HMAS Kanimbla was a passenger ship converted for use as an armed merchant cruiser and landing ship infantry during World War II. Built during the mid-1930s as the passenger liner MV Kanimbla for McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co, the ship operated in Australian waters until 1939, when she was requisitioned for military service, converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Kanimbla. Initially used to board and take control of merchant vessels belonging to Occupied Europe and operating in Asian waters, Kanimbla led the raid to capture the Iranian port of Bandar Shahpur in August 1941, and was present during the covert Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942. In 1943, the ship was converted into a Landing Ship Infantry, transferred to the Royal Australian Navy, and operated throughout the South West Pacific Theatre until the end of the war. Kanimbla was decommissioned and returned to her commercial owners in 1950. In 1961, she was sold to the Pacific Transport Company and renamed Oriental Queen. The ship operated as a liner throughout the Pacific and to Japan until 1973, when she was broken up for scrap. Construction The ship was laid down as motor vessel (MV) Kanimbla for McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co by Harland & Wolff, Belfast. She was launched on 15 December 1935 and completed in 1936. The ship was named for the Kanimbla Valley, west of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. A Sydney Harbour ferry, launched in 1910 as Kanimbla gave up her name to the new larger vessel in 1936, and was renamed Kurra-Ba. Operational history Pre-war The ship arrived in Melbourne 12 June 1936 and operated a passenger service between Cairns and Fremantle. The ship accommodated 203 first class and 198 cabin class passengers. This passenger service continued until the outbreak of World War II. Kanimbla carried its own broadcast radio station (call sign 9MI), which broadcast programs to onshore listeners and other ships, as it passed along the coastline. If broadcast on short wave, but sometimes its programs were relayed by onshore medium wave stations. It was conducted entirely by Eileen Foley. It broadcast between 1936 and 1939. World War II Om 5 September 1939, Kanimbla was requisitioned for military service, and underwent conversion to an armed merchant cruiser at Garden Island in Sydney. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Kanimbla,