Australia's Forgotten Aircraft Carriers 

I was on HMAS Melbourne when we docked at Station Pier in Melbourne (1981 I think) when the tugs were on strike. Melbourne did not have bow thrusters, so the skipper improvised. From memory it was three Gruman Trackers chained down the forward flight deck and two on the aft flight deck. Their engines were used to draw us into the Pier. HMAS Perth was with us and she pulled into the other side of the pier like a speed boat and navy guys from HMAS Cerebrus bussed in to handle the lines as the wharfies were on strike too. All the people (spectators) on the Pier (including my parents) were suitably impressed, though I don't think the wharfies were 🙂.

I'm ex RAN, paying off in 1975. I could not believe it when the Melbourne was not replaced. So much skill and experience lost, to the delight of potential enemies. Recent events have proved just how shortsighted defence planners can be.

That was a fantastic video. My father actually served on HMAS Melbourne.

Gone but not forgotten. HMAS Melbourne visited NZ in the late 70's and I was impressed! Our RNZAF got the RAN Skyhawks to complement our existing Skyhawks and I got s ride in one once it was awesome.! The Skyhawks ended up with Draken International .. thanks from NZ 👍✈️🇳🇿

Well done. HMAS Melbourne was also a movie star - appearing in the original version of On The Beach.

Very interesting video, I always thought Australia only had one carrier the Melbourne - some of the video material actually depicted Dutch Fairey Fireflies also operating from a former British Colossus Class Carrier “HrMS Karel Doorman” (formerly HMS Venerable).

The Melbourne was in Sydney awaiting her fate for years. It was used on a number of occasions, as a 'training target'. There's a few blokes around that can claim they 'sunk' her, several times.

If Australia wants to have a naval aviation force at sea again I think the obvious choice would be the South Korean DSME light carrier design which was 30,000 tons standard displacement with the capability for 16 F-35b plus helicopters.

Early 80s I lived down end of Potts Point Sydney you could see the Melbourne parked up at the Naval base from our lounge window got a few pictures of her too

I remember HMAS Melbourne and Torrens at Station Pier in Melbourne open to the public in 1972. My father took me along and we visited both ships. The next time I saw her was anchored in Port Phillip Bay in 1985. We sailed past her on the family yacht admiring her empty hulk before the Chinese had collected her. We raised a glass to her as we passed. ps The week we saw her in 1985, a workman on the ship fell from the superstructure and died. Adding to her reputation of a cursed ship.

Thank you for the video.

great presentation.

Huge hole in this story. HMAS Melbourne replacement was planned to be HMS Invincible/HMAS Australia in 1982.

Excellent video, it poses some interesting questions. I'm old enough, that I have a poignant memory regarding Australian Carriers. When I entered the US Navy in 1978, I distinctly recall that there were still US Destroyermen who referred to HMAS Melbourne as "The Can Opener". Years of fine service, but when you've cut not one, but two destroyers in half, some folks will remember you, even if for all the wrong reasons. That's not meant as a dig, but just a memory from the past.

I can remember the Sydney in Sydney Harbour as a kid.

I sailed on HMAS Melbourne briefly as a smn UC basically making up the numbers as she didn’t have a sonar! She engendered a great love and respect of those who sailed in her. I was in WA when I heard she was being decommissioned a great loss to the navy. This was just before the Falklands war and there was talk of us purchasing HMS Ark Royal the ski jump version, but if it was a possibility the brits decided to keep her after that conflict. Maybe our government should have taken a leaf out of that particular book!

I'm actually really surprised that Australia doesn't have a carrier force. You location and the fact that you are all an island nation continent in such a strategic location in the world just kinda demands the projection of power that carriers provide. With all the strife in the region that China is causing, a carrier or six would do wonders for the protection and stability of the entire region...

As a child i was taken aboard the Melbourne on an open day when it came to Brissy in the early 70's. but whenever i mention the Melbourne people say i am crazy, we never had a carrier.

