After returning to Australia for Christmas and the New Year, the frigate accompanied the replenishment oiler to Heard Island and McDonald Islands in January 2002, where the two ships spent a month enforcing Australian sovereign rights and fisheries laws in the islands' Exclusive Economic Zone. During this deployment, on 7 February, the ship captured the Russian fishing vessel "Volga", which was illegally operating around Heard Island. Later in the year, "Canberra" joined sister ship and the amphibious warfare ship on a three-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of the International Coalition Against Terrorism.