Women's Royal Australian Naval Service

In 1941, fourteen members of the civilian Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) were recruited for wireless telegraphy work at the Royal Australian Navy Wireless/Transmitting Station Canberra, as part of a trial to free up men for service aboard ships.

Although the RAN and the Australian government were initially reluctant to support the idea, the demand for seagoing personnel imposed by the Pacific War saw the WRANS formally established as a women's auxiliary service in 1942.

In March 1939, Florence Violet McKenzie set up the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) as wireless telegraphy organisation for female volunteers.

[1] McKenzie established the WESC because of the threat of war, and her belief that training women in wireless telegraphy, morse code, and related skills meant they could free up men for military service.

[1] By August 1940, there was a waiting list of 600 women for the small school, and WESC-trained telegraphists were teaching men from the armed forces and merchant navy.

[3] There was opposition from both the government and the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board, although they eventually agreed to the trial after realising there were few other sources of trained telegraphists that could meet RAN requirements.

[3] Fourteen women from the WESC (12 telegraphists and 2 cooks) were accepted for naval service on 28 April 1941 and employed at the Royal Australian Navy Wireless/Transmitting Station Canberra.

[7] WRANS performed a variety of duties, including working as telegraphists, clerks, drivers, stewards, cooks, Sick Berth Attendants, and some technical areas (such as ship degaussing ranges), and intelligence and cryptanalysis.

[14] By the start of the 1970s, there were almost 700 women serving in the WRANS, including postings at all nine RAN shore establishments, and personnel accompanying the Naval Communications Detachment based in Singapore.