H.M.A.S. Rushcutter / RANEL / RANRL MemorialPrint Page

The HMAS Rushcutter / RANEL / RANRL Memorial contains information plaques which tell the story of HMAS RUSHCUTTER and RANEL and the people who served there over the many years of its existence. 

HMAS Rushcutter was a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) depot, radar and anti-submarine training school at Rushcutter Bay, Edgecliff, New South Wales Australia. Originally the New South Wales headquarters of the Naval Brigade and naval artillery from 1901, the site was used as an administrative depot due to the demolition of Fort Macquarie as facilities for the compulsory peace time training from 1911 to 1929.

The site remained as the Naval Reserve Depot and the Anti Submarine School was opened there in 1939 and used by the RAN and newly formed Anti-Submarine Branch of the Naval Reserve. On 1 August 1940, the depot was commissioned as HMAS Rushcutter.

During World War Two the site housed the Anti-Submarine School, the Radar and Gunnery Instruction School and served as a base for the mosquito fleet: Harbour Defence Motor Launches, the Fairmiles and the Naval Auxiliary Patrol Boats. The training of RAN Radar Operators transferred from HMAS Rushcutter to HMAS Watson in 1943. The technical functions of Radar operation remained at HMAS Rushcutter. At the end of World War Two, the site became a training facility for the RAN Experimental Labs and Research Labs.

In 1979 the Commonwealth Government transferred the site to State ownership for public recreational use.

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