Harland and Wolff - Shipbuilding and Engineering Works

The 10,985-ton Twin screw motor vessel Kanimbla, built in Belfast in 1935 for McIlwraith, McEacharn was the last large passenger ship built specifically for Australian owners. The notable fact about the passenger liner Kanimbla is that it was the only ship in the entire history of our world in which a radio broadcasting station was constructed into the ship at the time when the ship was built. The electronic equipment was manufactured by AWA in Australia and shipped to Northern Ireland for installation while the ship was still under construction.

The Kanimbla plied with passenger traffic backwards and forwards on the southern route between Western Australia and Queensland, and the ports of call in this shuttle service were: Fremantle in Western Australia, Adelaide in South Australia, Melbourne in Victoria, Sydney in New South Wales and Brisbane & Mackay in Queensland. Designed for 400 passengers, the vessel seemingly partnered the Manoora, west in summer and north in winter, but in 1939 was commissioned into the Royal Navy and sent to Hong Kong for refit as an armed merchant cruiser.

In April 1943 she transferred to the RAN, converted to an infantry landing ship, and subsequently took part in all major landings in the South-West Pacific. Resuming the summer and winter schedule in 1950.

She was sold in 1961 and renamed Oriental Queen.

Arrived Kaohsiung 7 December 1973 for breaking up. Broken up in 1974.