The coastal minehunter HMAS Hawkesbury has returned from a rewarding three-month deployment full of achievements after demonstrating its skills on a local and world stage.

Hawkesbury sailed into Sydney Harbour on July 27 with the morale of the Ship's Company on a high following recent successes in the Minor War Vessel Concentration Period and in two multi-national exercises.

Sailing in company with HMAS Huon, Hawkesbury made her second SE Asian deployment since commissioning on February 12, 2000, with a sense of friendly rivalry and camaraderie developing between these sister ships.

The two ships exercised with many other units from the RAN fleet, including close operations with the hydrographic survey ship HMAS Leeuwin, numerous patrol boats and units from the amphibious FEG.

Hawkesbury was also able to exercise with other countries during the three major exercises - Tandem Thrust 2001, the inaugural Western Pacific Nations MCM and Diving Exercise in Singapore and finally the Minor War Vessel Concentration Period.

At Tandem Thrust, Hawkesbury recorded numerous mine finds, successfully detonated its first ever DAMDIC Mine Disposal Charge before conducting a mine field lead-through for the USN amphibious ships USS Junea, Germantown and Essex.

Hawkesbury and Huon then continued north for short visits to Cairns and Darwin, before sailing for the first SE Asian port of Kuching, the Malaysian capital of the Sarawak province on the Island of Borneo.

Next port of call was Tuas Naval Base Singapore for the Regional MCM Exercise where Hawkesbury was the only participating unit able to find and recover all mines in her designated area.

Following a brief stopover at the Indonesian port of Surabaya, it was on to Darwin, where the two MHCs made their first appearance in the annual Minor War Vessel Concentration Period.

Here, Hawkesbury not only won a sports competition, but also claimed the MWV Concentration Shield after being assessed by the Sea Training Group staff.

To top it off, Hawkesbury received a warm welcome at HMAS Waterhen, having returned with a clean sweep of awards and a new sense of pride after a very successful and truly justified deployment.