HMQS Gayundah
Encyclopedia
HMQS Gayundah was a flat-iron gunboat
Flat-iron gunboat
Flat-iron gunboats were a number of classes of coastal gunboats generally characterised by small size, low freeboard and the absence of masts.Some Rendel-type gunboats were fitted with masts ; they are included in the article for...
operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and later 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...
(as HMAS Gayundah). She entered service in 1884 and was decommissioned and sold in 1921. She then served as sand and gravel barge for Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd until 1950, when she was scrapped. In 1958, Gayundah was run aground at Woody Point
Woody Point, Queensland
Woody Point is a residential suburb of the Moreton Bay Region at the south-east of the Redcliffe peninsula, approximately north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It was formerly a banana plantation.-Attractions and features:...
at Redcliffe
Redcliffe
Redcliffe City is a municipal location north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. Also known as "the Redcliffe peninsula", the area covers the suburbs of Clontarf, Kippa-Ring, Margate, Newport, Redcliffe, Rothwell, Scarborough and Woody Point.Redcliffe is home...
, to serve as a breakwater structure
Breakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
.
Construction
Gayundah was a sister ship of HMQS PalumaHMQS Paluma
HMQS Paluma was a flat-iron gunboat operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and later the Royal Australian Navy...
. This class was built to a type B1 flat-iron gunboat
Flat-iron gunboat
Flat-iron gunboats were a number of classes of coastal gunboats generally characterised by small size, low freeboard and the absence of masts.Some Rendel-type gunboats were fitted with masts ; they are included in the article for...
design from builders Sir W.G. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co
Armstrong Whitworth
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...
. The very similar HMVS Albert
HMVS Albert
HMVS Albert was a gunboat of the Victorian Naval Forces which was requisitioned for service with the Royal Australian Navy during World War I.-Operational history:HMVS Albert was built by Armstrong, Mitchell and Co. of Elswick, United Kingdom...
was also built in 1884 and served with the colony of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
.
HMQS Gayundah was launched at Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
on 13 May 1884 and commissioned in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during October. The ship sailed for Australia in November 1984 under the command of Captain Henry Townley Wright, arriving in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
on 28 March 1885.
Operational history
During the first years of the gunboat's operation, Captain Wright (who was also the head of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force) found that his expenses exceeded his salary, and turned to appropriating government stores and alcohol for his own use. This, along with his conduct and attitude towards running the colony's navy prompted the Queensland government to seek his removal in late 1887, although plans to immediately dismiss him were cancelled and Wright was to be kept on until his appointment concluded at the end of 1888, with the proviso that he had not authority to acquire stores for Gayundah. In September 1888, Wright sought leave of absence until the end of the year and the payment of remaining salary as a lump sum: the former was agreed to, but Wright's pay would continue to occur monthly, and he was ordered to turn Gayundah over to his second in command, Lieutenant F. P. Taylor. In response, Wright threatened to report what he saw as an insult to his position to the AdmiraltyAdmiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
, and had the gunboat loaded with coal and stores. On 24 October, the Under Colonial Secretary instructed Taylor to take command of the ship. Wright interpreted Taylor's actions as a mutiny, had him arrested, wrote several letters of protest to his superiors and others, ordered Gayundahs aft 6-inch gun to be aimed at the Queensland Parliament, and threatened to take the gunboat to sea if further challenges to his authority were made. The colonial government dismissed him from his roles within the Maritime Defence Force, and a party of Queensland police boarded the ship with the intention to remove Wright by force if necessary. After failing to order them off his ship, Wright composed another letter of protest, released Taylor, and allowed himself to be escorted ashore by the police.
Over the next few years, Gayundah served as a training ship, and conducted the first ship to shore radio transmissions in Australia. However, with the depression of the 1890s, Gayundah was assigned to reserve duties in 1892, being reactivated yearly for Easter training.
Following the Federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
, Gayundah and sister ship HMQS Paluma
HMQS Paluma
HMQS Paluma was a flat-iron gunboat operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and later the Royal Australian Navy...
joined the Commonwealth Naval Forces in 1901. On 9 April 1903, the Gayundah transmitted the first wireless message received from a ship at sea to an Australian wireless station. The historic message sent to the receiving station in Brisbane read: "Gun drill continued this afternoon and was fairly successful - blowing squally and raining - prize firing tomorrow. Marconi insulators were interfered with by rain but easily rectified and communication since has been good. Good night." The ship's aerial was a tall bamboo pole lashed to the mast.
In March 1911, the Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy, with Gayundah redesignated HMAS (His Majesty's Australian Ship). From 22 April to 25 August 1911, at the instigation of the Departments of External Affairs and Trade & Customs, Gayundah sailed under the command of Commander G.A.H. Curtis from Brisbane to Broome, Western Australia
Broome, Western Australia
Broome is a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The year round population is approximately 14,436, growing to more than 45,000 per month during the tourist season...
to enforce Australia's territorial boundary and fishing zone along the north-west coast of the continent. At Scott Reef
Scott and Seringapatam Reefs
Scott and Seringapatam Reefs is a group of atoll-like reefs in the Timor Sea more than 300 km northwest of Cape Leveque, Western Australia, on the edge of the continental shelf. There are three or four separate reef structures, depending on whether Scott Reef Central is counted separately...
, on 25 May, Gayundah boarded and detained two Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
s with illegal catches of trepang
Trepang
Trepang may refer to:*trepang, a marine invertebrate harvested by trepanging, thus:**a common name for species of the holothuroidea class of animals*Trepang , a World War II submarine sunk in 1967....
(sea cucumber) and trochus
Trochus
Trochus is a genus of medium-sized to very large sea snails. They are marine gastropod molluscs in the family Trochidae, the top snails....
shell (trochus niloticus), escorted them into Broome on 29 May, then remained at Broome until mid-July so the officers could appear as witnesses in the resulting court case against the masters of the schooners. For this cruise, the 6-inch bow gun was removed to provide greater bunkering for coal and thereby increase the ship's range.
Gayundah was extensively refitted in early 1914. With the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Gayundah was assigned to coastal patrols of Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...
and the east coast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Decommissioning and fate
In 1921, she was sold to Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd and returned to Queensland, where she was employed as a sand and gravel barge on the Brisbane RiverBrisbane River
The Brisbane River is the longest river in south east Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay. John Oxley was the first European to explore the river who named it after the Governor of New South Wales, Thomas Brisbane in 1823...
. She sank at her moorings at Melton Reach in October 1930 but was soon raised and back at work. Early in 1958 she was towed to Bulimba Wharf in Brisbane and stripped with the hull then sold to the Redcliffe Town Council.
On 2 June 1958, after seventy-four years afloat, Gayundah was beached as a breakwater
Breakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
off the Woody Point
Woody Point, Queensland
Woody Point is a residential suburb of the Moreton Bay Region at the south-east of the Redcliffe peninsula, approximately north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It was formerly a banana plantation.-Attractions and features:...
cliffs on the Redcliffe
Redcliffe
Redcliffe City is a municipal location north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. Also known as "the Redcliffe peninsula", the area covers the suburbs of Clontarf, Kippa-Ring, Margate, Newport, Redcliffe, Rothwell, Scarborough and Woody Point.Redcliffe is home...
Peninsula just north of Brisbane. Her remains are still visible today.
See also
- Colonial navies of Australia - Queensland
- List of Queensland Maritime Defence Force ships