HMAT Boonah was built in Germany in 1912 for the Australian trade, and known as the Melbourne. In Sydney at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she was seized by the Commonwealth Government, renamed Boonah, and hastily converted to a troopship. In October 1918, near the end of the war, Boonah was the last Australian troop ship to leave Fremantle, Western Australia, bound for the Middle East.[1]
Carrying about 1200 soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force,[2] she arrived in Durban, South Africa just three days after the armistice was signed and on hearing the news, made arrangements to return home promptly. Before her departure however, local stevedores from the Spanish flu stricken city were used to load and unload supplies from the ship and in the course of doing so infected soldiers who were billeted in crowded conditions throughout the ship.[3]
- ^ "Many A.I.F. Men Remember the Boonah". The Argus. 8 August 1934. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ "Group: Infantry". The AIF Project. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
- ^ Ian Darroch (2004). The Boonah Tragedy. Access Press, Perth. ISBN 0-86445-169-5.