DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE
Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999, Fax: 02 6265 1545
MSPA 333/09
Friday, 09 October 2009
HMAS BALLARAT WELCOMED HOME FROM SIX MONTH
INTERNATIONAL DEPLOYMENT - NORTHERN TRIDENT 09
Senator Michael Forshaw, Senator for New South Wales, representing both the Prime
Minister, the Hon.
Kevin Rudd MP, and the Minister for Defence, Senator John
Faulkner, today joined family and friends to welcome home the Royal Australian
Navy ship HMAS Ballarat to her home port of Garden Island, Sydney, following a
six-month international deployment that took her ship’s company to 15 ports across
the globe.
Senator Forshaw congratulated the crew of HMAS Ballarat
on a successful
deployment which saw the ship undertake a range of tasks in support of Australia’s
diplomatic, international security and defence industry interests in Western Europe,
North America and North Asia.
“The Northern Trident 09 deployment has provided the crews of HMA Ships Ballarat
and Sydney
with extensive training and professional development while the ships
provided an excellent platform to promote Australian products and export trade
internationally,” Senator Forshaw said.
In the final leg of the deployment, Ballarat visited Japan and participated in exercises
with Japan’s Maritime Self Defence Force while Sydney
went directly to her home
port of Sydney.
“These exercises are a strong reflection of the maturing defence relationship between
Australia and Japan,” Senator Forshaw said.
The Commanding Officer of Ballarat, Commander Kevin Turner, praised the
dedication and professionalism of the ship’s company and described the six-month
world deployment as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“While there was a lot of hard work involved with benchmarking our skills against
foreign navies, there were also some amazing highlights such as sailing past the
Statue of Liberty and berthing in the middle of the New York,
“Another memorable moment for Ballarat’s crew was deterring pirate attacks upon
merchant vessels while transiting the Gulf of Aden, a testament to the training and
capability of all of Ballarat’s Officers and Sailors.” Commander Turner said.
Media contact: Defence Media Liaison: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
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