Rockingham Naval Memorial Park is a military memorial in the

City of Rockingham The City of Rockingham is a council and Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area, comprising the south coastal List of Perth suburbs, suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth. History Rockingham is loca ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, dedicated to the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

. It contains a number of

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

s, a gun turret from and a submarine fin from . The memorial was dedicated on 24 January 1996 by the mayor of the City of Rockingham, Gardiner. The project was jointly-funded by the City of Rockingham, the Australian federal government, the Western Australian state government and the Naval Association of Australia. Apart from the Rockingham Naval Memorial Park, there are two other war memorials in Rockingham, the Rockingham War Memorial and a commemoration of the

Z Special Unit Z Special Unit () was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist clandestine operation, direct action, lo ...

, supplemented by a collection of plaques for individual vessels mounted on the Palm Beach Jetty.

Memorial

The memorial consists of three main parts, a walk way with commemorative plaques, the ''Orion'' fin and the ''Derwent'' gun turret.

HMAS ''Orion'' fin

was one of six s of the Royal Australian Navy. ''Orion'' was in service from 1977 to 1996. The submarine was eventually broken up for scrap in 2006. The fin of the ''Orion'' was placed in the Naval Memorial Park, while the port propeller was donated to the Western Australia Maritime Museum. On 3 August 2017, a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the loss of

Able Seaman An able seaman (AB) is a seaman and member of the deck department of a merchant ship with more than two years' experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination ...

Hugh Marcrow and

Seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...

Damien Humphreys from was held at the memorial. Markcrow and Humphreys were lost when the submarine ''Otama'' dived off the New South Wales coast on 3 August 1987; their bodies were never recovered. An inaugural Australian Lost Submariners Memorial Service was held by The Submarines Association of Australia in August 2019 at the ''Orion'' fin, attended by more than 200 current and former submariners. The event commemorated the submariners who lost their lives since the establishment of the modern Australian Submarine Force in 1967.

HMAS ''Derwent'' gun turret

was a of the Royal Australian Navy, in service from 1964 to 1994. ''Derwent'' was towed to deep water off

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island (), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a Islands of Perth, Western Australia, island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, ...

and

scuttled Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vesse ...

on 21 December 1994. The ship's sole 4.5-inch gun turret was preserved and placed at the Naval Memorial Park, facing . The installation of the turret at this location pre-dates the official opening of the Naval Memorial Park, having taken place in June 1995.

Plaques

The Naval Memorial Park contains, , over 80 plaques commemorating the Royal Australian Navy and its activities during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

References

{{Australian war memorials Naval Memorial Park Military memorials in Western Australia History of the Royal Australian Navy 1996 establishments in Australia Naval monuments and memorials