Fleets Longest Serving Workhorse Turns 35

15 January 2008 By LCDR Scott Dixon

The Cairns based Landing Craft Heavy HMAS Brunei (LCDR Scott Dixon) recently celebrated her 35th anniversary since commissioning into the Fleet on 5 January 1973.

Brunei was the second vessel of the class, commissioning into Naval service while Balikpapan, the first of class, was in service with the Army. At 35 years of age, she is the longest serving commissioned vessel in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), with only two crew members born before she entered service.

In her early years, Brunei was based in Brisbane, providing support to operations and exercises along the east coast of Australia and as far a field as Indonesia and the Solomon Islands.

In 1985, Brunei relocated to Cairns, performing duties as an interim survey vessel. During this period Brunei conducted surveys within the Great Barrier Reef and Papua New Guinea waters and supported Beachcomber surveys.

Relocating to Sydney in 1988, Brunei assumed the role of a diving support vessel, supporting diving operations and training, while maintaining an amphibious capability.

Brunei again relocated in 1998, to her current home port of Cairns, seeing operational service in Bouganville, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. Brunei was awarded a Meritorious Unit Citation for 'sustained outstanding service in warlike operations' supporting International Force East Timor (INTERFET) during Operation STABILISE.

Over the past few years, Brunei has had a diverse workload, conducting amphibious exercises, and providing support to Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS), RAN Dive School and Australian Clearance Dive Teams (AUSCDT) One and Four.