HMAS Stella in Australian waters off the Northern Territory in December 1944
History
Australia
Name	Warreen
Owner	Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (1938-1942)
Builder	Melbourne Harbour Trust, Williamstown Dockyard, Victoria
Launched	1938
Australia
Name	HMAS Stella HMAS Warreen
Acquired	1 October 1942
Commissioned	22 October 1942 16 April 1952
Decommissioned	19 December 1945 31 March 1966
Honours and awards	Battle honours: New Guinea 1942-44
General characteristics
Displacement	111 tons
Length	82 feet (25 m)
Beam	19 feet (5.8 m)
Draught	8 feet (2.4 m)
Installed power	200 hp (150 kW)
Propulsion	British Polar diesel engine
Speed	8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Complement	10
Armament	1 x 20mm Oerlikon

HMAS Warreen was a survey vessel and general purpose vessel of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She served twice with the RAN, as HMAS Stella during World War II and as HMAS Warreen from 1952 until 1969.

Requisitioned

Launched in 1938 by the Melbourne Harbour Trust, Williamstown Dockyard, Victoria as MV Warreen for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research as a fisheries research vessel. She was requisitioned by the RAN on 1 October 1942, and after fitting out at Garden Island was commissioned on 22 October as HMAS Stella. She took part in the survey of the sea route from Milne Bay to Oro Bay, between the D'Entrecasteaux Islands and the New Guinea mainland for the proposed attack om Buna. Stella was paid off on 19 December 1945.

Stella was awarded the battle honour "New Guinea 1942-44".^[1][2]

Post-war

Recommissioned on 16 April 1952, as HMAS Warreen, in October 1952, Warreen was involved in Operation Hurricane, the British nuclear bomb test in the lagoon in the Montebello Islands off Western Australia’s Pilbara region.^[3]

She participated in survey work on the Great Barrier Reef.

Warreen was paid off on 31 March 1966. She was sold and converted to a prawn fishing vessel.

Notes