Up to the 30th June, 1940, the war had comparatively little effect upon the port in the matter of the volume of cargo landed and shipped, but harbour management had to cope with the exigencies of war in the direction of the accommodation of additional warships, troop transports, hospital ships and other vessels engaged in the prosecution of the war. The first memorable sight at the port was the berthing within the inner harbour between the 18th and 20th January of the first Australian and New Zealand troop convoy of eleven large transports, including the well-known P & O and Orient passenger liners Strathaird, Strathnaver, Orford, Orion, Orcades, Otranto, as well as other liners which had not previously visited the port, such as the Empress of Japan, Empress of Canada, etc., the total gross tonnage of the 11 vessels being 217,938. The escorting warships were the Royal Australian Navy cruisers Australia and Canberra, and the Royal Navy battleship Ramillies, which on her way out from England for such duty called at Fremantle on the 20th December, 1939, the maximum draught of this vessel whilst berthed within the inner harbour then being 33ft. 6in.

The vessels in the convoy were accommodated at the Victoria and North Quays, with fuelling, watering and provisioning being carried out in such an expeditious manner that all vessels were enabled to move out to their allotted anchorage positions in Gage Roads prior to departure without any loss in the scheduled times which had been allowed for their several operations within the inner harbour, special gratification in this connection being conveyed to the Trust by the Naval Board and the G.O.C., Western Command.

The second convoy, which was much smaller in size and consisted of the vessels Strathaird, Neuralia, Ettrick and Dunera, arrived on the 21st April, 1940, the escorting vessels being H.M.S. Ramillies and H.M.A.S. Sydney. Again all arrangements were carried out according to schedule for the handling of this convoy.

On the 10th May, a very famous convoy arrived, as it included the mammoth liner Queen Mary and the other large vessels Aquitania, Empress of Britain, Mauretania, Andes, Empress of Canada, Empress of Japan. Due to the limitations of Fremantle inner harbour, the first two mentioned vessels could not enter, and therefore had to be fuelled and watered whilst at anchor in Gage Roads. The three largest vessels passed through Fremantle in the early part of April on their way out to form the convoy, and naturally their arrival aroused great interest, although all movements were required to he surrounded with the greatest secrecy.

The Empress of Britain, of 42,348 tons gross and 733ft. in length, which vessel was unfortunately sunk by enemy action at a comparatively early state of the war, is the largest merchant vessel ever to have entered the inner harbour, but its handling on both occasions of its entry was accomplished without any difficulty whatsoever. The escorting warships of this convoy were the cruisers H.M.S. Leander and H.M.A.S. Australia. By way of contrast, it is desired to point out that after completion of the loading of fuel oil and other stores, the draught of the Empress of Britain was 31ft. 7in., whereas the port has had the experience of a factory whaling ship of only 9,516 tons gross, but having a maximum draught of 34ft. 7in., when leaving the harbour. The aggregate gross tonnage of the seven vessels in this convoy was 277,457 tons, whilst the Queen Mary had the greatest draught - 39ft. 7in.

On the 4th September, another convoy arrived, consisting of the vessels Aquitania, Orcades, Mauretania and Empress of Japan, with H.M.A.S. Canberra as escort. A further convoy of comparatively small vessels and escorted by the cruisers H.M.A.S. Canberra and Perth berthed within the inner harbour on the 21st September.

Additional convoys, including the liners Queen Mary and Aquitania continued to pass through the port during the remainder of the year. Up to the 26th March, 1943, the "Queen Mary" visited the port on no less than 19 occasions and the "Aquitania" on 20 occasions in their journeys to and fro as troop transports. The world's largest liner, Queen Elizabeth, first called at Fremantle on the 16th February, 1941, and after calling on nine other occasions, did not again visit the port after the 24th April, 1942.

At the outbreak of war, the District Naval Officer for W.A. was Commander Baldwin, whilst subsequent Naval Officers in Charge included Captain Farquhar Smith, Commodore J. A. Collins, Commodore A. R. Halfhide and Commodore C. J. Pope. All possible co-operation on the part of the Trust was maintained with the Naval and Military authorities in the task with which they were faced upon the outbreak of hostilities, and all necessary accommodation was provided for all those warships passing through the port and those based on the port for comparatively lengthy periods as a defence measure, these latter vessels including H.M.A.S. Adelaide, Perth and Sydney.

Naturally, in the matter of the accommodation of all merchant vessels using the harbour throughout the whole war period, the same co-operation was required to be extended to the local representative of the British Ministry of War Transport and, more latterly, the Deputy Director of Shipping, W. A. (Mr. H. J. R. Hooper), the last-mentioned authority having of necessity to assume responsibility for according the various degrees of priority in the loading and discharging of merchant vessels.

Up to the 30th June, 1940, the war had little effect on the port so far as interstate trade was concerned, but with the diversion of British shipping for war purposes and the activity of the enemy in Europe, overseas trade in imports and exports sharply declined.

In the interstate trade, there was actually a net increase of 19,000 tons over the previous year's imports but, in the case of overseas trade, there was a decline in imports of 58,000 tons in cargo actually handled, due to the falling away in shipments of phosphate and sulphur. Similarly, with shipping being used for other purposes, exports overseas of wheat and fresh fruit declined considerably, the total decrease in all exports being 111,194 tons. As a result of war conditions, imports of fuel oil increased by 66,600 tons, the requirements of Naval vessels and transports necessitating the importation of large quantities of fuel oil bunker supplies, which resulted in this class of business exceeding the previous year's transactions by 50,000 tons. With these altered circumstances of trade, the gross revenue of the Trust, therefore, remained very buoyant and, in fact, there was an increase of 22,000 as compared with the revenue of the previous financial year.

The boom defences of the port were placed into operation in December, 1940, the construction of these defences having been commenced just prior to the outbreak of war. The restricted times of the opening of the boom naturally involved shipping movements being gauged with greater precision and practically no movements were permitted between sunset and sunrise.

(extracts from the 1946 Fremantle Harbour Trust Annual Report)