TIME TO SAY GOODBYE: TO REMEMBER

Weapons cache siezed off the coast of Oman in 2016

So when HMAS Darwin, our oldest serving warship, is decommissioned from active service for the Royal Australian Navy on 9 December this year, there will be few in service who have been part of an exercise or active deployment in which the Guided Missile Frigate had not played a major role.  She is a part of everyone’s story.

As part of counter terrorism operations her vigilant boarding parties have stopped truckloads of potential enemy weapons from reaching the battlefield – rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and more, and denied criminal syndicates hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money.  

To give some context to her longevity, she was commissioned in 1984. This was the same year our current Chief of Defence, Air Chief Marshal Binskin, first enlisted in the RAAF and the year our Chief of Army, Lt-Gen Campbell graduated Duntroon.  Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Davies had only five years in RAAF and the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Barrett, was a young naval officer with nine years’ service under his belt. For many, if not most in service today, HMAS Darwin was at sea when they were born.

Criminals denied almost $300 million in one dust

On 9 December, when she lowers her flag for the last time, all in uniform will mark this special day and will one day will recall where they were when Darwin decommissioned.

To mark the decommissioning and to celebrate her service, the ship’s current company have created a special commemorative range of mementos and keepsakes for all who have served on or supported Darwin.

HMAS Darwin’s Commanding Officer, Commander Phillip Henry, like all who have served on Darwin, is proud of the ship’s service.

“In the finest traditions of the RAN, Darwin is the ‘First Lady of the Fleet’. This is an award given to the most senior or most experienced ship in the fleet. There are many memories shared between current serving members of ships’ company and those of the past. All have shared in her ups and downs but throughout there is a camaraderie unlike no other. She is determined, she is resurgent and she will always be our ship, the mighty Darwin,” CMDR Henry wrote.

In her 33 years of service Darwin’s achievements include, to name just a few:

• Winning the Duke of Gloucester Cup for RAN Efficiency (the RAN’s highest honour for ships) in the years 1991, 93 and 94
• Deploying to the Middle Eastern Area of Operations on seven occasions, including the first Desert Shield operation in 1990
• Being one of the first ships to arrive in Dili Harbour, Timor in support of INTERFET operations 1999
• Conducting Operation TREK in support of the Solomon Islands, May through June 2001
• Rescuing BOC Challenge round-the-world-race yachtswoman Isabelle Autisser in the Southern Ocean in January 1995

CMDR Henry says on decommissioning Darwin will have been at sea for 89,600.5 hours (equivalent to more than 10 years continuously underway); sailed 1,088,328 nautical miles (or 50 times around the world); launched around 30 missiles; 50 torpedos, and fired nearly 9,500 rounds from her 76mm Rapid Fire Anti-Air Gun.