So Australia doesn't need to operate a fleet of massive, nuclear powered supercarriers. But what was considered a fleet carrier in WWII and the 1950's would be considered a smaller carrier today. That said, one or two ships this size would be an absolute game changer for Australia. If one could be found, I wonder if say a USS Midway class carrier would be cheaper to refit, modernize, and recommission than building a new ship. Australia might even be able to obtain two carriers this way. Just a thought but with China's growing ambition and capability, Australia really needs to come up with an answer to that threat. Certainly her allies will do all they can but threats are growing around the world and allied Navies are going to need to expand across the board.

The biggest embarrassment the Australian Navy has ever been responsible for - not replacing the Melbourne.

In terms of bang for buck as well as force projection, it would make a lot more sense for Australia to be spending it's money on a new aircraft carrier and battle group rather than subs.

does make you think - would the RAN be better off with a force of modern carriers instead of the planned nuclear subs? We'd ideally want at least 3, so there is always enough on hand should 1 be down for unplanned maintenance. A worthwhile investment in extra support ships would be worthwhile too. Though I think it is safe to say the Collins boats have seen their better days and do need replacing

Australia never operated a ' carrier battle group '. It operated predominantly an ASW carrier, as true carrier operations requires two carriers.

Simple, they don’t have the gdp or military budget to operate carriers. Look at the uk barely able to get 2 running, France with a single carrier and Italy with 2 light carriers, all have substantially larger economies.

We have the raw materials to make our own steel. We have the naval architect's and ship yards. Why are we not designing and building our own naval vessels? Sub's and surface ships.

I forgot to say great video

We need a carrier

I'm sorry but what power are we supposed to be projecting? We're pretty tame compared to most

Anyone know the music used in this video?

I was on Melbourne decommissioning crew. I remember cockroaches in bed with you and asbestos falling on your bunk. We were going to buy HMS Ark Royal but when the Falklands started the deal fell over. And with Hawk and Keating in power they didn’t give a shit about military. With the treatment from Keating 8 years later I got out.

Mmmmm my immediate thoughts when I saw the Can an Adl was I would think they would be capable of taking on the F35s with the ski jump time will tell I suppose

This would have been pretty good but unfortunately it is riddled with silly errors. The Senior Service deserves better.

We may be able to afford a new carrier battle group but we could have replaced, added to a carrier force. I think it is better to have an old carrier/s that no carrier force. I think it is prudent that Australia, over time, build up the strength of our navy.

You cannot "project power" with two or three of any "warship" because it is physically impossible to maintain ONE carrier "on station" in a "trouble spot" with no "spares" maintained "combat ready". "Refitting" ships must be an ongoing 24-7-365 "industry" for the civilian "workers" and "shipyards" that do it as a FULL-TIME JOB. You cannot "refit" one ship every several YEARS and have any economies of scale. Least of all if you have to have "your" warships "delivered" so zero percent of their "crews" have any part in building, fitting out, trialing and refitting them. USN personnel are aboard new USN vessels as soon as they are launched if not before and see the ship through all the way through the "shakedown cruise". They are called Plankowners because they go aboard when the ship is "bare bones". The RAN needs a "bluewater navy" about as badly as every other "western" country in the "Commonwealth of Nations" including "Great Britain". The "world stage" does not need their presence any more than it needs Japan's or Germany's or Russia's or any "empire" that only discovered "democracy" after the "age of sail". 95% of the "continent" Australia is unexplored "wilderness" and is completely "undeveloped" with zero resources there "for the taking" and therefore "invasion" is not a remote possibility. Just like the rest of the "Commonwealth of Nations". Islands are resource black holes without an adjacent mainland especially when they are net importers of basic necessities of life. Unless they can "earj their keep" and produce POPULATION GROWTH SUFFICIENT TO KEEP UP WITH INFLATION AND/OR HAVE SOME "STRATEGIC VALUE" NO "GREAT POWER" WITH A LEGITIMATE DEMOCRATIC FORM OF GOVERNMENT, ALL VOLUNTEER MILITARY AND NO "RULING CLASS" OF "ROYALTY" KEPT IN "POWER" BY "NOBILITY" HAS EVER "SETTLED" MUCH LESS "INVADED" ANY ISLAND "SOIL" BECAUSE THEY DO NOT NEED THE "ECONOMIC GROWTH" AND DO NOT EXILE THEIR "PEOPLE" TO "COLONIZE" A PIECE OF "LAND" NO ONE HAS "DEVELOPED" ALL OR EVEN A MAJORITY OF "HISTORICALLY" BECAUSE NOBODY THAT HAS SET EMIGRATED THERE IN THE PAST OR DESCENDED FROM THOSE WHO HAVE WERE ABLE TO "LIVE OFF THE LAND" IN ITS "NATURAL STATE". YOUR OWN "CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS" AND "HEADS OF STATE" HAVE NEVER "RESIDED" IN AUSTRALIA AS LONG AS THE "AVERAGE" AMERICAN TOURIST SPENDS THERE SO ITS "WORTH" THE 3 DAYS OR SO OF "TRANSIT TIME" SO JUST HOW "VALUABLE" AND "SOUGHT AFTER" DO YOU THINK YOUR "SOIL" IS?

