HMAS Manoora (L 52) was a Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious ship operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Although commissioned into Australian service in that year, the vessel was heavily modified from her original design, and did not begin operations until the end of the decade.

In the early 1990s, the RAN initiated a procurement project to replace HMAS Jervis Bay with a dedicated training and helicopter support ship.

[1] The high cost of the project led to its cancellation by the Minister for Defence in 1993, with the instructions to find a cheaper alternative.

At around the same time, the USN began plans to decommission fifteen of their twenty Newport-class tank landing ships, including Fairfax County, and offering them for purchase by various countries.

[4] On 28 June 1994, when Saginaw was due to decommission and recommission as HMAS Kanimbla, it was announced that the United States Congress had decided not to release any of the fifteen Newports into foreign service as the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services was attempting to pressure US President Bill Clinton on the perceived running-down of the USN's amphibious warfare capability, while an unrelated Senator had expressed concern over human rights in Morocco (one of the other eight nations slated to acquire a ship).

[3][9] The conversion required the main features of the Newport class, the bow doors, derrick, and tank ramp, to be removed.

[1] In April 1999, while the modification was being completed, personnel from Manoora, Kanimbla, and Sydney bases assisted the New South Wales Department of Agriculture in containing an outbreak of Newcastle disease in Mangrove Mountain poultry farms.

[18] The ship remained in the region until late October, serving as a logistic and medical support base, and as a venue for meetings.

[24][25] These included large quantities of ongoing corrosion, faults with the deck crane and alarm system, overhauls of the propulsion, power generators, and air-conditioning, and upgrades to the communication suite.

[28] However, the government chose not to go ahead with this, as it would cost $4 million each to prepare them for scuttling, and could provoke similar reactions to the contested sinking of the frigate HMAS Adelaide.

[29] Because the two vessels were originally owned by the United States and were sold to Australia, their disposal had to receive US government approval and comply with International Traffic in Arms Regulations.