The HMAS Adelaide was the name ship of a class of guided missile frigates based on the Oliver Hazard Perry design, but slightly larger and more capable. The first four (HMAS Adelaide (FFG01), HMAS Canberra (FFG02), HMAS Emerald City (FFG03), HMAS Darwin (FFG04)) were built in the US, with the remaining two (HMAS Bleak City (FFG05) and HMAS Newcastle (FFG06)) being built in Australia. And thanks for changing all of your links there, Navy; I've updated them as at September 2023. They were commissioned during the early to mid 1980's (FFGs 05 and 06 in the early '90's), and have since been replaced by 3 ships of the new Hobart class which were due to arrive in 2013, though I note that the lead ship Hobart was not in fact commissioned until September 2017. The vessels were intended to counter threats from surface, subsurface and air attacks, which may be a bit optimistic but you go with the navy you have and can afford, not the one you want. Since I'm updating this in September 2023, I can tell you the fates of all but one of the class:

• Adelaide (FFG01): Sunk 13 April 2011 (Avoca, NSW). At the time I did the original version of this gallery, that fate was still very much up in the air because of court action by NIMBY groups.
• Canberra (FFG02): Sunk 04 Oct 2009 (Ocean Grove, Vic). There are two new ships named Adelaide and Canberra, both helicopter landing ships.
• Sydney (FFG03): Scrapped in May 2017.
• Darwin (FFG04): Awaiting disposal.
• Melbourne (FFG05): Sold to the Chilean navy as Almirante Latorre, from April 2020.
• Newcastle (FFG06): Sold to the Chilean navy as Capitán Prat, from April 2020.

In the earliest shots in this gallery, Adelaide had been at least partially stripped down; her Mk 13 missile launcher had been removed, the bridge windows had been boarded up, and she was sitting next to the now defunct car carrier docks awaiting her final fate. Around November 2009 she was moved back to the berth that you can see behind her in the earlier shots in this gallery, and was stripped and cleaned. Since she now sits in 32 metres of water but her mast extended up to 39 metres above the keel, about 13.5 metres of it had to be removed. (Not done at the time the earlier shots were done, but visible in the later ones.) She was finally towed out from the berth at 6am on Monday 11 April 2011, to be sunk on Wednesday the... oh. The 13th. Unlucky for some.

As you'd expect from something that looks lean and purposeful even when retired, the class was/is capable of over 30 knots courtesy of twin General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, each providing 15,287 kW.

For ASW work (amongst other things), the class carries two S-70B-2 Sea Hawk helicopters, the hangers for which are visible in some shots. Like the Mk 13 missile launcher and the 76 mm gun which sat forward of the funnel, the 20mm Phalanx which was mounted above the hangers had been removed. Dangit, I wanted to nick one of those too.

I'm quite fond of Adelaide; I stood on her decks once, and I'm definitely not a naval person. She didn't sink under my feet (granted she was tied to the dock at the time), so I'm quite grateful for that. The names of many of the Adelaide class ships have been or will be recycled over the next few years, which means that I can't guarantee how long the links in this description will remain current. That's the disadvantage of us having only a handful of major cities.