Defence Minister Pat Conroy and Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite today (29 September 2026) confirmed that at least two Arafura-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) will be permanently based at HMAS Cairns. The decision follows a $250 million infrastructure upgrade announced in May and underscores the Albanese Government’s push to bolster northern Australian maritime domain awareness. OPVs are the workhorses of Operation Sovereign Borders and joint Australian Border Force (ABF) patrols. With a range of 4,000 nautical miles and a 21-day endurance, the vessels will conduct surveillance, fisheries enforcement, illegal-migration interdiction and search-and-rescue across the Torres Strait and Coral Sea—sea-lanes that carry more than 1,200 commercial voyages a month. Locating the ships in Cairns means faster response times to unauthorised maritime arrivals and foreign fishing incursions originating in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands. Defence estimates that redeployment will cut average intercept times by six hours and save $3 million in annual fuel costs. The home-porting also creates 300 direct sustainment jobs, with Austal and Raytheon already advertising for marine technicians and systems integrators. For global-mobility planners the enhanced patrol presence signals tighter enforcement of visa-overstay checks on coastal cargo vessels and cruise ships. Shipping agents have been advised to ensure all crew have compliant Maritime Crew (subclass 988) visas and valid health insurance, as ABF intends to increase random visa audits during port calls at Cairns, Townsville and Weipa. Regional partners—including PNG’s Defence Force and Fiji’s Navy—will rotate liaison officers through HMAS Cairns to improve interoperability, paving the way for quicker humanitarian-assistance deployments that could facilitate expedited visa arrangements for disaster-response personnel.
