Australia — HMAS Toowoomba hands over to HMAS Parramatta in Middle East

HMAS Toowoom­ba hand­ed over mar­itime secu­ri­ty duties to HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta in the Mid­dle East this week after com­plet­ing a suc­cess­ful six-month deploy­ment as part of Oper­a­tion SLIPPER.

HMAS Toowoom­ba is now head­ing home to Fleet Base West in Rock­ing­ham, West­ern Aus­tralia, after trav­el­ling more than 35,000 nau­ti­cal miles dur­ing her sec­ond deploy­ment to the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tions (MEAO).

Com­mand­ing Offi­cer Com­man­der Andrew Quinn said Toowoomba’s Ship’s Com­pa­ny had per­formed admirably over the course of the deployment. 

“I am extreme­ly proud of the way my Ship’s Com­pa­ny has worked dili­gent­ly over the past six months as the ship car­ried out counter-ter­ror­ism activ­i­ties in the Mid­dle East mar­itime envi­ron­ment and counter-pira­cy duties in the Gulf of Aden,” Com­man­der Quinn said. 

HMAS Toowoom­ba has been replaced by HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta, which com­menced secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions on 18 Octo­ber 2011. HMAS Parramatta’s rota­tion is the 27th by a RAN ship to the MEAO since 2001. 

Dur­ing the past six months, HMAS Toowoom­ba con­duct­ed mul­ti­ple board­ings and helped numer­ous ves­sels requir­ing med­ical or engi­neer­ing assistance. 

Com­man­der Quinn said the past six months had been a chal­leng­ing peri­od for his crew but they should all be proud of the way they con­duct­ed them­selves and car­ried out their duties. 

“The MEAO can be a very demand­ing and volatile envi­ron­ment in which to oper­ate, and I am pleased to say that Toowoomba’s crew rose to every chal­lenge in a pro­fes­sion­al and com­mit­ted fash­ion, main­tain­ing Australia’s high­ly respect­ed posi­tion as a coali­tion partner. 

“I would also like to acknowl­edge the sup­port of fam­i­ly and friends back home – it cer­tain­ly helps and boosts morale to know that our loved ones in Aus­tralia are sup­port­ing us while we are deployed.” 

Between oper­a­tional com­mit­ments, Toowoomba’s Ship’s Com­pa­ny raised more than $2000 for Beyond­Blue and more than $3000 for the Toowoom­ba Flexi School by com­plet­ing a 24-hour marathon and hold­ing a fete dur­ing the ship’s birth­day on 6 October. 

HMAS Toowoom­ba and her Ship’s Com­pa­ny of approx­i­mate­ly 190 per­son­nel are sched­uled to arrive at Fleet Base West on 7 Novem­ber, 2011. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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