The story of the HMAS Sydney II is extraordinary. After becoming a key figure in world war two, playing a key role in the sinking of two Italian warships and participating in multiple shore bombardments, she was attacked in 1941 and was lost with all 645 crew aboard, seemingly forever.

In 2008, nearly 67 years after her demise, she was found off the WA coast, for the families of fallen crew members, finally some closure was at hand.

Amazingly, what could be more remarkable is the story of 93-year-old Jim Lavender, a crew member on the HMAS Sydney II, who dodged death after being called into the regulatory office one afternoon in 1941.

"Pack your bags, you’re leaving the ship at four o’clock," the Regulating Petty Officer said to him.

Lavender, who had been on the ship for over three years, told GWN 7 he was less than pleased at the time.

“I cursed and carried on all the way back to the mess deck,” he said.

“When I got there a bloke was standing in front of me at the top of the gangway to the mess deck, and I told him I had this rotten, stinking draft.

“He said ‘I’ll swap you’, I looked at him, and I said 'No Jack, I’ll go'. He then got killed."

A remarkable stroke of luck for Lavender, who says if he had time to do anything about it, he would have fought to have the draft cancelled.

“If that notice had come aboard in Melbourne when we were alongside, I would have put in a request to see the Commander to change it. I would have been history.

“It was just fate, I suppose.”

After going ashore to play some rugby with his fellow crewmen, still angry about his time on the Sydney coming to an end, Jim watched as his dearest mates set sail for Fremantle, not knowing the horrible turn of events that would eventuate.

“They all went back to the ship, and the ship sailed for Fremantle later that night, and I went to Queensland to commission this new ship they’d built,” said Lavender.

On November 19, 1941, the Sydney was caught in a battle with a German auxiliary cruiser called Kormoran, a battle in which both ships would meet their fate at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

Lavender was on the train heading back to Brisbane when he first heard the news HMAS Sydney, and her 645 crew members, had been lost.

“I looked down and saw this little girl crying, I asked a man she was with what was wrong, he said ‘Her brother’s been killed on the Sydney, it’s been sunk’.

“My feelings were I wished I’d been on it, because all my mates were there. I wanted to be on that ship.

“There were a lot of memories there, what we’d been through, all the things we did. They were all my mates, blokes I’d joined the Navy with.

“That ship was like a part of my life,” he added.

And so the final resting place of the Sydney remained a mystery. For over 65 years she lay battered on the ocean floor and after failures by several searches for the vessel, she was finally discovered on Sunday, March 16, 2008.

“I was the first one who knew the Sydney was found.

“Somebody rang me up from the ship that found it, and told me at seven o’clock in the morning.

“That was before the Prime Minister knew,” Jim said with a smile.

For so many families, the discovery of the final resting place of the HMAS Sydney II brought a sense of closure, finally knowing where their loved ones now rest in peace.

“It was a relief.

“It was an end to the story, everybody didn’t know what had happened or what happened to it.

“People were kind of relieved, it made a closure to the worry.

“All the families thinking ‘where was my son?’, or ‘where was my husband?’, and ‘what happened to them?’. That kind of cleared it up because they know where the ship was.”

This Sunday, the West Coast Eagles will take on the Sydney Swans for the HMAS Sydney II trophy, in a commemorative match played in the honour of the lives that were lost on November 19, 1941. Lavender will be attending, and remarkably it will be his first live AFL experience.

“I’ve followed the Eagles since they’ve started.

“I’ve never been, I’ve watched every game on TV, just about.

“It’ll be the first (AFL) football match I’ve seen (live).

“It’ll be something new, I haven’t been to Subiaco Oval since the AFL started.

“It’ll be quite interesting to see what goes on,” said Lavender.

Navy personnel will be on hand outside the ground collecting donations, with all funds going to Legacy, a charity which provides for families affected financially or socially after the incapacitation or death of a loved one during or after their active service.

“It’s nice, I think, that they’re doing it.

“It keeps reminding people, it wasn’t just one or two people, it was so many people, like a little town gone.”