Based

"Sold as scrap to the Chinese"

The US just decommissioned the Kitty Hawk. Why don't the Ozzies buy it and refit it? I bet they could get a good deal on it, just needs a fresh coat of paint, maybe a reactor refuel, and an air wing.

The Aussies were stabbed in the back,by their own gov.!!--you still are,to this day !!

I think the US is planning to retire the Nimitz pretty soon, it should be given to Australia and then the Gov refurbs it. Then we would be where we should be.

This is false information

Had to stop watching was starting to itch. Stop saying 'The' HMAS/HMS, please!

HMS Terrible. What a Terrible name for a ship I am sure it has some type of significance.

Shame Australia and Canada gave up their sea wings. I can see where it mattered far less for the Canadians, but Australia lives in an increasingly rough neighborhood and really should have a solid naval air capability.

I never knew Australia had carriers in-service. This is a good informative video about Australia's military past.

I have never understood why we didn’t replaced our aircraft carriers. I was a kid when I visited the Melbourne in an open day. I was so proud to know that my navy had such a potent weapon. I’m not a military person, but surely we need such ships to protect our naval units and support our regional missions.

There's a bit of the story you missed. Australia and Britain agreed on the sale HMS Invincible in February 1982 as a replacement for Melbourne. It was to be renamed HMAS Australia. The sale was cancelled just 2 months later at the outbreak of the Falklands War.

I was on the Frank E Evans when we were sunk. The crew of the Melbourne was the most professional I have ever seen. They had boats in the water and helos launched quickly and were picking up survivors within minutes. But the best part was the Foster's beer.

I wish we had LO1 Amphibious with LO3 F35B as taskforce 1 and LO2 with LO4 in the same setup as taskforce 2. Along with the nuclear subs these taskforces would be formidable.

I saw the Melbourne when I was still in school post her decommission, the damage from the 2 collisions with Voyager and the Evans and the resulting repairs was most noticeable. HMS Invincible was intended to be a replacement however her deployment to the Falklands war in 82 saw that endeavor cease. Good video.

As an Australian I would be most proud to have an aircraft carrier in our navy.

Fascinating video! As a relative spring chicken and someone who has only really got into Australian military history more recently, I've found it fascinating to hear how we had quite a large aircraft carrier force.

The RAN should look into deploying a carrier the size of the new USS America. Combined with the F-35B it would be a much more affordable force projection platform

there was another carrier lined up for purchase in the early eighties, HMS Invincible very nearly entered RAN service and at the last minute the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands put a hasty end to that deal

In the late 90's I worked with a couple of ex-RAN servicemen that served on the Melbourne, the stories they had made it seem "fun". Apparently not a comfortable ship though being based on a WW2 ship. Glad you covered the "whoopsee" selling it to the Chinese, apparently the cheeky little buggars asked the Australian gumbyment for the blueprints to the catapault. I think this is when the coin dropped lol! I heard the Americans weren't happy with the Melbourne ending up there (same with Mirages going to Pakistan).

Yes! We NEED two more Canberra Class and a wing of F-35b... That is, if we ever stand any hope of projecting any meaningful power beyond the mainland. A wing of this F-15ex would be a good acquisition as well, you know to recover the speed, range, and payload capabilities we lost when the F-111 fleet was decommissioned.

