HMT Duntroon

Members of the 2nd Australian Prisoner of War Reception Group disembark from the MV Duntroon in Singapore, 13 September 1945. (AWM 117237)
History
Name	HMT Duntroon
Builder/Built	1939 Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend-on-Tyne
Type	Passenger ship
Displacement	10,346 tons
Speed	19 knots

Remarks

Built for the Melbourne Steamship Company with a capacity of 373 passengers, and used on the east coast-Fremantle route. She saw military service between 1942 and 1949. Originally intended as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, she was found to be unsuitable for this role and was returned to her owners. In November 1940 the Duntroon collided with and sank the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Goorangi near the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. All 24 crew of the Goorangi perished.

In February 1942 she was requisitioned for use as a troopship, and was used amongst other things to transport Australian troops home from the Middle East before commencing duties in the south Pacific. In November 1943 she was involved in a second sinking when she sank the destroyer, USS Perkins with the loss of 9 Americans near Ipoteto Island off the coast of New Guinea. Both sinkings were investigated and the Duntroon was found not to be responsible for either of them.

Her army duty complete in 1946 she was turned over to the RAN for transport duties with the Occupying Force in Japan. Returned to her civilian owners in 1950, and in 1961 sold to Kie Hock Shipping Company. Renamed Tong Hoo she was used on the Hong Kong-Indonesia passenger service. Sold again in 1966 to Africa Shipping Company, and renamed Lydia before being laid up in Singapore in 1967 and sailed to Taiwan for scrapping in 1973.

Soldiers carried

Fremantle to Adelaide 21 - 25 Jul 1941

2/4th Machine Gun Battalion

• James William Basell
• Basil Fitzgerald
• Ralph Godfrey
• † Edgar Joseph Howard
• † Herbert Michael (Bert) Rubery
• Harold Edward (Tony) Saw

Fremantle to Melbourne 31 Oct - early Nov 1941

• Edward Charles Vickers

Colombo, Ceylon to Melbourne 25 March - 15 May 1942

• Charles William (Charlie) Divall

Milne Bay to Brisbane 2 - 6 Jan 1942

• George Charles Owens

Townsville to Port Moresby 8 - 11 May 1943

• Harold Herman Hilbert

Townsville to Port Moresby 16 - 20 June 1943

• Frederick Arnold Griffiths

Townsville to Port Moresby 31 July - 2 August 1943

• Ralph Godfrey

Townsville to Port Moresby 6 - 8 August 1943

• Len Malarkey

Townsville to Buna, Papua New Guinea 22 - 27 November 1943

• Eric William Taylor

Brisbane to Madang, New Guinea 25 August - 2 September 1944

• Edward Charles Vickers

Torokina, Bougainville to Sydney 13 - 19 February 1945

• Harold Herman Hilbert

Brisbane to Torokina, Bougainville 5 - 10 June 1945

• Angus Sherwood James

Torokina, Bougainville to Newcastle, NSW 26 July - 1 August 1945

• John Henry (Jack) O'Meagher

Morotai to Townsville 26 October to 9 November 1945

• Thomas Stanley O'Meagher