HMAS Cerberus (Flinders Naval Depot)

HMAS Cerberus is the Royal Australian Navy's principal training establishment, located on Hanns Inlet between Sandy Point and Stony Point on Western Port, adjacent to Crib Point on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. The site is owned by the Department of Defence and operated by the RAN. The base occupies most of Stony Point to the north and all of Sandy Point to the south, and is a bounded locality of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula, recording a resident population of 1,124 at the 2021 census.

The establishment trains about 6,000 personnel annually, with an average of 800 trainees present at any time. Its role, originally confined to RAN personnel, was extended to Army and Air Force trainees with the creation of four tri-service schools. Cerberus hosts the RAN Recruit School, through which all full-time and reserve general entry sailors pass on an eleven-week course covering drill, first aid, sea survival, basic seamanship, ship maintenance and corrosion control, and proficiency with the F88 Austeyr, including a two-and-a-half-day sea familiarisation period. Recruits are organised into four divisions for the duration of the course. Other units are the School of Ship Safety and Survivability, which covers firefighting, damage control and nuclear, biological and chemical defence; the Boatswains Faculty; the Maritime Communications and Information Systems Wing of the Defence Force School of Signals; the Engineering Faculty, which trains Marine Technicians, Electronics Technicians and their officer equivalents; the Medical Training School; the Supply School; the Gunnery School; the Small Arms Training School and WTSS Range; and the ADF Schools of Physical Fitness, Catering and Dental.

The base covers 1,517 hectares and includes training and recreation facilities, two chapels and a small marina. It also hosts the Crib Point Satellite Earth Station, established in 1991 and operated by the Bureau of Meteorology, which services geostationary meteorological satellites, including China's Turn Around Ranging Station and the Japanese GMS-4, GMS-5 and Himawari series.

The site was purchased in 1911 and the base opened in September 1920, becoming known as Flinders Naval Depot in 1921 and HMAS Cerberus from 1 April 1921. It housed the Royal Australian Naval College from 1930 until 1958, when overcrowding prompted the College's return to HMAS Creswell. Temporary buildings erected for wartime recruit training during the Second World War were later demolished or replaced.