Forgotten? Not by anyone who served. When I joined in 73, the fleet was centred around Melbourne, and Sydney had only recently been laid up, and was at the "decomm ship" berth near Taronga zoo. Although it hadn't been a carrier for a while, it had been a troop transport for years. While Melbourne was getting on by the early 80's, it still provided a good capability, even more so back then as none of our escorts carried helo's, unlike now. But it was very maintenance /manpower intensive. It was still a sad day when they announced that she would be decommissioned. During my years at sea in DE's/Darings in company at sea with Melbourne, we spent our fair share of time as "RESDES" during flying ops with her.

I read once that the Australian Navy wanted a third Canberra class Ship to use as an Aircraft Carrier with F35Bs the the Government said no because of lack of manpower

I served in the RAN from 1954 until 1960 and saw all of these three carriers, though I only set foot of two of them. I served on the Sydney for about four months in 1955. By then, she no longer had any aircraft aboard although she remained at that time the RAN's flagship. My next draft after that was a River Class frigate. Melbourne became the Flagship after her arrival in May 1956.

My father always spoke fondly of his time serving on the Melbourne. Some of the most challenging flying of his career.

The time has come to add F-35's to ADELAIDE and CANBERRA.

In truth, Australia doesn't NEED a full carrier. Manpower wise, they require to much crew. The austrialians don't project power globally and most of their air operation could be handled via land based aircraft. That said. they COULD use pocket carriers, the new japanese carriers, i mean helicopter destroyers... would be perfect, operating a small wing of ASW and AEW aircraft, maybe a few f-35's. they could handle the anti-sub threats, anti-piracy, and other rolls efficantly with much fewer manpower dedication Consdier a US carrier runs with about 4200 crew, france runs with 1500 crew, Uk's QE class is 1600... and japans ISE is 371. So australia could operate 3-4 of those for the manpower cost of 1 medium carrier like the QE. As such it could spread them out for normal patrols then bring them togeather to form the firepower of a larger carrier when needed.

As part of defence cuts, HMS Invincible was due to be sold to Australia in 1983 for £175 million. The 1982 Falklands War, made that politically impossible. If Australia wants a few F-35B, they should wait until 2030 for the upgraded engine & new radar.

My father inlaw Rocky (rip) served on the Melbourne in the 80s and i served on tobruk in the 90s she was a good ship

A carrier or two makes sense due to the size of this country, the RAAF only has three (air defence) squadrons of F35 and two of those are in Newcastle and one in Katherine. We have no air defence assetts in WA, we have dry bases there, but it would take the best part of a month to get them properly operational and even then you would have fuel and weapon issues, let alone repair. the recent DSR works on bare minimums for the ADF with no scope for aircraft losses etc in a conflict. In WW2 you could build a Spitfire in 24 hours, the build time of a F35 in 41.5k hours.

I was aboardMelbourne 77-79, ships company Air Division on the flight deck. Great times.

Dad served on all three australian carriers and saw Albatross in plymouth harbour when commisioning Sydney. I was on Melbourne when we moved her too her disposal (graveyard) mooring below taronga zoo

It might be a option for Australia to make a new ship that would be much bigger then the landingships currently in service, yet have carreir capacities as well directly build in. Even with just 10-20 F-35's it should become a powerful tool for both landings as air support. It will also need 2-4 AWACS type aircraft and additional air units to help with carrier operations and additional tasks.

Before the Falklands War British PM Margret Thatcher had sold the HMS Invincible (VTOL) carrier to Australia, at a bargin price, with delivery after the other 2 ships of the class had entered RN service. After that war Thatcher had to ask Australian PM Malcolm Fraser to cancel the sale as the RN now required the service of all three Invincible class ships. Fraser obviously adhered to her request. The delivery of the old HMS Hermes to India was also delayed. During the war completed Indian first Harrier's, still in England, went directly to the RN to bolster numbers. Later production units were delivered to the Indian Navy.

I think our royal Australian navy should have air craft carriers

I have some photos somewhere of HMAS Melbourne taken by myself from across the bay whilst visiting Taronga Zoo as a kid. two thrills in one day for a country kid. The zoo and a RAN carrier.

BEST decision in Aust defence history to SWAP a venerable small aircraft carries for the 3rd best Air to Air refuelling capability in the world and JORN.... We need leaders like Beasley who plan to win the next war ..

