HMAS Melville is the second ship of the Leeuwin class

Leeuwin class survey vessel

The Leeuwin class is a class of two hydrographic survey vessels in the Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Leeuwin and HMAS Melville. Both ships were built by NQEA in Cairns, Queensland, and entered service in 2000....

 of hydrographic survey vessels of the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN). Melville is named after Melville Island to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

. Melville is the first commissioned ship of the Royal Australian Navy to carry this name, although the Navy base in Darwin bore the name "HMAS Melville" from 1940 to 1975. Melville and her sister ship were built by NQEA in Cairns, Queensland

Cairns, Queensland

Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...

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Melville has the ability to carry three fully equipped Fantome class survey motor boats

Fantome class survey motor boat

The Fantome class survey motor boat is a class of eight small boats operated by the Royal Australian Navy and DMS Maritime. The four-man survey boats are designed to operate from the Leeuwin class survey vessels, with three assigned to each ship, while the seventh and eighth were attached to the...

 for surveys in waters not suitable for Melville herself. HMAS Melville can carry a Squirrel

Eurocopter Ecureuil

The Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil is a single-engined light helicopter originally manufactured by Aérospatiale . The AS350 is marketed in North America as the AStar...

 helicopter from 723 Squadron

723 Squadron RAN

723 Squadron is a Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron.-History:723 Squadron was first commissioned into the RAN on 7 April 1952 and was equipped with one Dakota, one Wirraway, one Sea Otter and two Sea Fury aircraft...

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Operational history

In June 2003, Melville was sent to south Queensland to inspect the believed wreck location of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur

AHS Centaur

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was a hospital ship which was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 14 May 1943...

, which had been torpedoed off Moreton Island during World War II. This had been prompted by several media reports that the wreck was unlikely to be Centaur, and had been wrongly classified since its discovery in 1995. Following up on surveys conducted by the minehunters and a month previous, the efforts of Melville confirmed that the shipwreck was not the hospital ship.