The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (W581) Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey, HMAS Goorangai, RAN, 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 , the story for this day was on (W581) Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey, HMAS Goorangai, RAN, Second World War.

Due to a technical fault there is no recording of this Last Post Ceremony

W581 Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey, HMAS Goorangai, RAN
Killed in accident, 20 November 1940

Story delivered 2 August 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey.

John Moxey was born on 15 November 1912 in Williamstown, Victoria. His was a nautical family. His father had been captain of the steamer Edina for over 15 years, and at the time of the Second World War was master of an interstate freighter. John and his brother Alfred were members of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, reporting for active duty in September and August 1939 respectively.

John Moxey was eventually posted to HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping.

In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession in Bass Strait as a result of German minelaying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mine fields. After two weeks on that operation the minesweeper returned to Queenscliff. But a rising storm sent the ship to Portsea, which was a safer harbour.

As the Goorangai passed through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay in the darkness, she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in halves. 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 short moment, eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness, and lifeboats were deployed immediately, but, despite a long search, no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. John Moxey’s was the fifth and final body to be found. The remaining 19 were never recovered, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

John Moxey’s brother, Alfred, spent another two years on active service, posted to HMAS Yarra in March 1940. When that ship was attacked and sunk by a Japanese naval force on 4 March 1942, Alfred Moxey died in the service of his country like his brother before him.

John Moxey’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in 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 Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section