She was sold to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1948, along with sister ship HMAS Sydney, but was heavily upgraded while construction was completed and did not enter service until the end of 1955.

In 1964, Melbourne was involved in a collision with the Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager, sinking the smaller ship and killing 81 of her crew and one civilian dockyard worker.

[3] During Sea Spirit, Melbourne was assigned five escorts: the US destroyers Frank E. Evans, Everett F. Larson and James E. Kyes, and the frigates HMNZS Blackpool and HMS Cleopatra.

[3] Stevenson held a dinner for the five escort captains at the start of the exercise, during which he recounted the events of the Melbourne–Voyager collision, emphasised the need for caution when operating near the carrier, and provided written instructions on how to avoid such a situation developing again.

[4][5] Additionally, during the lead-up to the exercise, Crabb had strongly warned that all repositioning manoeuvres performed by the escorts had to commence with a turn away from Melbourne.

[5] In preparation for launching a Grumman S-2 Tracker aircraft, Stevenson ordered Evans to the plane guard station, reminded the destroyer of Melbourne's course, and instructed the carrier's navigation lights to be brought to full brilliance.

[3][8] Seeing the destroyer take no action and on a course to place herself under Melbourne's bow, Stevenson ordered the carrier hard to port, signalling the turn by both radio and siren blasts.

[10] Melbourne stopped immediately after the collision and deployed her boats, liferafts and lifebuoys, before carefully maneuvering alongside the stern section of Evans.

[13] Clothing, blankets and beer were provided to survivors from the carrier's stores, some RAN sailors offered their own uniforms, and the ship's band was instructed to set up on the flight deck to entertain and distract the USN personnel.

[18] The carrier departed on 27 June and arrived in Sydney on 9 July, where she remained until November docked at Cockatoo Island Dockyard for repairs and installation of the new bow.

[18] 817 Squadron RAN, which was responsible for the Westland Wessex helicopters embarked on Melbourne at the time of the collision, later received a USN Meritorious Unit Commendation for its rescue efforts.

[22] Presiding over the board was USN Rear Admiral Jerome King, a posting that was controversial as he was the commanding officer of both the forces involved in Sea Spirit and the fleet unit to which Evans normally belonged, and was seen during the inquiry to be biased against Captain Stevenson and other RAN personnel.

[31] The report was inconsistent in several areas with the evidence given at the inquiry, including the falsity that Melbourne's navigational lights took significant time to come to full brilliance.

[35][36] Evidence presented during the hearing showed that going full astern would have made no difference to the collision, and on the matter of the failing-to-instruct charge the presiding judge advocate concluded that reasonable warning had been given to the destroyer and asked, "What was [Stevenson] supposed to do—turn his guns on them?".

One reason suggested was that it was to appease the USN, which had court-martialled three officers from Evans and had threatened to prevent US ships from operating as part of Australian-led forces if no action was taken against Stevenson.

[5] Based on the events of the collision, the film demonstrates the responsibility junior watchkeeping officers hold, and the potential consequences of failing to do their job.

[44] However, an act of Congress specifically permitting the inclusion of their names on the memorial is required: legislation to have those killed in the Melbourne–Evans collision has been introduced on several occasions, but has so far failed to gather sufficient support.

[7] They were the first group of siblings permitted to serve on the same ship since the Second World War, a result of the policy introduced when the five Sullivan brothers were killed following the sinking of USS Juneau.

A smaller tablet has the names of the three crew members from Illinois inscribed on the back, and it is one of the sites where an annual memorial service takes place on June 3 every year.

[46] In December 2012, Stevenson announced that his son had received a letter from the Australian minister for defence, Stephen Smith, saying that he was "not treated fairly" by the government of the day and by the RAN.

[47] In March 2014, retired RAN officer David Ferry, in writing about the Melbourne-Voyager collision, included a section on related Melbourne-Evans experience and some aspects of its joint board of inquiry.