Africa. She returned to Sydney in August, then spent the rest of the year on training exercises and visits to New Zealand. Early 1990 saw her return to South-east Asia, then operate off the coast of Western Australia before a stint in the South China Sea, returning to Australia in November. The ship spent the early part of 1994 making port visits to western Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand before docking for refit in June. This did not conclude until the end of March 1995, with the ship sailing to the South China Sea for multinational naval exercises later in the year. In 1996, Perth participated in RIMPAC, before visiting Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup. She returned to Hawaii for another RIMPAC exercise in 1998. 1999 was spent primarily on exercises, along with a deployment to South East Asia, including port visits to Vietnam (for the first time since the war), Guam, Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore. Perth completed a round-Australia voyage during July and August prior to de-commissioning. Decommissioning and fate Perth was decommissioned on 15 October 1999. The destroyer was gifted to the Western Australian government in December 1999. She was scuttled as a dive wreck off the coast of Albany, Western Australia on 24 November 2001. The original ships' bells of the destroyer Perth and her World War II-era predecessor, the cruiser , are displayed at the Perth Town Hall. Freedoms HMAS Perth was awarded the Freedom of the Following Locations. 4 March 1966: Perth. See also Non-U.S. recipients of U.S. gallantry awards Citations References Books Journal articles External links Dive wreck website Perth-class destroyers Shipwrecks of Western Australia Scuttled vessels of Australia Ships built in Bay City, Michigan Ships sunk as dive sites 1963 ships Vietnam War destroyers of Australia Maritime incidents in 2001 Underwater diving sites in Australia King George Sound