| Historical Specifics: |
The Chatham class were ordered under the 1911 Programme and commissioned between 1912-1916. Three ships, HMAS Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, were built to the same design for the new Royal Australian Navy, where they were known as the Sydney class. Each ship had amongst its armament eight 6 inch guns in single turrets. The MELBOURNE served on the North America and West Indies Stations from 1914 to 1916 before joining the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, where she remained for the remainder of the war.
The three ships were laid up between 1928 and 1936 and the guns placed in store at the Army Ordnance Store. During World War II batteries consisting of two 6 inch Mark XI guns were established at Darwin (East, Waugite and Emery Point), Brisbane (Cowan and Bribie), Sydney (Signal Hill and Malabar), Port Kembla (Illowra and Breakwater), Rottnest Island Fremantle (Bickley), Port Moresby New Guinea (Paga) and Torres Strait (Goods).
This gun was emplaced at Cowan during the war and manned by members of 122nd Heavy Battery. About 1947 the battery was dismantled. With the introduction of national Service in the 1950s No 2327 was mounted at Cowan Cowan as a training battery. It was abandoned when the coastal artillery units were disbanded in the late 1950s. It was subjected to vandalism over the years before being removed to the Queensland Maritime Museum in 1985. In 2001 it was exchanged for a QF 4 inch HA gun. |
