One of the most significant ship-building programmes carried out by Australia during World War II was the construction of sixty "Bathurst" class fleet minesweepers. But there were other ships in the same role from the beginning, requisitioned trawlers and the like, which served well before the "Bathursts" became available in large numbers. All of them, fleet minesweepers and auxilliaries, were put to countless uses beyond the dangerous one of minesweeping. Commonly, this meant survey work, convoy escort or interdiction of Japanese supplies along the northern New Guinea coast.
Bathursts
Auxilliaries
MS Trawlers
Minelayers
HMA Ships Ararat, Armidale, Ballarat, Bathurst, Benalla, Bendigo, Bowen, Broome, Bunbury, Bundaberg, Burnie, Cairns, Castlemaine, Cessnock, Colac, Cootamundra, Cowra, Deloraine, Dubbo, Echuca, Fremantle, Gawler, Geelong, Geraldton, Gladstone, Glenelg, Goulburn, Gympie, Horsham, Inverell, Ipswich, Junee, Kalgoorlie, Kapunda, Katoomba, Kiama, Latrobe, Launceston, Lismore, Lithgow, Maryborough, Mildura, Parkes, Pirie, Rockhampton, Shepparton, Stawell, Strahan, Tamworth, Toowoomba, Townsville, Wagga, Wallaroo, Warrnambool, Whyalla, Wollongong.
Specifications
Dimensions - Length 186 feet o/a, beam 31 feet, draft 8.5 feet. 1,025 tons (full war load). Performance - 15 knots at 1750 hp. Complement - approximately 80. Armament - highly variable. As war progressed the "standard" became 1 single 4 inch gun, 1 40mm Bofors AA gun, two single 20mm Oerlikon guns, and sometimes machine guns, plus up to forty depth charges.
The "Bathursts" were entirely an Australian effort, arguably the most significant Naval effort made by the nation during World War II. Their story began in early 1940 with orders for ten minesweepers from the Royal Navy and seven from the RAN. In some respects they were modeled after the British "Bangor" class minesweepers. They also very closely resembled the British "Flower" Class corvettes. Indeed, they are often referred to as "corvettes" by those who served in them. The resemblance was more than superficial. Like the "Flowers", the "Bathursts" were designed to be built in small shipyards everywhere, taking advantage of existing components. 
Both classes of ship were highly manoeuvrable, but rolled badly in a seaway. Both were uncomfortable to live in and almost (but not quite) too slow for their job. But most importantly both were built in very large numbers, were used extensively and gave magnificent service. Their importance is shown in the way the original order for seventeen was eventually increased to sixty (including four for the Royal Indian Navy).
Bathurst was the first into commission. She began the routine of patrolling and sweeping off Australia’s east coast. She and three others went to the Red Sea in mid 1941, but their weak AA armament kept them out of the Mediterranean.
1942 saw 28 more "Bathursts" join the RAN, the highest yearly total. From then on, the class spread its activities all over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific. It becomes impossible to record all their exploits, so a few highlights will have to suffice. Ballarat, Bendigo, Burnie, Goulburn, Toowoomba and Wollongong made an epic escape from Singapore in February. Deloraine and Katoomba were in Darwin Harbour when the Japanese first bombed it (19th February 1942). They and Lithgow sank the RAN’s first Japanese submarine 60 miles off Darwin on 20th June 1942. 
In November-December, 1942, the interdiction of Japanese supplies along the north coast of New Guinea, (Operation "Lilliput") involved Castlemaine, Colac, Ballarat, Bowen, Broome, and Katoomba on escort and raiding.
During one "Lilliput" operation the first war loss occurred, HMAS Armidale, sunk by torpedo bombers after a furious single-handed fight. The action produced one the RAN's wartime heros, AB "Teddy" Sheean, who gave up his life to continue operating an Oerlikon gun in defence of his shipmates as they abandoned the sinking vessel.
Pirie was the scene in April 1943 of something called a "mutiny". It was in reality a stop-work meeting arising out of plummeting morale caused by poor conditions and some dubious leadership. 
In May 1943, refits having augmented their AA armament, the Bathursts were allowed back into the Mediterranean. Gawler, Ipswich, Lismore, Maryborough, Geraldton, Cessnock, Cairns and Wollongong formed the 21st and 22nd Minesweeping Flotillas for the invasion of Sicily. These flotillas were re-formed, with some of the same ships, at the end of 1944 to extend the minesweeping capabilities of the British Pacific Fleet. They were already in Tokyo Bay when the RAN cruisers and destroyers serving alongside the US Navy steamed in.
This class of ship was also used extensively in survey and hydrographic work. Shepparton and Benalla were both fitted out for these tasks on completion.
