On 7 November 1940 the American merchant ship City of Rayville sailed from Adelaide for Melbourne. Late on 8 November the ship was sunk off Apollo Bay, Victoria by a mine. Naval authorities ordered three minesweepers to sea but they were unable to reach the area until next morning. Fortunately, fishing boats from Apollo Bay rescued all but one crewmember.
A naval report indicated that the mines located off Apollo Bay were most likely of German origin. A British ship was sunk in a similar manner off Wilson's Promontory the day before the Rayville was sunk.
The Master of the Rayville expressed his gratitude in a letter to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in which he said that 'since the time of [their] rescue by the fishermen of Apollo Bay' he and his crew had 'received every consideration and courtesy from our Australian friends'.
MV Koolama
On 20 February 1942, the day after the first bombing of Darwin, the MV Koolama was attacked by a Japanese flying boat at Cape Londonderry, the most northerly point of land in Western Australia. The Koolama transmitted a distress signal, and continued on towards Wyndham. At 1.30pm, two hours after the first attack, three Japanese bombers attacked the ship again. This second attack crippled the ship and injured three passengers. Three hours later, the captain gave the order to abandon ship. During the next week, Aborigines and staff from nearby Drysdale Mission rescued most of the passengers and crew from the beach. Others were taken to Broome by flying boat.
On 1 March, the badly damaged Koolama, with her captain and a skeleton crew, set off again for Wyndham. The ship limped into the small port about 24 hours later. On the morning of 3 March, Japanese aircraft attacked Broome and Wyndham. Although the air attack had caused no apparent damage to the Koolama, she nevertheless started to sink. At about 4.45 pm that afternoon, 11 days after the first attack at Cape Londonderry, the Koolama turned over in the water at Wyndham wharf. She lies there still, embedded in the mud.
Koolama plaque transcript:
Wyndham Port Heritage
Koolama Wreck Site
In February 1942 the state ship 'Koolama' was tracked by Japanese aircraft off Cape Rulhieres, 180 km north-west of Wyndham killing one man and injuring three. Although hit, with continuous pumping the ship managed to return to Wyndham where it subsequently sank – 40 metres north of here. An attempt to refloat it in 1947 proved unsuccessful. An Australian Bicentennial project with financial assistance from the State and Commonwealth government.
Port Gregory
On 21 January 1943, the Japanese submarine I-165 sailed from Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). Six days later, it appeared off the coast of Geraldton, Western Australia. Although Geraldton was probably the initial target, Lieutenant-Commander Kennosuke Torisu withheld fire and moved further north. He arrived off the tiny settlement of Port Gregory the next day and around midnight on 28 January he fired 10 rounds towards the shore. There was no damage and the few local residents appear not have noticed.
A week later, Allied intelligence intercepted and deciphered Torisu's signal reporting the attack. After naval authorities ordered an investigation, they received two reports from the Port Gregory area.
Apparently a coastwatcher based over a kilometre north had 'sighted several flashes out to sea on the night of the attack' while another observer at Northampton 'reported gunfire out at sea, but also noted that there had been no reports of shells landing'.
Without the interception of Torisu's message, the Japanese attack on this tiny West Australian settlement would probably have gone unnoticed by the Allies.
[David Stevens, 'Forgotten Assault' in Wartime: Official magazine of the Australian War Memorial, No. 18, 2002, pp46-47]