Subject

Pliers and Hammer

Text

n/a

Inscription

Plaque: Pray for those who gave their lives in H.M.A.S. Colac damaged 26/5/45 Erected by Miss Murray

Description & History

The Chapel of Our Lady Star of the Sea was designed by PJ O'Connor and Brophy and built by WA Medbury as a memorial to 'those men of the Royal Australian Navy who gave their lives in World War I and II'. The Foundation stone was blessed the Melbourne's Archbishop, the Most Rev. D. Mannix DD, LLD, on 6 October 1946. The builder ordered windows from Brooks, Robinson & Co. in March 1948, most to be made of 'amber quarries with a green outside border and a ruby inner border' with emblems inset, as was the case for this group in the north nave that each measured approximately 63 x 19 inches.

HMAS Colac, an Australian-built Minesweeper, was commissioned in Sydney on 6 January 1942. Her assignments included anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort duties along the northern east coast of Australia and New Guinea, taking part in Operation Lilliput in the Buna-Gona area and then escort duty in Australian waters again in March 1943. While taking part in operations to prevent Japanese troops from evacuating Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, HMAS Colac was hit by enemy shore batteries on Choiseul Island. Two men were killed in the action - Steward Brian Milton Percival Shute and Able Seaman Stanley Risien Smith - and two others wounded. The end of the Second World War came on 15 August 1945, while Colac was still under repair in Sydney.

References & Acknowledgements

AWM Roll of Honour; http://www.navy.gov.au/