BC
I have 2 similar badges with blue enamel on them but they are WRNS Officers badges. Not sure if the Australian Navy also wore them. When I got my first one I contacted the WRNS Association and they sent me a PDF document with a few pictures and details of the badges. I have attached some of the text below and pictures of the 2 badges I have. It looks like yours could be the 3rd type described below as a prototype and therefore I would imagine is pretty rare and for a Commander in one of the Medical Branches.
"These WRNS rank brooches came into service in 1964 with the new mess dress uniform which had short sleeves. They were worn on the left
breast & made of white metal in the form of a miniature officers beret badge with the blue enamel bars below corresponding to the wearers cuff
lace. The uniform regulations describe the bars as being 'easily detachable' so they can be replaced on promotion, they are actually spot welded
together! They were not a naval stock item & were bought direct from tailors & outfitters, the original sealed pattern has survived. By 1980 a
replacement mess dress came into use which had a long sleeved jacket allowing cuff lace to be worn.
Female medical officers wore the same mess uniform but as they held commissions in the Royal Navy the brooches were made of gil metal &
the coloured enamel bars represented the branch distinction cloth, scarlet for surgeons & orange (actually beech brown see page 1-2-1) for
dentists. A sealed pattern of this design still exists.
A third style has been seen in silver but with scarlet enamel bars instead of the blue on the WRNS brooch. This may have been a prototype
design for the medical officers that was rejected because it did not differentiate between the two types of service. However the enamel looks
more like it is representing the lace, not the distinction cloth & may have been the prototype of a nursing officers brooch"
Paddy
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