A roughly twenty-day Pacific crossing could have brought Australia into South American waters around the date of Coronel. Cradock's cruisers might then have held von Spee while the battlecruiser approached from another direction. Communications, rendezvous, command transfer, and exact positions keep the counterfactual plausible rather than certain. A suitable allied force existed, but station responsibilities kept it from the battle.
Notable Point · 1:30:51-1:35:58
How HMAS Australia might have changed Coronel
A timing reconstruction shows that releasing Patey on 12 October could plausibly have brought HMAS Australia into South American waters around the date of Coronel.