Bonzle Collections - Construction

Wreck of HMAS Parramatta, Hawkesbury River

contributed by Booshman, taken on 21 September 1991
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The wreck has been treated for many years as a garbage scow. River residents whose only access is by boat, favour the wreck as a dumping ground for all their scrap metal. This is a rather sad end for one of Australia's first warships. The HMAS Parramatta was 70 meters (245ft) long, weighed 700 tonnes and was capable of 29 knots - quite a speed. She was regarded as a destroyer armed with just one four inch gun and three torpedo tubes. Built in Glasgow in 1910, she served in New Guinea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea during World War 1 and ended her service career in 1928. In 1930, together with HMAS Swan, she was towed from Sydney to Cowan Creek to provide accommodation for prisoners who were to construct a road to Appletree Bay but the plan never eventuated. After being sold in 1933, both ships were used as carriers for construction material from Brooklyn to Milson and Peat Islands. The Swan sank in 1934 and in 1935 a wild storm caused the Parramatta to break free of her mooring and she ran aground under the towering cliffs of Cascade Gully. For several years she provided shelter for unemployed men and was used to store water from a nearby water fall for the use of the river residents.