HMAS Townsville (FCPB 205)

HMAS Townsville (FCPB 205), named for the city of Townsville, Queensland, was a Fremantle class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Design and construction
Starting in the late 1960s, planning began for a new class of patrol boat to replace the Attack class, with designs calling for improved seakeeping capability, and updated weapons and equipment. The Fremantles had a full load displacement of 220 t, were 137.6 ft long overall, had a beam of 24.25 ft, and a maximum draught of 5.75 ft. Main propulsion machinery consisted of two MTU series 538 diesel engines, which supplied 3200 shp to the two propeller shafts. Exhaust was not expelled through a funnel, like most ships, but through vents below the waterline. The patrol boat could reach a maximum speed of 30 kn, and had a maximum range of 5000 nmi at 5 kn. The ship's company consisted of 22 personnel. Each patrol boat was armed with a single 40 mm Bofors gun as main armament, supplemented by two .50 cal Browning machineguns and an 81-mm mortar, although the mortar was removed from all ships sometime after 1988. The main weapon was originally to be two 30-mm guns on a twin-mount, but the reconditioned Bofors were selected to keep costs down; provision was made to install an updated weapon later in the class' service life, but this did not eventuate.

Townsville was laid down by North Queensland Engineers and Agents at Cairns, Queensland on 5 March 1979. She was launched on 16 May 1981, and commissioned into the RAN on 18 July 1981.

Operational history
Townsville was used to depict the fictional HMAS Defiance in the second season of the ABC television series Patrol Boat.

Decommissioning and fate
In 2007, Townsville was marked for disposal. On 23 April, the Australian Government announced Townsville had been given to the Townsville Maritime Museum as a museum ship, along with funding to build a dry dock for display. The patrol boat was decommissioned at Cairns, Queensland on 11 May 2007, in a joint ceremony with HMAS Ipswich (FCPB 209). The two patrol boats were the last of the class in active service.

As of January 2012, Townsville is berthed at Ross Creek and is being maintained by volunteers while waiting for completion of the museum dry dock. The vessel is fully operational (minus weaponry). Construction of the dry dock is scheduled to begin in mid-2012, pending council approval of building plans and the securing of additional funding.