Small vessels requisitioned
 

So many small ships were taken into service by the U.S. Army in Australia.
.
https://www.ozatwar.com/usarmy/usarmysmallships.htm

My wife's uncle Frank Finch served on some of those small ships. He wrote a book "Under three Flags" about his life on the sea during and after WW2

Those vessels weren't just hanging around waiting to be contracted. Their owners and masters would have been working on moving goods and people all around. When they were taken up for service by the US, what would have happened to those bales of wool going to market, the stacks of cut lumber, the phosphates and other minerals, and all those bloody sheep? Did they immediately resume their routes except under a different ownership structure?

RAN small ships
 

The list of vessels requisitioned by the RAN was even longer.

Mike

Transport
 

Hi Terry

The small ships taken into service by the USASOS and RAN , were of many shapes and sizes and they previously had many different capabilities and roles in their pre-war civilian lives. Yes, some of the little ships were employed as coastal traders but by the 1940s that role was fast disappearing as the rail network had reached most coastal communities.

Anyway, I would think the wartime rail and road network was handling most of the transport needs of essential natural resources and primary produce. Most of the farms and mines were inland . Wheat was bagged on the farm and then taken to the nearest railhead on horse drawn wagons or, if you were lucky, a truck.

A 1940 map of the rail network in Victoria. Most of these lines are now closed.

More
 

Hi Bill , the book isn't easily obtained but I found these write-ups

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-...orial/13051038

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-...t-up/102355764

Hi Mike, I am told there was a very limited print run. There are a few writes ups and interviews he did in the 1990's.