[5][6] Just before the ship approached Port Phillip heads, the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery stationed at Fort Nepean was informed of the declaration of war with Germany and received an order to "stop her or sink her".

[citation needed] While serving in the Aegean Sea in July 1915, Boorara collided with the armoured cruiser Kléber and was beached at Moudros.

[9] In 1916, the HMT Boorara was used to transport Australian soldiers from Brisbane, Australia to Plymouth, U.K.[9][10] Later in the war, the ship was torpedoed twice in the English Channel.

[9] After the war, the ship was used by the Commonwealth Line for the transport of frozen cargo to the United Kingdom, using ports at Avonmouth, Liverpool and Glasgow.

[12][13] In 1926, the E. Hadjilias shipping line of Athens in Greece bought her, renamed her Nereus and registered her on the Cycladean island of Syra in the Aegean Sea.