HMAS Melbourne, Modifications

In particular she had a problem with being top heavy and at almost every refit some objects were considered to be of no further use and so were removed to reduce top weight.

When Melbourne was built there were two single bofors mounted on the quarter deck, one in each quarter on a sponson. These were the first to be taken off however the base plates (rings) were left in place and covered by a scrubbed beech grating to provide seating for the officers as the quarter deck was their recreation space. The single bofor on the port quarter can just be made out in this photo of Melbourne arriving off Sydney from UK in 1956, escorted by the Royal Australian Navy flagship, HMAS Sydney.

Radar aerials were always a problem on Melbourne as her original lattice mast shook violently when the ship was at speed, in a big sea or when she launched an aircraft as the force of the catapult hitting the stops made some areas of the ship shake and vibrate excessively.

In the original configuration Melbourne had a long range Type 293Q radar atop the mast, with a Type 975 navigation radar beneath it and two Type 277 radars, one on the GDP and the other on the aft light deck. In 1963 Melbourne was fitted with a new radar, the Dutch designed LW02 which was placed atop the mast. The 293 was repositioned down the mast as was the 975. The two 277s were kept.

The LW02 was a heavy aerial being first fitted to the Navies new Type 12 frigates Yarra and Parramatta. When these ships were alongside and the radar on standby, the rotating aerial was so heavy as to cause a slight though noticeable ship roll.

When Melbourne entered dockyard hands in January 1968 her mast was removed for substantial rebuilding & modification.

After half life conversion the mast carried the 293 and the 975 plus several electronic warfare domes, the LW02 was moved to the GDP and the fwd 277 moved to the top of the compass platform. The aft 277 was dispensed with being replaced by an American designed modern height seeking approach radar (SPN-35) which is shown unprotected to begin with on the aft light deck.

The gannet and venom aircraft were started by cordite charges however the wessex were air start and so a network of compressed air tanks and pipes was built into the ship. Shortly after the wessex were commissioned, to reduce top weight the flight deck twin bofor and gun director (arrow) were taken off, but not at the same time. The gun director was removed first and at the next refit the bofor and ready use ammunition lockers were removed. The space left was used to park firefighting equipment and tractors.

To further reduce topweight, armour plating 3 inches thick was removed from the torpedo workshop. It was intended that 21inch diesel/air torpedoes would be carried and they were to be stored with warheads attached, however when the FAA was equipped with gannets this had to be changed to the new Mk 30 electric homing torpedo. The war heads were kept in a magazine and could be fitted together with nose and pistol, to a fish in 15 minutes or so. The armour plating weighed many tons and was covered with thick blast mats of asbestos. The deck heads were lagged with asbestos and when aircraft were being launched a fine white powder fell from the deck head & bulkheads and settled everywhere, including in our lungs!

HMAS Melbourne was commissioned with a pennant "Y" on the flight deck so aircraft could identify the ship, and her ship pennant number was "R21". Her aircraft had an identifying "Y" painted on the tail. After arriving in Australia the flight deck pennant and the aircraft letters were changed to "M". The ship pennant number was left unchanged until after half life refit when both the flight deck pennant and the ship pennant was changed to "21"

In 1967 number 4 boat, a 32 ft. Kitchener cutter was removed and replaced with a light weight zodiac or "Rubber Duckie", which as a utility boat to service the ship was totally useless. It was however used by the ships divers when bottom searching the ship or scrubbing propellers but of little or no use for any other tasks. To be used for 'man overboard' it proved OK in calm conditions, however in heavy seas one of the remaining two cutters was still the preferred option. Mostly the port cutter was always used as crash boat during flying operations unless U/S when the starboard cutter was used. The reason that the port cutter was preferred was that it was on the side of the ship closest to where an aircraft may ditch, either off the catapult or the angled flight deck.

The hanger deck could not be enlarged so became quite crowded as Wessex, Skyhawks and the larger Trackers were brought below.