HMAS Geelong, also a Fremantle-class patrol boat, honoured the Victorian port city whose name first went to war on a Bathurst-class corvette in World War II. She spent much of her career on border protection, surveillance, and presence operations, projecting Australian sovereignty from busy coastal shipping lanes to remote northern patrol areas. Geelong and her sisters formed the backbone of Australia’s patrol boat force for decades, their service knitting together community names, naval tradition, and the essential, relentless task of watching and protecting the nation’s maritime front door.
