Bathurst construction drew on a wide range of Australian yards at what is presented as a high point in the country's shipbuilding capacity. The criticism of later stop-start procurement is that it allowed this breadth of industrial capability to decline, a problem also identified in Britain. Recent experience of disrupted maritime trade gave the wartime generation a more immediate reason to prepare. Companies and governments faced the threat directly and understood the consequences of losing access to shipping. Numerous small escorts answered that need by protecting the everyday movement of goods.
Notable Point · 4:01-6:32
Trade protection depended on sustained shipbuilding capacity
The Bathurst program connects Australia's breadth of wartime shipbuilding with the need to protect trade and the difficulty of sustaining yards between orders.