Requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on 27 February 1941 and converted into a boom gate vessel and commissioned as HMAS "Kara Kara" on 14 September 1941. She was purchased outright on 7 November 1941 and sailed to Darwin. On the morning of the Japanese air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942 "Kara Kara" was tending the western gate of the nearly complete boom. During the air raid she received one hit on an enemy aircraft, however was strafed suffering light damage and the loss of two men killed.