The first RAN naval base in Papua New Guinea, the base was commissioned on 1 January 1943 under the command of Commander R.B.A. Hunt RAN, who was previously the Naval Officer in Charge Port Moresby.[1][2] Hunt was the hydrographic surveyor who had surveyed Port Moresby.[3]
HMAS Basilisk was re-commissioned under CMDR P. Paffard, RAN on 14 November 1974 to provide administrative support for RAN personnel serving with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.[4]
The naval base was finally decommissioned in 1983.
^Walker, Allan Seymour (1961). Medical services of the R. A. N. and R. A. A. F. Australian War Memorial. p. 46.
^Sinclair, James Patrick (1988). Last frontiers: the explorations of Ivan Champion of Papua: a record of geographical exploration in Australia's Territory of Papua between 1926 and 1940. Queensland: Pacific Press. p. 282. ISBN978-0-87515-000-0.