Impractical to convert the Canberra class to a carrier. They would require a lot of new infrastructure to support aircraft including hangars, maintenance, refuelling, and possibly even new strengthened decks. It would be cheaper and more effective to buy a new class of carrier, however the cost-effectiveness of a carrier for a small force is questionable. A lot of resources are needed to support the carrier. Each carrier would need its own escorts including an Air Warfare Destroyer which would remove them from other tasks. Nice to have, yes. Projects power, yes. Cost-effective? I doubt it. Affordable for Australia? No. Adding Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV), that many refer to incorrectly as drones, is more feasible, but that is far from making the Canberra Class LHD a carrier. An LHD is a littoral warship, not a Carrier which is a stand-off and launch longer-range aircraft airport. Completely different roles.

Australia does not need any aircraft carriers. Australia is the aircraft carrier. We just wait for the Chinese to come to us. if it is the Chinese we are waiting for, and our you beaut billionaire subs can do the resr.

With a certain country, to the north making "nasty noises" a carrier strike group would seem vital. Such a thing would be expensive, but what price insurance? And since we are now buying nuclear subs make it a nuclear powered beast. We have to have back up for the subs so why not a carrier as well?

My dad had to crawl inside the cylinders of those steam catapults during a refurbishment at Garden Island. He had to spend days inside them measuring and polishing the surfaces down to an acceptable standard. He was a smaller man but he would get stuck in places. He would have to just keep wiggling until he could move on.

One of the factors which influenced the decision to not replace the Melbourne was the Falklands War. Australia was in serious negotiations with the British government to purchase the Invincible and a complement of Harriers to replace the obsolescent Skyhawks. When the Invincible and its Harriers proved their usfulness in that conflict, the Thatcher government blocked the sale. The alternative, the Hermes was not considered a sufficiently more advanced platform than the Melbourne and was rejected. In the end, it all came down to money. Australia could either afford a new carrier plus aircraft, or a new submarine fleet plus frigates. Hence Collins and the FFGs. As a result of this decision, the RAN no longer flies any fixed-wing aircraft and the RAAF doesn't fly helicopters. The Skyhawks were sold (or given?) to the RNZAF and since they were retired the Kiwi airforce no longer flies fighter or bomber aircraft. In terms of projection of power, an aircraft carrier has an effective radius of 1000nmi, a missile frigate 100nmi.

AUKUS!!!🦅⚡💪

@1:05 Didn't the British attack some of the Italian Fleet at port before Pearl Harbour?

From MT - USA... ... Thank you, Aussies... ... For saving us, too. You are - impressively - remembered.

Nice. I spent a lot of time watching as REDES behind Melbourne. Working upper deck watching the Trackers and Syhawks land was awesome. Again, the Government stabbed the navy in the back to spend more on the dole for indolents. A sad day when Melbourne was carted off for razor blades and Australia had no foresight for future operations as a blue water navy. My time, 1975-1995.

Nice video. Clearly the Melbourne, as big as it was, wasn't designed for the Jet age & I always thought that even the nimble Skyhawks look too big on the deck. And with a strike group of only 4-6, why bother? As has already been mentioned, HMS Invincible was almost Melbourne's replacement under the Fraser Govt at a give-away price before the Faulklands war. It's success in the Fauklands however changed Britains mind on wanting to sell it, and a change of Govt here saw the Hawke Government no longer interested in buying it. Not at all surprised the sale of the Melbourne to the Chinese was a catalyst for their Aircraft Carrier development. Well done boys! Interesting note about Britains Invincible Class Carriers is that the British MOD allegedly "deceived" the British Parliament into approving their construction & acquisition by proposing them as missle-armed Cruisers with a Through-Deck Helicopter capability in support of ground deployments. Sound familiar? The term "aircraft carrier" was never used. Meanwhile the Royal Navy was simultaneously developing the Sea Harrier, fully intending it would be deployed on the new ships. However, Invincible's deck was still too short for horizontal unassisted take off (no catapult), so in a stroke of brilliance, the ski jump was invented, which solved the problem. It was never part of the original design, but became it's trademark feature. And now we have two new ships which come with a ski jump as standard. Hmm??? They reckon it was too expensive to modify the design to remove it. How convenient. Having said that, it looks like the RAN is blowing their spending money for the next 50 years on nuclear submarines, so I think it's highly unlikely we'll see RAN F-35B's operating of the Canberra or Adelaide LHD's.

