Kookaburra2011
Ca. 1920s: A ferry that went to war: S.S./HMAS KOOPA at Redcliffe in her heyday - St Paul's School, Bald Hills Qld.
5821. Built by Ramage and Ferguson and Co of Leith Scotland in 1911, the 416 grt coal-fired ferry KOOPA [local aboriginal dialect for 'Flying Fish'] appears to have been one of those vessels that was a part of everyone's growing up in Brisbane in the years beforre WWII, making day trips to Redcliffe and Bribie Island in Moreton Bay, and conducting 'showboat' cruises every Sunday evening.
After WWI she was put to more serious use. As the St Paul's School publication 'Paulipedia' [see preceding entry] tells us, with the worldwide outbreak of Spanish Influenza in 1919, KOOPA was used to ferry thousands of soldiers returning from the Europe up the Brisbane River from the quaranrtine station at Lytton, where they were initially detained.
During world war II KOOPA was requisitioned on Aug.10, 1942 and commissioned into the RAN on Sept 14 that year. Her role was the cause of much speculation in Brisbane, apparently. John Bastock's book, 'Australia's Ships of War' states that she was used as a training ship for combined operations, then as a Fairmile launch tender in New Guinea, and a stores carrier. As there was little coal in New Guinea, however, she had to be towed about for most of her time there. In July 1944 the tugboat HMAS WATO - much featured on this Photostream - towed her to a new Fairmile base at Mios Wundi off Biak for operations there. Towards the end of the Pacific War HMAS KOOPA she was was handed over to the Royal Navy in Brisbane on July 26, 1945 [perhaps for use as a temporary accomodation vessel for British Pacific Fleet personnel], but was returned to the RAN two months later.
Claudette Cunningham's local Brisbane account of KOOPA's war service in 'Paulipedia' is as follows:" In 1942, during World War II, the KOOPA was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy and underwent extensive alterations. Fitted with two Oerlikon guns, four .303 machine guns, extra radio rigging, steel boat-launching gear on both sides and a new grey uniform, the HMAS KOOPA sailed into a storm of speculation from the locals. Stories and poems abounded regarding her new 'secret' life in the Navy. Later in the war she saw service in New Guinea as a supply ship but as she was a coal burner and there was no coal in New Guinea, she had to be towed wherever she went. Towards the end of the war she was towed back to Brisbane, restored to her former glory and resumed the job she was born for – carrying happy, excited day-trippers to Redcliffe and Bribie Island. '
Indeed. KOOPA was returned to the Brisbane Tug and Steamship Co. Ltd in January 1946. In some ways her story runs parallel to that other former Brisbane day excursion ferry SS DOOMBA, whose RAN service we have again much featured on the Photostream,
Photo: from the online edition of 'Paulipedia,' written and edited by archivist Claudette Cunningham, St Paul's Anglican School for Boys, Bald Hills, Queensland.
Ca. 1920s: A ferry that went to war: S.S./HMAS KOOPA at Redcliffe in her heyday - St Paul's School, Bald Hills Qld.
5821. Built by Ramage and Ferguson and Co of Leith Scotland in 1911, the 416 grt coal-fired ferry KOOPA [local aboriginal dialect for 'Flying Fish'] appears to have been one of those vessels that was a part of everyone's growing up in Brisbane in the years beforre WWII, making day trips to Redcliffe and Bribie Island in Moreton Bay, and conducting 'showboat' cruises every Sunday evening.
After WWI she was put to more serious use. As the St Paul's School publication 'Paulipedia' [see preceding entry] tells us, with the worldwide outbreak of Spanish Influenza in 1919, KOOPA was used to ferry thousands of soldiers returning from the Europe up the Brisbane River from the quaranrtine station at Lytton, where they were initially detained.
During world war II KOOPA was requisitioned on Aug.10, 1942 and commissioned into the RAN on Sept 14 that year. Her role was the cause of much speculation in Brisbane, apparently. John Bastock's book, 'Australia's Ships of War' states that she was used as a training ship for combined operations, then as a Fairmile launch tender in New Guinea, and a stores carrier. As there was little coal in New Guinea, however, she had to be towed about for most of her time there. In July 1944 the tugboat HMAS WATO - much featured on this Photostream - towed her to a new Fairmile base at Mios Wundi off Biak for operations there. Towards the end of the Pacific War HMAS KOOPA she was was handed over to the Royal Navy in Brisbane on July 26, 1945 [perhaps for use as a temporary accomodation vessel for British Pacific Fleet personnel], but was returned to the RAN two months later.
Claudette Cunningham's local Brisbane account of KOOPA's war service in 'Paulipedia' is as follows:" In 1942, during World War II, the KOOPA was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy and underwent extensive alterations. Fitted with two Oerlikon guns, four .303 machine guns, extra radio rigging, steel boat-launching gear on both sides and a new grey uniform, the HMAS KOOPA sailed into a storm of speculation from the locals. Stories and poems abounded regarding her new 'secret' life in the Navy. Later in the war she saw service in New Guinea as a supply ship but as she was a coal burner and there was no coal in New Guinea, she had to be towed wherever she went. Towards the end of the war she was towed back to Brisbane, restored to her former glory and resumed the job she was born for – carrying happy, excited day-trippers to Redcliffe and Bribie Island. '
Indeed. KOOPA was returned to the Brisbane Tug and Steamship Co. Ltd in January 1946. In some ways her story runs parallel to that other former Brisbane day excursion ferry SS DOOMBA, whose RAN service we have again much featured on the Photostream,
Photo: from the online edition of 'Paulipedia,' written and edited by archivist Claudette Cunningham, St Paul's Anglican School for Boys, Bald Hills, Queensland.