HMAS Harman is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base that serves as a communications and logistics facility.

The main base is located in the Australian capital of Canberra, and is geographically recognised as the suburb of Harman (postcode 2600)[1] in the District of Jerrabomberra.

Established in the late 1930s as the Royal Australian Navy Wireless/Transmitting Station Canberra, the facility was commissioned into the RAN as a stone frigate in 1943.

A year later, the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (ACNB) made a recommendation that two wireless stations be provided for the Navy in Canberra and Darwin.

Initially, the facilities at Harman included Number One Receiving Station, which became the Communications Centre, an aerial farm behind the building, a direction finding hut located 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) away on a ridge, cottages and guard houses.

[citation needed][6] Functions performed at Harman include: On 11 July 2013, ex-CIA contractor Edward Snowden revealed documents that alleged Harman, amongst three other locations in Australia and one in New Zealand, were amongst those used in the PRISM surveillance program conducted by various United States intelligence agencies.

[10] About 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) southwest of the main complex [11] was the Bonshaw Receiving Station, in which watchkeepers listened for messages from ships on the high frequency (HF) bands.

The station was initially built with small cottages flanking the eastern side of the site, housing the electrical engineer-in-charge and the sailors who maintained the transmitters and antennas.

These were removed in the late 1980s, although the mess building remained, with personnel moving into housing in the growing suburbs that gradually encroached on the site.