The first three ships, , and , were ordered on 6 February 1909. Another three ships, , , and , were ordered later. On the advice of the British Admiralty, the ships were named after Australian rivers (one from each state), although the original intention of using rivers with Aboriginal name origins did not carry through to the second batch. Senator George Pearce requested that they instead be named after famous navigators, but was overruled by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin. "Huon" was originally to be named "Derwent", but this was changed before launch to avoid confusion with the British E-class (formerly River-class) destroyer .