HMAS Castlemaine (J244/M244/A248), named for the city of Castlemaine, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially crewed and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).You can plan Melbourne trip in no time by asking Inspirock to help create your itinerary.
Launched in 1941 and commissioned in 1942, Castlemaine operated during World War II in the waters of Australia, New Guinea, and Timor. She remained in service until 1945, when she was decommissioned into reserve and converted into an immobilised training ship. In 1973, Castlemaine was presented to the Maritime Trust of Australia for conversion to a museum ship. She is one of two surviving examples of the Bathurst class, the other being HMAS Whyalla.
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HMAS Castlemaine reviews
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We went to Williamstown for the weekend as neither of us had been before. Grabbed a great lunch of fish and chips, and decided to visit the HMAS Castelmaine. Run by volunteers, this is an incredible.... more
We went to Williamstown for the weekend as neither of us had been before. Grabbed a great lunch of fish and chips, and decided to visit the HMAS Castelmaine. Run by volunteers, this is an incredible.... more »
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A magnificent surviving piece of Australian maritime history. A floating museum full of memorabilia that you can explore. The knowledgeable & friendly volunteers will answer any questions, give you a.... more
A magnificent surviving piece of Australian maritime history. A floating museum full of memorabilia that you can explore. The knowledgeable & friendly volunteers will answer any questions, give you a.... more »
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HMAS Castlemaine is a corvette naval ship of the Royal Australian Navy from the world war 2, it is one of the only remaining ships from WW2 in Victoria and remains afloat at the gem pier in Williamstown, VIC. The museum ship is definitely worth a visit as shows the history of the ship itself, the voyages it did around Australia, New Guinea & Timor during WW2. The staff cabins, engine room, radar room & boiler room is well preserved and gives you great insight about the ship. It also has lots of information about the crew on board this ship during WW2. It’s open only of weekends and public holidays.
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All is good until I saw the displays talking about the western invasion to China in 1900. As a Chinese, I can say the contents in the museum are very offensive and inaccurate. First of all, the boxers are not the reason that China was invaded by 8 western nations. The real reason was money. The European colonial empires such as UK robbed nearly every nation that wasn’t a European colony back then. China was simply one of them. Even without the boxers, the war would still happen. Secondly, the boxers were not the villains. Before the 1900’s war, the western nations had started dozens of wars against China. Before 1900, they had raided astronomical amount of money out of the Chinese government and its people. And the war reparations directly caused millions of Chinese families to die of starvation, and indirectly killed over 50 million people in the civil wars triggered by them. Imagine living as a civilian in 1900, you had wonderful kids and a happy life until a few pirates came. People around you died one by one because of them, but the police was too afraid to do anything. What would you do? I’m not arguing their method was right. Some of them did kill innocent European civilians. But when a man was placed into a desperate situation like this, it’s understandable. Thirdly, I don’t understand why modern Australians want to be proud of this history. The western nations were nothing but bandits in this war. I bet that the so-called “souvenirs” were actually robbed from the bodies of an innocent Chinese family. There isn’t anything to be proud of. Additionally, the text made it clear that only 6 Australians tried to join the raid (but failed to arrive in time). So it’s really not related to Australians. Lastly, I have completely no idea why this history is displayed on a WW2 warship. The ship didn’t even exist back then!
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