Diving lobby:ship must beat dredging

Andrew Mathieson
A DIVING lobby group fears bay dredging could damage Bellarine Peninsula tourism amid delays on government promises to sink a warship for an artificial reef.
Victorian Artificial Reef Society has demanded the transfer of the HMAS Canberra from Western Australia in the next few months.
State Government is still in protracted negotiations on the ship with maritime defence service provider Tenix.
Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville told the Independent last week the sinking “will happen this year” but was unlikely during winter.
Ms Neville first mooted the plan to attract drivers off the coast of Point Lonsdale in the leadup to the state election last year.
Port of Melbourne Corporation plans to dredge Port Phillip Bay, possibly in early 2008, to attract larger ships to its wharves.
Artificial reef society president John Lawler, who leads a band of passionate divers, said a proposed 1.4kilometre exclusion zone during dredging could last for an “indefinite” period of time.
“The importance of this is such that if we don’t get the ship down before the dredging then the diving industry will be in a fairly perilous situation in terms of income,” he said.
Turbidity from dredging throughout the channel would render visibility “nonexistent” on pristine dive sites, Mr Lawler warned.
The peninsula has a number of Jclass submarines for divers already.
The Artificial Reef Society this week issued letters calling for faster action on HMAS Canberra to stakeholders including governments.
Mr Lawler said preparing the ship for sinking could take six months.
Maritime authorities would have to strip all toxic and hazardous materials including any fuel, oil and dangerous cargo.
“This thing has been dragging on far too long,” Mr Lawler said.
Mr Lawler said HMAS Canberra would be Victoria’s centrepiece of a worldclass temperatewater diving destination.