The Federation Period : 1901-1913

In 1901 the naval forces of the Commonwealth consisted of 242 officers and men, supported by a further 1,637 part-time members of local "naval brigades". These men manned the motley assortment of obsolescent vessels listed below :

Colonial Warships at the time of Federation

** Transferred to South Australia in 1905

The so-called "blue-water" defence of Australia rested with the combined strength of the Imperial and Auxiliary squadrons, based on Sydney. The Auxiliary squadron was subsidised by the Commonwealth as a result of the 1887 agreement.

IMPERIAL SQUADRON, AUSTRALIA STATION, 1901

AUXILIARY SQUADRON. 1901

During the years 1901-1905, early Commonwealth administrations considered that Australia could not afford its own naval defence force, however desirable it might be from the point of view of politics or nationalism. In 1903 Barton and Forrest re-negotiated the 1887 naval agreement with Britain, increasing the subsidy to £200,000 but allowing for the creation of a small "naval reserve" for the training of Australian seamen. Despite agitation by the professional naval officers, particularly William Rooke Creswell (formerly commandant of South Australian and Queensland naval forces, appointed to direct the Commonwealth Naval Forces in 1904), little changed until the advent of the second Deakin government in July 1905.

The acquisition of a navy required "active" political support and this was forthcoming in 1905 as a result of the defeat of Russia by Japan in the war of 1904-1905. The defeat of a "western" power by Asians rekindled Australian fears of the "yellow peril", a fear exacerbated by its adherence to the White Australia Policy which saw the existence of an underlying tension between Australia and Japan. Despite the fact that Japan had been allied with Britain since 1902, her naval dominance of the far-eastern theatre revived fears of invasion (however unrealistic) which were plentifully expressed in the Press and in Parliament. It was the fear of Japan, rather than Germany, which provided the political justification for the pursuit of an independent (an thus under Australian control) naval defence force. With government imprimatur a number of schemes were proposed during the period 1905-1907, all of which were strenuously opposed by the British Admiralty which saw Germany as the real threat to the Empire and maintained its "one navy" policy. Protected, as the British saw it, by the Japanese alliance, this same period saw a progressive withdrawal of their forces from the far-eastern stations, a process which only served to increase Australian concern. The goal of both Creswell and Deakin was the establishment of a coastal defence force but Deakin still saw the Royal Navy as the ultimate defensive shield:

"Upon the maintenance of the supremacy of the British Navy rests the whole security of Australia."

Disappointed by the results of the Imperial Conference of 1907, Deakin announced his own defence policy in December and in May 1908 set up a reserve of £250,000 for future naval purposes. The labour government of Fisher maintained the momentum and used Deakin's provision to order two destroyers, Parramatta and Yarra, without reference to the Admiralty. While this was taking place, a naval scare in Britain over the possibility of German dreadnought superiority had developed and, despite Fisher's opposition, led to calls for the provision of a dreadnought for the Royal Navy (a call supported by Deakin in opposition). Taking advantage of this shift in Dominion sentiment, the Admiralty proposed that a series of dominion "fleet units" be established as the nuclei of regional fleets, to which Britain would make equivalent contributions. The question as to how Britain would achieve this additional expenditure when she was already hard-pressed to match German construction was not asked at the time. The Admiralty pressed ahead with its proposals and, in August 1909 (by which time Fisher had been replaced by Deakin) at the Imperial Defence Conference, completely reversed its previous opposition to Dominion navies. It proposed that each Dominion create (at its own expense) a fleet unit consisting of :

Force Proposals

Despite representing a force that neither the politicians nor the professionals had ever anticipated, the Admiralty proposal was accepted by the Deakin government in September 1909 and the relevant Bills were passed, the face of little real opposition, the Parliament in November. The tender for the "armoured cruiser" Australia (later termed "battlecruiser") was accepted in March 1910, with the keel being laid in June. Later the same year the two destroyers ordered by the Fisher administration arrived, while the RAN was officially proclaimed on July 10, 1911. The Imperial Conference of 1911 settled the legal position of the Australian fleet as well as determining that, in the event of war, operational control would pass to the British Admiralty. The bulk of the new squadron reached Sydney on October 4th, 1913, while the remaining completed vessels (including 2 rather than the planned 3 submarines) joined the fleet on May 24 1914, just in time for the war. Although the British had failed to live up to their 1909 promises of a far-eastern fleet, Australia had its navy.