I was in the Canadian Navy in the 70's when the Melbourne visited Vancouver. They had such a good time that the Melbourne had to leave early while they still had enough sailors to make it home. Good times, good times.

A very interesting video. I served on Sydney in 1956 when she was used as a training ship for Cerberus recruits . There were no aircraft operations. In 1958 I served as an AB on Melbourne when she was deployed on Far East Strategic Reserve operations during the Malayan Emergency, the UK's police action against the attempted communist takeover of the Malay Peninsula. I paid off in 1963 when we still had a Fleet Air Arm. How things have changed!

I went to school with the daughter of one of the captains (late 1950's) and often wonder what happened to him. The name was Sherrit or Sherrat or something very similar. Would anybody happen to know what happened to this man?

We don't have the fleet nor the capacity to field one aircraft carrier. Even if we did convert those ships to carry F-35Bs, we would only get a max of 12 aircraft, and these would be at the expense of other aircraft. So, whilst it's based the Spanish Juan Carlos 1 - the two classes are not the same.

It is such a pity the Royal Australian Navy is not as powerful for defence as it was then. Then China would have thought twice before trying to intimidate Australia.

After hearing what happened to the Melbourne after was decommisioned. That makes me so angry.

Only problem is the F-35 is a flawed design that spends most of its time grounded. That said, We should definitely be operating the B's off the Canberra's.

It would be better and cheaper for Australia to purchase a 3rd LHA solely dedicated to F35 use and keep Adelaide and Canberra as ambitious assault ships then to re-fit either for F35 use, I would love to see this happen but I doubt we will unfortunately unless we go down a similar route Turkey is with loyal wingman drones as the Air package...??

Australia actually ran a competition in 1979-81 for a replacement, with the Italians offering the Garibaldi design, the British the Invincible design and the US a version of the Iwo Jima and the Sea Control Ship (a version of which become the Spanish Principe de Asturias). The Invincible design was dropped fairly early and in Feb 1981, interestingly the Iwo Jima design was selected, possibly due to being a better swing-role ship between CV and LPH. But this plan was dropped when the Invincible become available. If Australia had ended up with a carrier in the 80s, we would not have seen Fighters till the early 90s and they would almost certainly been AV-8B Harriers from the US not Sea Harriers, Radar and weapons commonality with the RAAF FA-18A the telling factor.

The Government need to purchase F35B.s and fit out the HMAS Canberra to Carry F35B and drop the Amphibious capabilities of the ship. We are about defending Australia and no invading countries, so a need to have amphibian craft imho is not needed.

Other services invested interests, the collisions wouldn’t have helped. BUT an essex class with harriers would have been cool, skyhawks on a light carrier would have been rather hairy to operate, much respect to the pilots of the RAN.

There is NO DOUBT Australia can have Aircraft carriers. In fact the LHDs we have now are larger than those old carriers. They have launch ramps but our silly navy wants to use them for rescue and amphibious means. The same design by Navantia (Juan Carlos) is used as a carrier launching Harriers ans soon F35Bs. As usual these days, the navey takes a limp wristed approach.

The science teacher at my High School was a Navy Cadet back in the day and played the Last Post on the flight deck during decommissioning in 1982.

Australia has 2 carriers no aircraft no aircover for the fleet.

I was on the decommissioning crew. Labour government made a total mess of the fleet air arm. Sold the F4s and leased them back from NZ Air Force. Tracker sat on the tarmac for 5 years. All knowledge out the door. And a great job on Collins class a total disaster.

Awesome video. Thank you.

F35B's for the Canberra class LHDs would in effect be the final element marking Australia's move to become a 1st rank global naval power.

We too (in Canada) remember a time ... *sigh* ... when we had a navy. 😂😅 Fantastic work mate!

When I was about 10 the Melbourne had a sailor's family 'for want of a better word' cruise. My uncle was a Chief Petty Officer at the time. I don't remember wher we went but we sailed out of Sydney harbour and didnt return to the next day. When old enough I always said I would join up if we had a carrier, alas it never eventuated.