Desk set made from deck of HMAS Sydney (I) : Hodgson family, Heidelberg

Rectangular wooden base with a curved front and an upper platform. The lower section of the desk set incorporates an elongated hollow for pen storage, inset with a pair of chromed brass pen supports. The front of the arched face and the upper surface of the platform are inset with brass strips. The upper platform has two square sections mortised to a depth of 6 mm to accomodate a pair of cut crystal inwells, each with a separate lid and a starburst pattern in the base. A small silver and blue enamel plate is affixed to the upper centre of the set which states: 'Wood from HMAS Sydney'. The base is lined with brown felt.

Desk set won at a raffle in Heidelberg, Victoria by members of the Hodgson family. The wooden base was made from salvaged teak wood taken from the deck of HMAS Sydney (I) after it was broken up for scrap at Garden Island in 1929.

While large sections of the hull were set up as memorials (the bow is as Milson's point and the stern at the Australian War Memorial), the decking was salvaged and fashioned into items suitable for sale. Desk sets and similar objects made from the deck of the HMAS Sydney were being sold through the Australian War Memorial's shop from the late 1920s through to the early 1980s.

This desk set is of a higher quality than those usually encountered, incorporating a pair of cut crystal inkwells. This set was offered at a raffle in 1942 to raise funds for the families of the crew of the second HMAS Sydney, which was sunk by the German raider HSK Kormoran, with the loss of all hands, off the coast of Geraldton, WA on 19 November 1941.