HMAS Colac

HMAS Colac in 1952
History
Australia
Namesake	Town of Colac, Victoria
Builder	Mort's Dock and Engineering Company
Laid down	18 April 1941
Launched	30 August 1941
Commissioned	6 January 1942
Decommissioned	27 November 1945
Recommissioned	20 February 1951
Decommissioned	30 January 1953
Out of service	1983
Reclassified	Training ship (1951–1953) Tank cleaning ship (1962–1983)
Honours and awards	Battle honours: Pacific 1942–45 New Guinea 1942–44
Fate	Torpedoed by HMAS Ovens on 4 March 1987 in a weapons test
General characteristics
Class and type	Bathurst-class corvette
Displacement	650 tons standard 1,025 tons full load
Length	186 ft (57 m)
Beam	31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught	8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Propulsion	triple expansion engine, 2 shafts, 2,000 hp
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) at 1,750 hp
Complement	85
Armament	1 × 12-pounder gun (later replaced by 1 × 4 inch Mk XIX gun) 3 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons 1 × Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (installed later) Machine guns Depth charges chutes and throwers

HMAS Colac (J242/M05), named for the town of Colac, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).^[1]