A Hidden Tragedy

The untold story of Australia’s first Royal Navy wartime loss — revealed in full for the first time. Many Australians know about the bombing of Darwin, the Sydney Harbour submarine attack, or the loss of HMAS Sydney. But few have heard the story of HMAS Goorangai — a minor warship sunk in a peacetime-like tragedy just kilometres from Melbourne in 1940. This book tells the true, fully researched account of the fatal collision between HMAS Goorangai and the larger MV Duntroon in Port Phillip Bay, where 24 sailors lost their lives — an entire ship’s company, gone. At the time, the Goorangai was returning from a hazardous minesweeping operation in the Bass Strait. Previous accounts of this event have been distorted by poor research or vested interests. Drawing on newly declassified government records and written by a naval insider, HMAS Goorangai – The Whole Story reveals how the master of the Duntroon avoided all charges and why one sailor remains unidentified to this day. It’s a story of negligence, bureaucracy, grief, and forgotten service — a compelling account that finally gives voice to the families left behind. Written in accessible language and grounded in military and maritime history, the book is both an investigation and a tribute, bringing overdue clarity to a largely forgotten local tragedy.