One of 151 River-class frigates built for 19 navies (including eight for the Royal Australian Navy) between 1941 and 1944, HMAS Diamantina was built by Walkers Ltd in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia and launched on 6 April 1944. Named after the Diamantina River in Queensland, the ship was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 27 April 1945 and served until 9 August 1946. HMAS Diamantina's Second World War service included shore bombardment mission in support of Australian troops participating in the Bougainville Campaign in the Soloman Islands, activities which earned for Diamantina the battle honour 'Pacific 1945'. During her wartime service, Diamantina carried a crew of 146 officers and men. A plaque on the quarterdeck marks the location where Brigadier J.R. Stevenson took the surrender of Japanese forces on Nauru on 13 September 1945 and Ocean Island on 1 October 1945. Placed in reserve, the ship was refitted as an oceanographic survey vessel and recommissioned on 22 June 1959, operating out of Fremantle, Western Australia until being decommissioned for the last time on 29 February 1980. Diamantina was subsequently transferred to the Queensland Maritime Museum for display. She is the only River-class frigate preserved as a museum ship and today rests in a cradle in the historic South Brisbane Dry Dock.
Below: A deck plan of the Royal Australian Navy River-class frigate HMAS Diamantina, from the Queensland Maritime Museum visitor brochure.
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| A stern view of HMAS Diamantina in the South Brisbane Dry Dock, now the largest vessel in the collection of the Queensland Maritime Museum. |
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| Visitors board HMAS Diamantina via gangways onto the quarterdeck from either side of the dry dock. |
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| A closer look at the starboard side of HMAS Diamantina. |
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| The wood-and-brass nameplate for HMAS Diamantina. |
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| Looking forward along the forecastle deck of HMAS Diamantina. |
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| HMAS Diamantina's open compass platform, protected now by a canvass awning. The Captain's chair is located forward, with the wood and brass binnacle at the centre. A small door to the right of the Captain's chair leads into the asdic (sonar) office, located just off the compass platform and from which sonar contacts would be shouted to the deck officers. |
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| One of three 40mm Bofors cannons, this one located on the starboard quarterdeck. |
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| The wheelhouse, from where the ship was steered via commands shouted through voice pipes from the compass platform above. |
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| The Navigating Officer's cabin and chart room. |
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| The Wireless Office. |
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| Banks of heavy radio gear in the wireless office, the ship's communications hub. |
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| The small but comfortable sleeping accommodation in the Captain's cabin. |
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| The Captain's dining table in his cabin. This cabin was the Captain's living quarters, whereas his much smaller 'sea cabin', located adjacent to the wheel house was used as an office and for brief naps if required to be close to the bridge for long periods of time. The Captain dined in his cabin alone, attended by his steward, though he could invite officers to dine with him on occasion. |
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| The First Lieutenant's cabin. |
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| A typical cabin for the ship's junior officers, comprising two bunks and a wash basin. |
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| Looking down a hatchway to the deck below. |
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| A view down one of the ship's passages, showing the watertight doors between sections. |
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| Another view of one of the passageways aboard HMAS Diamantina. |
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| The wardroom, located amidships on the upper deck. The wardroom served as a dining room and recreation space for the ship's officers (though not the Captain, who required an invitation from the First Lieutenant to enter the wardroom). Diamantina's wardroom features a curved bar, a dining table, and settees, and is decorated with ship crest plaques and framed photos of naval ships and the monarch. |
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| The dining table in Diamantina's wardroom. |
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| Comfortable settees provide officers with a place to relax, converse, enjoy a drink, or read. |
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| The ship's sick bay. |
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| A bank of shower stalls and sinks for the crew. |
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| The engine room, where the ship's two triple expansion steam engines produced 5,500 horsepower, driving twin screws. HMAS Diamantina had a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h). |
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| Looking down into the bowels of the engine room from the catwalk above. |
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| HMAS Diamantina's Sperry-built gyro compass, located low in the hull. The gyro compass is a highly accurate mechanical compass that always points to true north, irrespective of magnetic interference. A sign explains the gyroscopic principle at work: 'If a vertical disc is spun at a high stable speed, it will resist turning movement from side to side. That is, it will have a tendency to stay pointing in the one direction. If the disc is mounted on a mounting so that it can rotate from side to side, then as the mounting moves, the disc will keep pointing in the same direction. In a gyro compass, as the ship turns, the gyro compass points in the same direction, true north. Inside the compass, sensors determine the angle between the ship's head and the disc inside the compass, giving the ship's bearing. Electrical signals are then fed to gyro repeaters around the ship, causing the card in the repeater to rotate to give the ship's heading.' |
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| One of the seamen's messes, displayed as it would have looked during the ship's wartime service in 1945-46. Up to fifty men slept here in hammocks slung from the deck head and ate at tables underneath. Each sailor was issued with a hammock and a small locker to stow his personal items. In the post-war period, the hammocks were replaced by bunk beds. |
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| The ship's galley, where meals for the ship's 140+ personnel were prepared. |
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| A view of HMAS Diamantina's hull, rudder, and screws from the bottom of the South Brisbane Dry Dock. |
HMAS Diamantina - Specifications
Displacement: 1,440 tons
Length (overall): 91.8 metres (301 feet 3 inches)
Beam: 11.1 metres (36 feet 6 inches)
Draught: 2.7 metres (9 feet)
Propulsion: 2 x Admiralty three-drum boilers; reciprocating vertical triple-expansion engines; two shafts
Speed: 20 knots (37 km/h)
Fuel capacity: 510 tons oil fuel
Range: 5,180 nautical miles (9,590 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Armament: 2 x Quick Firing 4-inch Mk XVI guns on single high angle/low angle mounts; 8 x Quick Firing 20mm single mount Oerlikon guns (succeeded by 3 x Quick Firing 40mm single mount Bofors guns and 4 x QF 20mm twin mount Oerlikon guns); 1 x Hedgehog 24-spigot anti-submarine mortar; up to 50 depth charges
Complement: 146 officers and men
