Australia's cancelled interwar naval program

Australia began a seventeen-ship program in the 1920s and then cancelled it during the economic downturn. The immediate saving removed government orders that could have supported domestic employment and demand. Existing facilities at Cockatoo Island and elsewhere offered a basis for further expansion, with two British-built County-class cruisers potentially followed by Australian construction. Australia's later construction of its own corvettes and River-class frigates demonstrated useful escort-building capacity. The missed opportunity was to sustain more of that work before the war, alongside the investment already going into Australian industry and defenses.