HMAS Australia’s construction and Pacific diplomacy

HMAS Australia was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 24 April 1928 at a stated cost of £1.9 million. She and Canberra were the only County-class cruisers built in Scotland, both emerging from John Brown’s yard. Australia used Yarrow boilers with Curtis high-pressure and Parsons low-pressure geared turbines, an unusual machinery combination for a John Brown-built ship. Her commissioning voyage visited Canada, the United States, Pacific islands, and New Zealand before she reached Sydney. Those calls made the new cruiser a diplomatic representative as well as a combat unit. The ship joined British industrial choices to the Pacific presence expected from an Australian County-class cruiser.