands, are an archipelago of around 174 small islands lying north of Barrow Island and off the Pilbara coast of north-western Australia. Montebello is Italian for "beautiful mountain"...

 off Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. She returned to Sydney in January 1953. For the next two years she undertook routine patrols and training exercises off the Australian and New Guinean coasts, completing two patrols of Australian waters in the South-West Pacific area.

Fate

HMAS Hawkesbury paid off to reserve for a second time on 14 February 1955. She was declared for disposal in early 1961 without having been recommissioned, and was sold for scrapping in September 1961.