Page 10 - newcastle decommissioning booklet

A Ship Named Newcastle
Navy (RAN). The Adelaide Class was based upontheUSOliverHazardPerryClass FFG and designed for long-range escort duties with roles including air defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, interdictionand reconnaissance.
She was the first RAN vessel to carry the name /Vewcasfteand was constructed at the Transfield Dockyard, Williamstown, Victoria during 1989 -1993. Newcastle was commissioned at No.5 Lee Wharf, Newcastle, NSW on 11 December 1993, under the command of Commander Rowan Moffitt AO RAN. Following commissioning, Newcastlewas home- ported at Fleet Base East in Sydney.
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HMA Ships Canberra, Adelaide. Sydney, Darwin and
iNewcastleduringExerciseKAKADU 1995:
and the South West Pacific for exercises withothernaviesandgoodwillportvisits.In 1996 she took part in Exercise RIMPAC, in Hawaiian waters, during which she provided assistancetothedisabledsailingvessel KailuaClipperandhelpedherreturntoport.
In August 1997, as part of a major North Asiadeployment, NewcastlevisitedQingdao in the Peoples Republic of China. This was a high profile three ship visit as the previous RAN ship visitto China had been in 1986. ExerciseswithPLA-Nshipstookplace
and the China International Travel Service conducted tours for many of the ship's company to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square.
Newcastle boarded and apprehended theSeychelles-registered fishingvessel Big Star inside the EEZ and on 4 March handed the vessel over to the Australian FisheriesManagementAuthority.Inmid-
1998sheoperatedoffthenorthcoastof Indonesia as part of Operation BRANCARD and was on standby to evacuate Australian nationals during a period of internal political instabilityin Indonesia. While returningto Australia the frigate rescued six people from the vessel Monray Frontier that was stranded on Middleton Reef, in the Tasman Sea, and took them to Lord Howe Island.
Her Ship's company were looking forward to well-earned Christmas leave in December 1998, however, the frigate was crash sailed to conduct search and rescue operations for stricken yachts involved in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Several yachts were sunk or badly damaged
and Newcastle rescued two injured crew members from the yacht So/o Global Challenger on the morning of 29 December. She also searched for the missing yacht Winston Churchillbut sadly ithad already sunk and her crew of three drowned.
In late 1999, Newcastle deployed to
East Timor as part of Operation WARDEN supporting the International Force East Timor (INTERFET) to restore order followingthe outbreak of insurgent violence after East Timor had voted to become independent from Indonesia. The frigate arrived in Dili Harbour
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During the 1990s she operated extensively
In February 1998 Newcastle conducted an Operation STANHOPE fisheries patrol off the Heard Island - McDonald Island exclusive
H MAS Newcastle was the last of the six
Adelaide Class Guided Missile Frigates
(FFG)builttoserveintheRoyalAustralian alsodeployedtoSoutheastAsia,NorthAsia economiczone(EEZ).On21February
in Australian and New Zealand waters and
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Images: Top- HMAS Newcastle launchingfrom Transfield Dockyard, Williamstown. 21 February 1992.
Bottom - HMAS Newcastle's commissioning Petty Officers (with a guest in khaki), pose for a photo with
their new ship, 11 December 1993.
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