November 1940 by Lady Zara Gowrie, wife of the serving Governor-General, but became stuck halfway down the slipway, requiring the launching ceremony to be completed the next day. Completed at a cost of AU£500,000, Arunta was commissioned into the RAN on 30 March 1942, exactly a month before work on the ship was completed. World War II Arunta commenced her operational career on 17 May 1942, by conducting anti-submarine patrols off New South Wales. Those included a specific search based on sightings and attack by gunfire on the Russian vessel Wellen on 16 May in which Arunta, and searched without success for the submarine. On 18 May, in company with Tromp, Arunta escorted convoy "ZK.8" out of Sydney composed of the Dutch ships , , and bound for Port Moresby with 4,735 troops of the Australian 14th Brigade. A month later, the destroyer was assigned to convoy escort duties along the Australian coast, and again began escorting convoys to New Guinea in early August. In this role she first saw action when she attacked and sank the Japanese Kaichū type submarine off Port Moresby on 24 August 1942, killing all 42 men aboard. On 4 September 1942 Arunta departed Port Moresby to join the cargo ship and the Dutch steamer escorted by and that had departed from Townsville as convoy "Q2" bound for Milne Bay with supplies for the garrison there. Anshun and Arunta entered the bay on the morning of 6 September where the freighter berthed at the pontoon jetty at Gili Gili to begin unloading with intentions to put to sea for safety during the night but orders were given by local authorities to continue unloading under her cargo lights through the night while Arunta departed to join 's Jacob and Swan holding at sea to the south. Anshun was sunk that night when she came under fire from the Japanese cruiser Tenryū and destroyer Arashi during the battle of Milne Bay. In January 1943, Arunta took part in the evacuation of Allied guerrillas from Timor before returning to convoy escort duty. The destroyer was relieved from convoy duty in May 1943, and underwent a brief refit before joining Task Force 74 (TF74). Arunta participated in the Operation Chronicle landings, then detached from TF74 in July and returned to Australian waters for patrol and convoy escort duties and a refit, before rejoining the task force at Brisbane on