HMAS Penguin
HMAS Penguin: From a historic Naval training centre to luxury seafront properties?
By ALEC SMART
HMAS Penguin is not a ship – although there have been three vessels that have sailed under that name from 1877-1941 – but an Australian Naval training complex and former hospital at Balmoral on Sydney’s Middle Head. It is also one of the few remaining Defence sites still operating directly on Sydney Harbour.
HMAS Penguin is part of Navy Fleet Command and its primary role is the training of specialised personnel, including the Australian Defence Forces Diving School, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Medical School, and the and RAN Hydrographic School (renamed the Maritime Geospatial Training Center in Oct 2017).
According to the Naval Historical Society of Australia, “the history of Defence use of land on Middle Head and Georges Heights dates back to the early 1800s when any threat to Sydney was seen as coming from the sea.
“The land on which HMAS Penguin is located, near Middle Head and Georges Heights headland, was set aside for defence purposes before 1870 for the strategic defence of Sydney Harbour” - part of colonial strategy following the withdrawal of British troops.
In June 1940, amidst World War II, the Commonwealth Department of Defence resumed approximately 24.3 hectares (60 acres) of this land for military operations. It was then being leased by the Mosman Golf Club for a nine-hole golf course, but they vacated the following month. (The former Mosman Golf Club clubhouse was not demolished; it still stands today directly across the road from the main entrance of HMAS Penguin.)
Constructed in 1941 and commissioned on 14 July 1942, the 14.2 hectare HMAS Penguin site on the north side of Middle Head, overlooking Balmoral Bay, was created to provide educational institutions, recreational facilities and accommodation for 700 men.
Ironically, Obelisk Beach, 320 metres to the south, was officially recognised as a legal clothing-optional and nude bathing beach in December 1996 under the New South Wales Local Government Amendment (Nude Bathing) Act 1996, after it had been a secret gay ‘beat’ for decades.
The HMAS Penguin site also included the Balmoral Naval Hospital, which was formally closed in October 2006 when primary and specialised care was relocated to a dedicated RAN ward at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst.
HMAS Penguin, often associated with its era hosting the Royal Navy’s Fourth Submarine Squadron (Nov 1949 - Jan 1969) did not originally cover, and has never covered, the entire Middle Head peninsula. The wider headland has historically been shared among various military branches, featuring extensive Australian Army fortifications, artillery schools, and tactical camps.
Today, the non-naval areas of the peninsula are managed as public heritage spaces by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and NSW National Parks and Wildlife.
Controversial sell-off proposal
In April 2026, the Federal Labor Government proposed a partial divestment of HMAS Penguin, including approximately five hectares of ancient and pristine Angophora (Sydney Redgum) forest – the arboreal buffer between the Naval site and greater Mosman suburbia.
This proposal has been met with strong community opposition, by locals fearful that the prime harbourside land will be sold at market value and turned into luxury private housing rather than preserved for public use.
The Headland Preservation Group (HPG), which was formed in 1996 to oppose John Howard’s Liberal Government’s planned sale of former Defence land at Middle Head for housing (which was subsequently abandoned), is strongly resisting the proposed sell-off.
HPG insist it will “severely impact our environment and our national heritage.”
They reveal: “The Federal Government plans to sell 67 Defence sites nationally, aiming to unlock $3 billion (after relocation and remediation costs, an estimated $1.8 billion) to address critical capability gaps and to redirect investment towards northern bases and infrastructure supporting the AUKUS program…
“HMAS Penguin is a fully operational base and is also Commonwealth Heritage listed. However, it has been determined that although critical capabilities are to be retained (including clearance diver training and underwater medicine unit), other portions of the historical site are to be sold to private interests.”
According to the Naval Historical Society of Australia: “HMAS Penguin is of exceptional heritage and historic interest in that it is a fine example of a purpose built Naval training and hospitalisation complex erected in 1940-45 during the Second World War.
“The primary group of more than 12 buildings, mostly erected in 1942-45, continue in service today as one of the RAN’s training and support establishments.
“The largely weatherboard and brick buildings in the bush setting of the Middle Harbour foreshore were designed with a consistent stylistic theme. The main complex includes a hospital and barracks style accommodation of one to three storeys.”
HPG further allege, “developers have been circling since 2023 and Landcom has actually made an offer for sites including HMAS Penguin. It is also unlikely that a developer will buy the Angophora forest for a parkland when the returns are greater if it is sold for luxury housing.”
Read more about Mosman HERE.
=================================================
