SS Katoomba was a passenger steamship that was built in Ireland 1913, spent most of her career in Australian ownership and was scrapped in Japan in 1959.

In Australian civilian service Katoomba mostly worked scheduled coastal routes, initially between Sydney and Fremantle.

For Greek Line she mostly worked transatlantic routes between Europe and North America, and her passengers included European emigrants.

He commanded her on her maiden voyage from the UK to Australia and remained her master for 23 years, in both civilian and military service.

They included a small party who disembarked when she briefly anchored in Plymouth Sound, England, and 237 passengers who were bound for Australia.

[9] During World War I Katoomba remained in civilian service until May 1918, when the Imperial Transport Department of the UK government requisitioned her and gave her the pennant number D610.

She sailed from Australia across the Pacific Ocean, through the Panama Canal to New York, where she embarked US troops to take to Europe.

On 14 November 1918 Katoomba left Istanbul carrying more than 2,000 troops of the Essex and Middlesex regiments and 26 released Allied prisoners of war whom the Ottoman Army had captured in 1916 at the siege of Kut.

[16] When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and other targets in the Pacific (Australian date 8 December 1941), Katoomba was taking troops to Rabaul and being escorted by HMAS Adelaide.

In response to the attacks Katoomba was held at Port Moresby,[17] then abandoned her trip to Rabaul and joined other ships evacuating civilians from New Guinea, Papua and Darwin.

However, when the convoy reached Australia, Mariposa' was withdrawn and Katoomba and another Australian troop ship, Duntroon, were substituted.

They reached Fremantle, where they joined USS Langley and Sea Witch with aircraft for Java and formed Convoy MS 5.

HMS Enterprise met MS 5 about 300 nautical miles (560 km) west of Cocos Island on 28 February and escorted it to Colombo, where the convoy arrived on 5 March.

[22] They were members of the Second Australian Imperial Force (Second AIF) who had served in the Middle East and were being redeployed to the south west Pacific.

[citation needed] Katoomba left Bombay on 4 April, called at Colombo and Mauritius, reached Fremantle on 7 May and then continued via Adelaide to Sydney.

[21] On 4 August 1942 Katoomba was again sailing from Fremantle to Adelaide[21] when she survived being shelled by a submarine about 300 nautical miles (560 km) off Albany, Western Australia.

[11] In August 1943 Katoomba was in Port Moresby when a sling of ammunition fell into one of her holds, causing an explosion that started a fire.

[24] A letter was published, allegedly written after a meeting of 3,000 AIF and RAAF personnel on Bougainville awaiting repatriation, threatening that when Katoomba reached Torokina harbour all the stokers would be thrown overboard.

[3] On 18 August 1956 Columbia was in port at Quebec when the bow of Home Lines' 13,152 GRT Homeric struck her in fog.