The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (PM2218) Signalman Jack Herbert Dungey, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (PM2218) Signalman Jack Herbert Dungey, HMAS Goorangai, Second World War.

PM2218 Signalman Jack Herbert Dungey, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 27 November 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Signalman Jack Herbert Dungey of the Royal Australian Navy.

Jack Dungey was born on 12 February 1916 in Adelaide. He was one of six children of Howard and Mary Dungey. The family moved to Melbourne when Jack was young, and on the outbreak of war they were living in Camberwell, where he worked as a packer. His elder brother Cyril joined the Australian Imperial Force, but Jack had been a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in peacetime, and so reported for active duty in the navy in September 1939.

In February 1940 Dungey passed signals training and was eventually posted to HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started it was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping.

Early that November a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession Bass Strait to German mine-laying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mines, and afterwards made to return to Queenscliff, but a rising storm sent the ship to the safer harbour of Portsea.

As the Goorangai passed in the darkness through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay it was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in half. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: “In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water.” In that moment in between some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness, and lifeboats deployed immediately, but despite a long search no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. The remaining 19, including Jack Dungey, were never recovered, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

Jack Dungey, beloved brother and “dearly loved son of Howard and Mary” was remembered by his family as a man who “died for his country”. He was 24 years old.

The names of Jack Dungey and the crew of HMAS Goorangai are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Signaller Jack Herbert Dungey, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section