After entering active service, "'Wollongong" was deployed as a convoy escort in Australian waters. On 11 January 1942, she was sent to Singapore. The corvette was involved in patrols and the evacuation of Allied personnel from Malaya, Java, and Sumatra, and was the last Australian ship to leave Singapore before it was surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February. She then provided a rear escort to a convoy fleeing Tanjong Priok, Batavia. During this, "Wollongong", stood by the tanker , which ran aground and eventually had to be abandoned, was forced to sink the minesweeper , which attempted to turn back to the captured port, and broke off from the convoy to escort the damaged SS "British Judge", which was torpedoed on the night of 28 February and could not keep up. The main convoy and the escorting sloop was sunk on 4 March by a Japanese cruiser group.