The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (PM2642) Ordinary Seaman Austin Carter, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (PM2642) Ordinary Seaman Austin Carter, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War.

PM2642 Ordinary Seaman Austin Carter, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Ordinary Seaman Austin Carter of the Royal Australian Navy.

Austin Carter was born in London in 1908, the son of Frederick and Emily Carter. He came to Australia in 1926 aged 17, and is thought to have settled in the Williamstown area, Victoria. Very little is known of his time in Australia except that he was a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he reported for active service in November 1939.

Carter was eventually posted to HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping.

In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession in Bass Strait to German mine-laying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mines. Following that operation it returned to Queenscliff, but a rising storm sent the ship to the safer harbour of Portsea.

As the Goorangai passed in darkness through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in half. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: “In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge the Goorangai had disappeared.

There was not a sound but the crash of water.” In that moment in between, some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness, and lifeboats deployed immediately, but despite a long search no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. Austin Carter’s was the first body to be found. The remaining 19 were never recovered, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

For the next ten years the Hunt family posted a notice in the Williamstown Chronicle in memory of their “dear friend Aussie”. Although much of Austin Carter’s story is lost to history, their treasured memories of him were “ever remembered”.

The names of Carter and all of the crew of HMAS Goorangai are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Ordinary Seaman Austin Carter, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section