In September 1945, the Japanese commander of Kuching, Borneo, surrendered aboard HMAS Kapunda. Apart from Armidale no other "Bathurst" was lost to enemy action, though Wallaroo and Geelong were lost in collisions and Warrnambool was mined in post-war clearing operations. As at 1999, the hull of HMAS Whyalla has been placed on static display outside her home town in South Australia; volunteers have restored HMAS Castlemaine almost to her original condition, and she lies as a floating museum and tribute in Melbourne. You can visit her on-line at this site.
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HMA Ships Allenwood,Bermagui, Coolebar, Coombar, Doomba, Kianga, Koopa, Marrawah, Mirimar, Nambucca, Narami, Orara, Paterson, Tambar, Terka, Tolga, Toorie, Uki, Warrawa.
Between 1939 and 1942, Australia requisitioned scores of ships of various types from civillian use. These auxilliary minesweepers were among them. They varied in size from the tiny Mirimar (just seventy tons), to the very substantial Orara (1,297 tons, armed with a 4-inch gun), though the average was about 450-500 tons. They tended to be elderly; Orara had been built in 1907. Except for Mirimar (1930) and Nambucca (489 tons, completed 1936), none had been built later than 1925. Most of them were coal-burners. Armament tended to be rudimentary and obsolete; Uki (545 tons) and Tambar (456 tons) carried old 12-pounders, Terka (420 tons) just a 2-pounder. Some began their war careers in one service, changing more than once as needs dictated - Mirimar, for example, began as an Examination Ship, was converted to mine-sweping duties and also used as a channel patrol boat as the war progressed.
By 1942 they and the requisitioned trawlers formed eight minesweeping groups based in Australian harbours. As the war went on, the uses to which these ships were put varied greatly. Doomba's career was typical. She was an 800-ton , 230-foot coal-burning minesweeper (ex HMS Wexford) of 1912 construction. An excursion vessel between the wars, she was requisitioned the day after war was declared. A minesweeper off south-eastern Australia until June 1942, she was reclassified as an anti-submarine vessel in which role she served until the war's end. Terka and Tolga (418 tons) eventually became water-carriers, Tambar a boom-defence vessel. Their usefulness must have been high; even the huge US Navy considered it appropriate to take up three of them (Marrawah, (472 tons) Nambucca and Uki) into its own service between 1942 and 1943. They were certainly worked hard; Terka eventually simply sprang a leak and sank in Madang harbour, Nambucca - less than ten years old - was a constructive total loss by December 1945.
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HMA Ships Alfie Cam, Beryl II, Durraween, Goolgwai, Goorangai, Goonambi, Korowa, Mary Cam, Olive Cam, Patricia Cam, Samuel Benbow, Tongkol.
All these vessels were requisitioned in the early months of World War II. Initially they helped to form the minesweeping groups with the Auxilliary Minesweepers. Most of them had, indeed, been something very similar before; Korowa was ex-Royal Navy "Mersey" class, Mary Cam was ex RN "Strath" Class, Olive Cam ex-RN "Castle Class", and Goolgwai and Durraween were ex-RN "TR-19" and "TR-20" respectively. By and large they were as elderly as the Auxilliary Minesweepers, but very much smaller; only Korowa (324 tons) was larger than three hundred tons, the rest averaging about 250 tons. Their common armament, when they had one, seems to have been the elderly 12-pounder; Olive Cam, Goorangai and Korowa are all indicated as having been so armed.
As mine-warfare resources increased and the early mine-threat faded, they were put to other uses. They were as hard-worked as any other RAN ships. Durraween, Goolgwai, and Samuel Benbow were used as minesweepers and escorts until they joined TU 70.5.2. in August 1944, surveying the Torres Strait before returning to mine-sweeping. Mary Cam was also used as boom defence vessel. Their usefulness took them into all kinds of dangers. Go Back to the top of this page
Auxilliary Minelayers and Minefield Tenders.
HMA Ships Bungaree, Gippsland, Uralba.
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Goorangai was lost with all hands in a collision with a member of a convoy she was escorting on 20th November 1940. Patricia Cam was lost in particularly ugly circumstances. She was bombed by a Japanese float-plane and sunk on 22nd January 1943 off Wessel Island; survivors were machine-gunned in the water and a passenger, a missionary, was picked up and later executed. The survivors were eventually rescued by the raider Kuru.
Bungaree was a 3,155 ton ship completed in 1937 and taken up for service as a minelayer in October 1940. She could carry 423 mines. Gippsland (139 tons) and Uralba (586 tons) were both coal-burning trawlers taken up for service in June 1942 and July 1943 respectively. Both had varied careers. Gippsland had been built in 1908, and worked as a navigational training ship, minefield tender and, later, a boom defence vessel before paying off in May 1944. Uralba was almost brand new when requisitioned; she was a minefield tender first, then became a boom defence ship and a stores carrier until the end of the war.