"Anzac" was built to the British design. The ship had a displacement of 2,436 tons as designed, although this displacement increased to 3,450 tons after her 1963 reclassification as a training ship. She was long overall and long between perpendiculars, with a beam of , and a draught of . Propulsion was provided by two Admiralty 3-drum boilers supplying steam to Parsons geared turbines; these generated for the destroyer's two propeller shafts. "Anzac" was designed to reach , but could usually only reach . The ship's company originally consisted of 320 personnel, but after conversion into a training ship, this changed to 169 ship's company plus 109 trainees.