HMAS Ballarat warship on patrol off Darwin

ANOTHER Australian warship has slipped quietly into town

HMAS Ballarat moored in Darwin harbour, Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

• HMAS Arunta warship quietly exits Darwin for east Asia

ANOTHER Australian warship has slipped quietly into town.

This time it is the navy frigate the HMAS Ballarat, which has racked up quite a reputation for its drug busting successes while on duty in the Middle East.

HMAS Ballarat has been patrolling through waters northwest of WA and the Northern Territory.

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A spokesman for Defence said HMAS Ballarat was in Darwin for a short logistics visit.

“The ship has been conducting preparedness training and routine Operation RESOLUTE patrols off the west coast of Australia since departing Fleet Base West on 14 October,” the spokesman said.

“HMAS Ballarat will embark additional staff in Darwin and some personnel will take shore leave. These personnel quarantined in Perth for two weeks prior to departure.”

HMAS Ballarat will depart Darwin later today to conduct further training in the region.

Commanding Officer Ballarat Commander Antony Pisani said before sailing from her home port of Fleet Base West, the crew of the frigate underwent a busy training period before deploying.

HMAS Ballarat (II) in Darwin is the sixth of eight Anzac Class frigates built by Tenix Defence Systems at Williamstown, Victoria for the Royal Australian Navy. The design is based on the German Meko 200 frigate. Ballarat is a long-range frigate capable of air defence, surface and undersea warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. Ballarat's

“Our passage along the Western Australian coastline demonstrates Navy’s enduring commitment to regional security and stability to sustaining a visible presence as we conduct our patrols,” Commander Pisani said.

He said passing large offshore gas platforms while bound for Darwin was a reminder of the importance of Ballarat’s protection role in critical sea lanes.

In the past 18 months the crew of the HMAS Ballarat have been credited with stopping more than $1.2bn worth of narcotics from funding terrorism and other illegal activity.

In January it seized more than three tonnes of illegal drugs worth about $155m on a fishing vessel in the Middle East.

Prior to that it seized 900kgs of heroin worth more than $279m after boarding two vessels.

HMAS Ballarat’s arrival in Darwin comes a day after Australia’s Defence Minister Linda Reynolds announced regional partners have agreed to enhance maritime activities in the South China Sea amid mounting concerns over “destabilising and coercive unilateral actions”.

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Ms Reynolds met with Japan’s Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi in Tokyo on Monday and Defence says the ministers reinforced their strong opposition to any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by coercion in the South China Sea, and reaffirmed the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight.

Ms Reynolds has also confirmed India has invited Australia to participate in Exercise Malabar 2020, joining regional defence partners India, the US and Japan.

She said high-end military exercises like Malabar were key to enhancing Australia’s maritime capabilities, building interoperability with close partners, and demonstrating collective resolve to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.