Portal:Military history of Australia/Units/January 29

Kanimbla at Fremantle port, 1945

The first HMAS Kanimbla was an armed merchant cruiser and troop ship of World War II. Kanimbla was built as a motor vessel and was completed in April 1936. The ship operated a passenger service between Cairns, Queensland and Fremantle, Western Australia until the outbreak of World War II when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser at Sydney and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Kanimbla on 6 September 1939. She arrived back in Sydney in April 1943, was converted to a Landing Ship Infantry (LSI) and commissioned as HMAS Kanimbla on 1 June 1943. Kanimbla paid off at Sydney in March 1949 and was returned to her owners in December 1950.