Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Apollo on 13 January 1936.

From 1936 until 1938 HMS Apollo served on the America and West Indies Station. On 28 September 1938 Apollo was acquired from the Royal Navy by the Royal Australian Navy, she was commissioned by the crew of the HMAS Albatross (which had been transferred to the RN in part payment of Apollo) earlier than intended because of the Munich crisis. She was renamed Hobart and sailed for Australia towards the end of the year.

In October 1939 HMAS Hobart was in the East Indies and thereafter was employed in the escorting of troop convoys across the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. During November – December 1939 she was patrolling south of the Arabian sea in search for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and her attendant replenishment ship Altmark.

In January 1940 Hobart in company with the carrier HMS Eagle were on troop convoy escort duties. On February 8th the convoy passed Aden and reached Suez four days later, where the first New Zealand and Australian troops were disembarked. In August, in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden, she assisted in the evacuation from British Somali of troops and civilians to Aden. By December she was in the Mediterranean, while undertaking escort duties from Malta back to Alexandria, she was called to assist the last supply convoy to Tobruk as the escort vessels were in trouble due to heavy air attacks.

Late 1941, with the entry of Japan into the war, Hobart was required in the East again, and sailed for Singapore, escorting troop convoy BM-9A . The early part of this year was spent on escort duties for troop transports from Colombo to Singapore. She was also involved in escorting the evacuation convoys from Singapore. On February 25th, while being a member of the Allied strike force under Dutch Admiral Doorman, she put out from Batavia to attack the Japanese forces, however they were spotted by enemy reconnaissance aircraft and came under heavy attack. Hobart suffered only splinter damage which prevented the completion of refuelling. As a result she missed the fatal Battle of the Java Sea on the 27th, when her sister ship HMAS Perth was destroyed. In May she became a member of Task Force 44, in company with HMAS Australia and USS Chicago. During July - August she was involved in the successful landings on Guadalcanal and later the same month she was transferred to Task Force 61, under the command of Vice Admiral Fletcher (USN) and involved in sea and air battles east of the Solomons. Unfortunately on August 9th, disaster struck the Naval Forces, a Japanese Cruiser Squadron attacked, causing the loss of the Australian HMAS Canberra and the American cruisers USS Astoria, USS Quincy and USS Vincennes. Although operations in the Solomons were to continue, further RAN involvement was limited. October 1942 was spent at Sydney refitting and after this she rejoined Task Force 44 on Coral Sea patrols.

In March 1943 Hobart became part of the newly formed US 7th Fleet. During June – July while a unit of Task Force 74 under Vice Admiral Crutchley (RAN) and in company with HMAS Australia, she operated in the area of the Coral Sea and the Eastern Australian Sea in order to cover the landings on New Georgia (Central Solomons) On July 20th, Hobart was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine I-11 (offsite link). Escorted by HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Arunta the cruiser reached Sydney. On August 26th the repairs were begun.

In November 1944 the repairs from the torpedo damage were completed. In March – April 1945 Hobart in company with two American cruisers were deployed as fire support for the amphibious landings of US troops near Cebu (Philippines). On April 27th the shelling began on the assault area in the south of Tarkan. (Borneo). On May 9th Hobart with the British cruiser HMS Newfoundland began shelling Wewak (New Guinea) in support of the 6th Australian Division. In June she took part in shelling of the assault areas off Brunei Bay (Borneo) prior to the arrival of the Australian 9th Infantry Division. On August 31st in company with the Australian cruiser HMAS Shropshire she arrived in Sagami Bay Japan, to witness the peace ceremony.

Post war Hobart remained in service making three deployments to Japanese waters. On December 20th 1947 Hobart was decommissioned at Sydney. During 1953 - 1956 Hobart was extensively refitted and partly converted and modernised as a training ship at New Castle, New South Wales. For this role she was given a lattice foremast, but had all torpedo tubes and secondary guns removed. During this period, the plans regarding her being brought back into service as a fleet training ship were dropped. In 1959 Hobart was placed into reserve and later during that year it was decided that she was surplus to requirements and placed on the disposal list. On 2 February 1962 she was sold for scrap. In March 1962 Hobart left Sydney to be towed to Osaka in Japan for breaking up by Mitsue & Co at the Miyachi shipyard where she arrived on 2 April 1962.

Her badge can be seen displayed on the Selborne dry dock wall at Simonstown, South Africa.