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HMAS Melbourne
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HMAS Melbourne

Three ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named for Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria and second largest city in Australia

The first HMAS Melbourne was a Town class light cruiser laid down by Cammell Laird and Company Limited at Birkenhead in England on 4 April 1911, launched on 30 May 1912 by Mrs. F. Braund, daughter of Mr. Barry Smith of Adelaide, and commissioned on 18 January 1913. Melbourne was paid off to reserve and laid up inactive at Sydney between 5 August 1919 and 14 April 1920 and again from 29 September 1924 to 8 October 1925. HMAS Melbourne sailed from Sydney for the United Kingdom on 9 February 1928, arrived at Portsmouth on 12 April 1928, paid off on 23 April 1928, was sold to the Alloa Shipbuilding Company of Rosyth in Scotland in December 1928 and broken up in 1929.

The second HMAS Melbourne (R-21) was a Majestic class aircraft carrier laid down by Vickers-Armstrong Limited at Barrow-in-Furness in England on 15 April 1943 as HMS Majestic and launched on 28 February 1945. Construction was suspended in May 1946 but when it was decided to acquire two aircraft carriers for the Royal Australian Navy in 1947, work was resumed in 1949. On 28 October 1955 she was renamed HMAS Melbourne in a ceremony performed by Lady White, wife of the then Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Sir Thomas White and commissioned in the Royal Australian Navy. Melbourne collided with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales which sank with the loss of 82 lives on 10 February 1964, and collided with the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans which sank in the South China Sea with the loss of 74 of her crew on 3 June 1969. HMAS Melbourne paid off on 30 June 1982 and laid up at Sydney, was sold to China United Shipbuilding Company Limited in February 1985 and broken up in the port of Dalian in China where she had been studied to help design a Chinese aircraft carrier.

The third HMAS Melbourne (FFG-05)is an Adelaide (Oliver Hazard Perry) class guided missile frigate laid down by AMECON at Williamstown in Victoria on 12 July 1985, launched on 5 May 1989 and commissioned on 15 February 1992.