Where is hmas melbourne now

The first aircraft to touch down on Melbourne 's flight deck was a Westland Whirlwind helicopter of the Royal Navy on 6 December Following acceptance and work-up trials in the United Kingdom, Melbourne sailed from Glasgow for Australia on 11 March with Squadron Sea Venom all weather fighters and and Squadrons Gannet anti-submarine aircraft embarked.

Her voyage to Australia was by way of the Mediterranean Sea and included visits to Gibraltar, Naples and Malta before transiting through the Suez Canal.

On 10 April she visited Colombo before crossing the Indian Ocean and arriving in her first Australian port, Fremantle, on 23 April Melbourne received a warm and colourful reception in Western Australia and there was great media interest in her arrival.

In her captain's first television and press interviews much was made of the revelation that Melbourne possessed the ability to operate her jet aircraft by night as well as by day.

This gave Australia a capability at that time not possessed by any land based air force operating jet aircraft in the region. The Great Australian Bight lived up to its reputation as a rough sea with Melbourne enduring a heavy swell during her passage east for a four day visit to her namesake city, Melbourne.

Here the new aircraft carrier was again warmly greeted and a civic reception was held in honour of the occasion at the Melbourne Town Hall. Finally on 9 May she arrived in Sydney for the first time. Following a brief refit and docking, Melbourne sailed for Jervis Bay in July to embark her aircraft squadrons and commence work-ups.

She then sailed for Brisbane and the Hervey Bay area to conduct flying training. En route, on 2 August, she participated in the search for survivors from the collier Birchgrove Park which had foundered north of Port Jackson the previous night resulting in the loss of ten lives. Melbourne was released from the search later in the day. The aircraft was seen to take off normally but quickly veered to the right and down into the water.

The cause of the accident was never discovered although insufficient wind speed over the deck appears to be the most likely reason. The Australian Government had by this time committed naval forces to what became known as the Far East Strategic Reserve, which provided for an annual visit from an aircraft carrier as part of the RAN's contribution.

The deployment was also notable as the only occasion on which both RAN aircraft carriers, Melbourne and Sydney , deployed overseas together. While in the Philippines Melbourne embarked the Philippine President Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay as well as the three Philippine service chiefs and the Australian ambassador for a flying demonstration.

The Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy, Commodore Jose Francisco, who had recently been present at a United States Navy USN flying demonstration, noted that while the Americans could put more planes in the air, "the standard of airmanship displayed by Melbourne 's pilots was much higher than that shown by the USN pilots, and that in precision and variety Melbourne 's demonstration was a much more effective one.

The Flagship band was part of the RAN massed bands that gave an extremely polished display in the main stadium as a prelude to the official opening ceremony.

Every day Melbourne provided some personnel to act as marshals in various stadia, additionally, signalmen, carpenters and sick berth attendants were utilised to perform special duties. On completion of these exercises she made port visits to both Wellington and Auckland before returning home to Sydney.

On returning to Sydney in July she commenced a refit and leave period before sailing again for work-ups in September.

Melbourne maintained a regular program of exercises, training and maintenance over the next few years, including annual deployments to the Asia-Pacific region. She once again visited Hobart in February , before departing from Fremantle for a four month South East Asian and Pacific deployment at the end of March. The fleet made its way northwards to the Philippines over the course of the exercise which concluded with a fly-over of aircraft over Manila.

She arrived in Jervis Bay on 20 July. It is the most prestigious fleet award in the RAN, one which the carrier would go on to win twice more, in and The passage proved a difficult one as cyclonic conditions caused a number of accidents and injuries throughout the fleet, including a shipwright aboard Melbourne who injured his hand in a circular saw and required surgery.

Unfortunately Melbourne 's involvement in FOTEX was curtailed as water ingress through the oil filler access door of her Gannet aircraft rendered all but one unserviceable. By the time she returned to sea for SEA DEMON, all nine of her Gannets were flying once again, however a defect in her B1 boiler once again forced her to return to Singapore and ended her involvement in phase one of the exercise.

The defect was rectified in time for her to take her place in phase two, which once again saw the fleet proceeding north to the Philippines. The exercise came to a temporary halt however, when a grenade accidentally exploded aboard USS Nicholas and seriously injured two sailors. Both men were transferred to Melbourne for medical attention before the more seriously injured of the two was transferred by air back to Singapore.

