She was built in Scotland in 1937 as Bungaree for the Adelaide Steamship Company of South Australia.

Bungaree was the first of a series of cargo steamships that the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee on the Firth of Tay built between 1937 and 1939 for Australian shipping companies to use in the coastal trade between the different states and territories of Australia.

[6][7][8] Mrs MG Anderson, wife of the Chairman of the Directors of the Adelaide SS Co, launched Bungaree in Dundee on 9 February 1937.

She also had a Bauer-Wach exhaust turbine, made by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson,[11] which drove the same propeller shaft via a Föttinger fluid coupling and double reduction gearing.

The combined power of her reciprocating engine plus turbine was rated at 390 NHP,[12] or 1,750 ihp at 75.5 rpm,[15] which gave her a speed of about 11+1⁄2 knots (21 km/h).

Sir Howard Lloyd, one of the directors of the Adelaide SS Co, said that the company wanted to avoid being entirely dependent on oil for bunkering.

[20] On 9 May 1937 Bungaree left Dundee for Australia, with Captain VL Adie as her Master.

[21][22] She sailed via the Cape of Good Hope, and as she crossed the Indian Ocean she made wireless contact with Australia at a range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km).

[15] On 1 February 1939, Bungaree arrived in Cairns, Queensland, to discharge a cargo of coal.

[23] A police sergeant arrived at about 23:45 hrs, and found the body of a 45-year-old seaman lying on the deck of the crew's mess aft.

He found bruises on the man's face, hip,and loin, and identified the causes of death as a basilar skull fracture, and a brain hæmorrhage.

[25] In Cairns the next day, 11 February, the northern Crown Prosecutor, JPA Quinn, entered "no true bill" against the seaman who had punched the deceased.

[33][34] On the night of 2 November 1945, the 4,810 GRT collier Atlas, en route in ballast from Hong Kong to Cairns, grounded on Bougainville Reef in the Coral Sea Islands.

[35] Her double bottom ruptured, spilling fuel oil into the sea, and water from her freshwater tanks into the interior of the ship.

The Master; eight officers; the Chief Steward; and two lascars remained aboard Atlas, but her condition deteriorated in a heavy sea, so the corvette HMAS Rockhampton and Royal Navy destroyer HMS Wessex rescued them.

[38] Gladstone then accompanied Bungaree back to Sydney, but accounts differ as to the details.

The Sydney Morning Herald said that Gladstone towed Bungaree back to port.

[41] Bungaree steamed slowly through the Heads at 10:00 hrs on 27 December, accompanied by the two corvettes, and went straight to Garden Island for repairs.

[citation needed] In 1957 the Kowloon Navigation Company bought Bungaree from the Adelaide SS Co.

A Hong Kong crew was due to reach Thursday island aboard the China Navigation Company motor ship Taiyuan on 13 June to take over Bungaree.

[13] In 1960 the Pan Norse Steamship Company, SA, acquired Dampier; renamed her Eastern Mariner; and Wallem & Co became her managers.