100th anniversary of the Albany Convoy - Saturday 1 November 2014

30 October 2014

On 1 November 1914, 36 transport ships carrying the first contingents of the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force sailed out from King George Sound in Albany, Western Australia. The transport vessels were guarded by HMS Minotaur, the armoured cruisers HMAS Melbourne, and HMAS Sydney, both Chatham-class light cruisers. The convoy was joined two days later by two more transport ships that had sailed from Fremantle, and their escort HIJMS Ibuki, a Japanese battlecruiser.

The convoy was one of the great logistic feats performed by the governments of Australia and New Zealand. By 31 October 38 Australian troopships (two of which were left behind with mechanical issues) were in harbour at Albany; another two had already travelled to Fremantle and would depart from there. Ten transports from New Zealand had also arrived at Albany. The Australian ships carried 20,000 men and women and the New Zealand ships carried 8,500; both countries also transported horses and equipment.

Aboard these transport ships was a veritable “who’s who” of the AIF and NZEF: a future governor-general, numerous future brigade and battalion commanders, and many who would go on to win high honour for themselves and their nations. For some, Albany would be their last sight of the land they called home.

On the convoy’s initial leg to Colombo the RAN had its first victory when Sydney engaged and destroyed the German raider Emden in battle off the Cocos–Keeling Islands. Weather conditions in England precluded the Australians and New Zealanders from arriving there, and it was decided to instead base them in Egypt. On 3 December troops began disembarking in Alexandria, bringing the first convoy to an end.

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Accession Number: C01691

Two Australian troopships waiting off Albany, Western Australia, to sail with the first Australian convoy on 1 November 1914.

Accession Number: G01543

Albany, WA. c. 30 October 1914. The meeting of the transports. Transports coaling and watering in the inner harbour. The escort met us (HMT Orvieto) here. HMS Minotaur and HMAS Melbourne can be seen opposite the pier.

Accession Number: G01548

Albany, WA. 1 November 1914. The first Australian Convoy conveying the first Australian contingent to the Middle East. The convoy, escorted by HMAS Sydney, HMAS Melbourne, and the Japanese ship HIJMS Ibuki, is sailing in three parallel lines shortly after its departure from Albany.

Accession Number: P00252.002

The first troopships carrying Australian and New Zealand soldiers, horses and supplies to the Great War, leaving Albany on 1 November 1914. This photograph was taken by 607 Private William H Fell, AIF, who died of wounds on 4 May 1918. Fell's negatives, taken throughout the war, were forwarded to the Sydney photographer Harold Cazneaux, for whom Fell had been a studio assistant before the war. Cazneaux printed Fell's negatives.