There was a moment of levity during the exercises when Melbourne fuelled from USS Ponchatoula and the American replenishment vessel demonstrated its method of passing the first line with a baseball and bat. Morris was an Australian record holder in the hammer throw, and had represented Australia at the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. He would later finish fourth at the Commonwealth Games. The fleet was divided into two with Melbourne 's group operating out of Manila, the second group operating out of Bangkok.

Two days prior to that, one of Melbourne 's Gannet aircraft developed an engine fault on take off and ditched into the sea ahead of the ship. Melbourne went on to visit Yokohama and Djakarta before arriving back in Fremantle on 24 June. This was the eleventh JET exercise, the third to include Australia, and involved some 41 naval units from six countries. She fired a 15 gun salute as she rounded Bradleys Head and then held position as the rest of the fleet passed and FAA aircraft performed a fly over.

When the last ship had passed, tugs were secured and Melbourne berthed at Captain Cook Dock. Leading Seaman Moore was assisting in securing a 40 foot workboat to the Lighthouse Jetty in Montagu Roads, and suffered fatal injuries when he was crushed between the boat and the jetty.

He was 31 years of age. A search was immediately commenced which included aircraft from Melbourne but, sadly, no sign of Gartside could be found. The search was abandoned the following day. The deployment was further marred when, just a week later while the ship was en route to Japan, a sailor was injured on the flight deck. Budgetary constraints from the late s had placed some doubt over the future of naval aviation given the large financial outlay required to operate aircraft carriers and their associated aircraft.

The two-carrier navy originally envisaged by the Naval Board was no longer feasible and HMAS Sydney III was successively relegated to a training vessel before being placed into reserve in On 26 November , the Minister for Defence, the Hon. Athol Townley MP, announced that fixed wing naval aviation would be disbanded in when Melbourne became due for a major refit.

The service life of the Sea Venoms and the Gannets, meanwhile, was extended past Melbourne once again visited Hobart in early February and conducted exercises with other RAN units in Tasmanian waters.

The aircraft was located some 17 minutes later on a reef off Palali Island, in Kali Bay at the western end of Manus. The three person crew suffered only minor injuries. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Key points: Eighty-two lives were lost on the HMAS Voyager in when it was struck by the HMAS Melbourne during a training exercise Two royal commissions blamed human error but the exact cause of the accident may never be known Navy veteran John Werner believes new red floodlights were responsible for Voyager mistaking Melbourne's position.

Posted 24 Jun 24 Jun Thu 24 Jun at pm. Voyager survivor 'in limbo' over damages appeal. More on:. Top Stories Family stranded in Simpson Desert after campervan bogged on flooded roads. A former cop calls it 'the number one threat to society'. But it's a crime no-one talks about. But disaster could strike come March. This is why.

Man killed in plane crash weeks after Blue Origin flight into space. French authorities investigate alleged rape of soldier at Elysee Palace. HMAS Voyager cigarette lighter, ca National Maritime Collection, AX The survivors who were plucked from the water were covered in fuel oil, vomiting, cut, bruised, and broken and in shock. Within 15 minutes the first survivors were being taken on board the carrier. In the decades that followed, public scrutiny of private lives and naval procedures kept the tragedy in the news.

There were two Royal Commissions, the first acknowledging the lack of a proper lookout and response on the part of the Voyager bridge officers but also criticising the Melbourne bridge crew for not questioning the course Voyager was taking. The second Commission exonerated the Melbourne men — too late though for Captain Robertson who had resigned from the navy — and concluded the collision was due to a mistake by Voyager and that Captain Stevenson was medically unfit for command at the time.

He had been suffering from a duodenal ulcer and was at times apparently self-medicating with alcohol. After the Royal Commissions, the Naval Board put into place a series of reforms and safety changes on board ships and reviewed many of its policies and procedures. It was also made accountable to the wider government and public community. For many of the men of Voyager and Melbourne and their families this has been an ongoing struggle.

And then they returned to duty and were deployed to other RAN ships. Many suffered flashbacks and nightmares, anger and alcohol issues, problems with confined spaces and obsession with safety measures.