These were the battlecruiser and RAN flagship HMAS Australia and the light cruisers HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney. HMAS Australia arrived in the UK in January 1915 and was designated as the flagship of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron, based at Rosyth in Scotland. This squadron included her two sister ships the battlecruisers HMNZS New Zealand and HMS Indefatigable. The cruisers Melbourne and Sydney were allocated to the Fleet’s 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron. These squadrons operated as part of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet on a succession of sweeps, patrols and convoy escort tasks across the length and breadth of the North Sea. During this period of patrolling, Australia, Melbourne and Sydney were all fitted with launch platforms to enable the carriage of Sopwith aircraft for fighter and reconnaissance duties, a significant step forward in naval aviation capability. The German fleet was rarely seen and a shot at a suspected submarine sighting on 30 December 1917 marked the only occasion when Australia fired her guns in anger. Australia was not involved in the Battle of Jutland which occurred on 29 May-1 June 1916, as earlier in April the battlecruiser was badly damaged in a collision with New Zealand in heavy fog and she did not return to service until June. The three RAN ships were all present during the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet on 21 November 1918. HMAS Australia led the port division of the Grand Fleet’s almost 200 ships as they sailed out to meet the 70 ships of the German fleet. When both fleets were anchored back in Scapa Flow, the Australia, Melbourne and Sydney were designated as guard ships for the German ships SMS Hindenburg, Nurnberg and Emden respectively (this Emden being a replacement ship for the one destroyed in the Cocos Islands in 1914).
