HMAS Melville

HMA Ships Melville and Leeuwin were hydrographic survey ships built for the Royal Australian Navy by North Queensland Engineers and Agents in Cairns. Melville’s hydrographic survey system integrated accurate position information with data from a multi-beam echo sounder, towed side-scan sonar, single beam echo sounder and a forward-looking sonar. It also carried three fully equipped 9-metre Survey Motor Boats for surveys in waters not suitable for the ships themselves, and Melville was capable of embarking an AS350B (Squirrel) helicopter to assist in survey operations.

The ships replaced HMA Ships Moresby (II) and Flinders in 2000. Both ships took their names from prominent points on the Australian coast. HMAS Melville was named after Melville Island, just to the north of Darwin.

The only two ships of the Leeuwin class, they commissioned simultaneously on 27 May 2000, at Trinity Wharf, Cairns. The ships were multi-crewed, with three ship’s companies, Hydrographic Ship (HS) Red, HS White, and HS Blue, operating in rotation in both vessels. 

Mrs Joan Johnston OAM was the guest of honour at the commissioning, having launched the ship in June 1998. She was the widow of Commodore Eric Johnston AO OBE RAN, who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 1981 to 1989, and the last commanding officer of the original HMAS Melville, the shore establishment in Darwin destroyed on 25 December 1974 by Cyclone Tracy.

Melville’s primary role was hydrographic survey operations in Australian waters and beyond. Shortly after commissioning, the ship sailed from Cairns on its first operational survey deployment, in the waters off Fitzroy Island. During its first year of commission, Melville spent time surveying in the Torres Strait, and visited ports in Brisbane and Darwin.

A new role for the Australian Defence Force developed from late 2001 with the Australian Government’s adoption of a more assertive posture towards preventing asylum seekers and people smugglers from entering Australian waters. In November of that year, Melville berthed in Cairns for repainting to warship grey. In December, the ship’s company increased from 46 to 127 members, including an Army Transport Security Element, a Squirrel helicopter and crew, and boarding party personnel. The ship was force assigned to Operation Relex, which involved patrols to Australia’s north to intercept and turn back vessels suspected of illegal entry.

Melville’s participation in Operations Relex and Relex II continued into 2002. By the end of that year, successive commanding officers of Melville expressed concern that continued Relex deployments were having a negative impact on the hydrographic surveying capability of the crew, and the progression and maintenance of their core skills.

Alongside operational commitments, Melville has participated in diplomatic, ceremonial and commemorative events.

Melville contributed to Operation Render Safe in 2009. Sailing to Honiara in the Solomon Islands, Melville’s embarked explosives experts and divers worked with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force to make safe underwater explosives from the Second World War.

At different times, Melville participated in Operations Solania and Rai-Balang, the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to maritime surveillance and fisheries enforcement in the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia respectively. In 2019, during the Solomon Islands’ national election, Melville used its embarked boats to transfer Australian and Solomon Islander election observers between polling places.

Over the course of its service, Melville visited ports throughout the Pacific region, including Auckland, Christchurch, Napier, Noumea, Alotau, Madang, Rabaul, Port Moresby, Singapore, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, Honiara, Surabaya, Cilacap, Dili, Nuku’alofa, and Pohnpei.

Living up to the ship’s motto, hundreds of RAN personnel have served with determination in Melville, enabling the safe navigation of other vessels, supporting maritime trade and protecting Australia’s borders.