HMAS Parramatta, a Royal Australian Navy ANZAC-class frigate similar to HMAS Toowoomba. Photo: Reuters
There was a flurry of activity on the naval docks on Garden Island on Saturday.
Recalled from a tour off Australia's north coast, HMAS Toowoomba sailed back into her home port of Rockingham to be resupplied and hurriedly sent off to join the international search for missing Malaysian airliner MH370.
On the dockside to watch the frigate's arrival was the man who has been put in charge of that search - Commodore Peter Leavy.
Officially he's the Commanding Officer of the Task Force - but he has no authority over the non-Australian ships and aircraft.
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"The search is being handled by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority," Commodore Leavy said.
"My job is to make sure we get the ships and aircraft into the area AMSA want us to search.
"With the foreign contingent helping us my job is to coordinate - not to command."
As soon as HMAS Toowoomba was moored, resupplying the ship got under way.
First the crew members who won't be needed for search operation were taken off the frigate in order to make room for new crew members and specialist equipment.
"We are taking additional divers on board," Commodore Leavy said.
"Their job will be to jump into the ocean and retrieve, or secure, whatever bits of debris we find.
"Anything that's too big to me manhandled onto the Zodiacs will be lifted onto the ship using the ship's crane."
Stacks of boxes marked "drysuits" and "pnuematic hoses" were among those manhandled on board and stowed below decks.
Also joining the ship will be one of the Navy's Seahawk helicopters.
It will be used, weather permitting, to search for debris from low altitude and if any debris is spotted the aircraft will hover over it until Zodiacs, or larger vessels reach the spot.
While the new supplies were being lifted on board there was also time for families and loved ones of crew members to get together - albeit on the dockside.
With Toowoomba tied up for just a few hours there was no shore leave for the crew but navy families have learnt to take advantage of every visit home - no matter how short.
The wife of one crewman told me: "We weren't expecting this. They've only been gone for a fortnight and we weren't expecting them back for ages. So it's nice to catch up here even if it's only for an hour or so."
It will be just as busy at Garden Island on Sunday when the specialist supply and search ship Ocean Shield arrives.
It too will be joining the search for the missing aircraft.
While in Rockingham the ship will be taking on board high-tech sonar equipment and the US Navy crew which will operate it.
The special sonar gear will be towed behind the Ocean Shield as it patrols the search area in the hope that it can detect the Boeing 777's black box flight recorder.
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