HMAS Diamantina Souvenir Pennant

Built at Walker’s Yard in Maryborough Queensland, the River Class Frigate HMAS Diamantina (I) (K377) was commissioned on 27 April 1945. The ship was a naval escort tasked with anti-submarine warfare. In late June 1945 Diamantina left Cairns for Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. The ship was involved in 4 bombardments off Schona Island in the Solomon Islands and is attributed with having fired the last salvo by a Royal Australian Navy vessel in the Second World War.
With the war ending on 15 August 1945 the ship sailed on 8 September 1945 with members of the Japanese High Command on board to the surrender of Torokina. The surrender of Naura followed on 13 September and Ocean Islands on 1 October, taking place on the quarterdeck of the ship.
Diamantina was paid off in 1946, being the last Second World War Frigate to leave Royal Australian Navy service but was recommissioned in 1959 as a Survey and Oceanographic ship and discovered the deepest trench in the Indian Ocean, the Diamantina Trench off Fremantle, Western Australia. In 1963 she was the escort for the Royal Yacht Britannia during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Australia.
After being paid off again in February 1980 the ship was donated to the Queensland Maritime Museum and sailed to the ‘Graving Dock’ located next to the museum. Here she was restored to a wartime configuration with original armaments. Diamantina is the largest surviving Second World War vessel in Australia.