Fond Farewell of HMAS Maitland
Channel: Royal Australian Navy
Date: 2022-05-05

Royal Australian Navy personnel from HMAS Maitland said a fond farewell to the Armidale-class patrol boat in a decommissioning ceremony at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin on Thursday, 28 April 2022 after 16 years of distinguished service. Since commissioning in 2006, HMAS Maitland sailed more than 435,054 nautical miles -- which is nearly 900,000km or 20 times around Earth -- deployed on Operations Augury, Rai Balang, Sandalwood and Solania, and supported the Australian Government agencies Border Force, Australian Fisheries and Australian Federal Police on Operation Resolute. HMAS Maitland is named after the City of Maitland in New South Wales, and the World War II naval training establishment located in Newcastle, NSW. She is the second Armidale-class patrol boat to be decommissioned.