In 1938, the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (ACNB) identified the need for a general purpose 'local defence vessel' capable of both anti-submarine and mine-warfare duties, while easy to construct and operate.

[7] The need for locally built 'all-rounder' vessels at the start of World War II saw the "Australian Minesweepers" (designated as such to hide their anti-submarine capability, but popularly referred to as "corvettes") approved in September 1939, with 60 constructed during the course of the war: 36 (including Bendigo) ordered by the RAN, 20 ordered by the British Admiralty but manned and commissioned as RAN vessels, and 4 for the Royal Indian Navy.

[1] On 5 February only Bendigo and HMAS Wollongong, another ship of the flotilla, were at Singapore with the rest having shifted operations to Java and Sumatra in the Netherlands East Indies.

Bendigo left Singapore at 21:20 to act as lightship for an outgoing convoy followed by Wollongong, the last Australian warship to leave the city, at midnight.

By the 28th, the base they were using for the patrols was untenable, the ships were short of fuel and they were to replenish at Tjilatjap but Bendigo, along with Burnie, were ordered to fall back to pick up survivors seen signalling from the beach at Java Head.

The ships that had gone ahead were ordered back to the Sunda Strait but Bendigo with fifteen and Burnie with twenty-nine survivors aboard were directed to now head for Tjilatjap.

The remainder of the 21st Minesweeping Flotilla's corvettes arrived safely on 9 March after having been among the rearguard of Allied naval forces all the way from Singapore.

[24] Bendigo and HMAS Moresby were escorting convoy OC-86 from Melbourne to Newcastle during 11 April 1943 attack in which the cargo ship Recina was sunk that signalled resumption of submarine activity after a lull.