Shipping Control Board

Set up in June 1940, together with the Commonwealth Government Ships' Chartering Committee, to bring Australian shipping under national control; proposals for a controlling authority had been drawn up in January 1940, and the Australian Dictionary of Biography dates Sir Thomas Gordon's membership of the board from the outbreak of war in 1939. It is taken to have come under the Department of Commerce, which then administered shipping and navigation; until October 1942 the shipping authorities worked under several different departments. A shipping control board had also operated during the First World War, and the 1940 board has been described as a re-formation of it; the earlier board is not recorded here.

1. December 1941By December 1941 practically all Australian-registered tonnage in interstate services had been requisitioned by the Board.
2. 17 October 1942Moved to the Department of Supply and Shipping, whose new Directorate of Shipping under Sir Thomas Gordon co-ordinated the shipping authorities, when shipping passed from the Department of Commerce.

When and how the board ended is not confirmed. The year 1947 is an estimate resting on the Australian Dictionary of Biography's statement that Sir Thomas Gordon remained a member of the board until 1947. Requisitioned ships were returned to their owners after the war (by 1947 according to one account and by the end of 1948 according to another), and the Australian Shipping Board, formed on 1 January 1946, took over the management of the Commonwealth-owned ships, according to one shipping history from 1 October 1947; whether the board's remaining functions passed formally to it is not confirmed.

• Requisitioning and control of coastal and interstate merchant ships
• Direction of ships to war cargoes and essential trades

Last in the portfolio of Department of Supply and Shipping.

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Some dates or links for this organisation are uncertain. Corrections are welcome.