ex-HMAS Adelaide

The Central Coast Artificial Reef Project (CCARP) had been lobbying the Federal and NSW State Governments for 10 years to get an ex warship for the the Central coast. CCARP is a not for profit organisation made up of representatives from two of the commercial dive operators (Terrigal Dive and Gosford Diving Services) as well as the two local dive clubs (ie. Terrigal Underway Group and Brisbane Water Aqualung Club). They bid for and missed for both the HMAS Brisbane and Canberra but on February 8th 2007 it was announced that CCARP and the NSW Government had been successful in securing the ex-HMAS Adelaide for the Central Coast.

Post the announcement started a long period of haggling between the State and Federal Governments over funding for the project, the letting of Tenders for the ship preparation works, etc. In early 2010, as the ship was going through it final months of preparation before scuttling, a small group of Avoca residents, later to be incorporated as the No-Ship Action Group started a campaign against the sinking on the basis of an array of environment claims that were late shown by legal proceedings to be not sufficiently substantiated to stop the scuttling. Never the less, upon granting of the Sea Dumping Permit days before the scheduled scuttling on March 27th 2010, the No-Ship Action group were successful in getting an injunction put in place in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to stop the scuttling. The local community was devastated by this as community groups and businesses lost vast sums on money invested into the scuttling day celebrations.

A legal process ensured as did a quite bitter and devicisive community debate over the project. This continued for almost 12 months, the No-Ship Action group failed to substantiate their claims and the scuttling was undertaken on the 13th of April 2011. It was a somewhat smaller event than was originally planned, mid week during the school holidays but even still thousands of people flocked to every possible vantage point to see the ship go down.

At the time of writing this, the ex-HMAS Adelaide has been down for almost 6 months. It is covered in growth, mostly barnacles, polychaete worms, algaes and some asicidians. There are Hinged-Back Shrimp calling the wreck home already and it is covered in fish life. You can expect to see:

• Bulleyes
• Mado
• Stripeys
• Old Wifes
• Fortesque
• Southern Calamari Squid
• Yellow-tail Scad

When the water was warm even some of the tropicals washed down by the Eastern Australian Current called the wreck home.

If you want to dive the wreck it is quite straight forward. Any of the local commercial operators will take you out. Most dive boats going out of Terrigal seem to be heading in one direction at the moment. The only other thing you need to do is book your daily permit (currently $18 per day) through Central Coast Tourism and you are good to go.

Alternatively, if you have access to your own boat or dive with a club and wish to avoid the hoards on the Commercials, you can book a mooring permit (currently $60 for 2 hours) through Central Coast Tourism. There are two moorings for club/public use, one on the bow and the other on the stern.

The moorings on the ex-HMAS Adelaide are set away from the ship itself. There are many stories of divers going down the moorings, heading off and not finding the ship, I kid you not !! The direction of the bow and stern are marked by large Yellow "Special Markers" Take a compass bearing to make sure you find the ship. There are commonly also buoys on the bow, mast and stern and swimming to one of these and going down these lines is a good way to start your dive.

The ship is 127m long and it sits on the sand in approx 36m. It is very easy for your NDL time to disappear quickly at more than 30m. Nitrox is clearly one very good solution to this problem but the ship can also be dived in some distinct levels from deep to shallow. The mast being the shallowest part of the ship is a good place to finish your dive. There are many diver access holes that have been cut in the hull and you can always see light from one of these in order to get out of the ship. It is an extremely clean ship (some would say clinically so) and pretty much anything that could cause harm to divers has been removed.

It is a good dive to do every now and again to watch the development of an artificial reef.