 The task force sailed from Sydney on 19 August 1914 , and hove to off Port Moresby where they waited for their escorts to arrive . While they were at Port Moresby , Holmes decided to disembark the Queensland militia soldiers due to concerns about their preparedness for action . Escorted by the cruiser Sydney and the battlecruiser Australia , the task force reached Rabaul on 11 September 1914 and found that the port was free of German forces . Sydney and the destroyer HMAS Warrego landed small parties of naval reservists at the settlements of Kabakaul and the German gubernatorial capital Herbertshöhe on Neu @-@ Pommern , south @-@ east of Rabaul . These parties were reinforced first by sailors from HMAS Warrego and HMAS Yarra and later by infantry from the transport HMAS Berrima . 
