Could Australia and New Zealand keep battlecruisers?

Could Australia and New Zealand have retained their battlecruisers and later obtained treaty replacements with twelve-inch guns?

New Zealand could not independently fund, crew, or maintain its Royal Navy battlecruiser; smaller cruisers were a much more plausible national force.

An Australian or New Zealand battlecruiser retention plan was a difficult counterfactual. New Zealand had helped fund a ship that remained part of the Royal Navy and lacked the money, personnel, and maintenance system to operate it independently. A future treaty replacement subject to a size limit and armed with twelve-inch guns raises further questions about timing and negotiated conditions without solving that affordability problem. For New Zealand in particular, two County-class cruisers represented a much more credible upper limit for a nationally supported force.