Defence Web
August 11, 2011
Click here to read full article
The Australian Ministry of Defence has released a request for proposal for the disposal of 12 000 surplus Army vehicles and trailers as part of the nation’s biggest military disposal drive since the Second World War.
..over the next ten years the Defence Force will dispose of up to 24 ships; up to 70 combat aircraft; up to 110 other aircraft; up to 120 helicopters; up to 600 armoured vehicles; up to 12 000 other vehicles; and a variety of communications systems, weapons and explosive ordnance.
..the first opportunity for the Australian defence industry was the release of a Request for Proposal for the disposal of up to 24 Navy ships across the coming decade, including the HMAS Manoora amphibious ship (decommissioned this year), Adelaide Class frigates and Mine Hunters.
Request for Proposals for the HMAS Manoora will close on September 15 this year while submissions for all other ships will close on October 14.
Clearly our government has a massive disposal dilemma on their hands. The HMAS Adelaide scuttling cost Australian taxpayers in excess of $10 million. The comparatively small tourism revenue being generated from the wreck is concentrated in a handful of dive businesses and exposed the government to serious public liability risk.
In July 2010 David Coyle, who oversaw the scuttling preparation work for exHMAS Adelaide, confirmed that the vessel still contained approx 200 tonnes of aluminium and 2840 tonnes of steel. Simms Metals estimated the scrap value at that time was $771 200. Click here to read this report.
Since then demand for these precious resources has surged and developed countries such as the U.S., Belgium, U.K. and Canada are capitalising on the opportunity to salvage the valuable scrap by establishing sophisticated ship breaking yards.
Will the Australian government recognise this chance to establish a lucrative recycling industry creating jobs and eliminating waste? Or will they continue with the same archaic disposal methods that were used after WW1 when obsolete military equipment was just dumped in our beautiful ocean?
April 13 through July 13 2011 is the first 3 months of the ex-HMAS Adelaide Dump & Dive site.
Click here to view what has happened so far.
Courtesy Adrian Brightmoore
What Happened at Avoca Beach? website
Underwater danger
Newcastle Herald
July 27, 2001
(click image to view article)
Envirolab carried out testing for toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on samples of different materials still present on board the ex HMAS Adelaide on March 27 2010. 61 samples were collected and 48 samples tested positive to containing greater than 1mg/kg of PCBs, however 28 samples returned a result of 10 mg/kg or higher. Download the Envirolab reports here.
Evidence From Werner Hoyt - 15 April 2010 [PDF]
Evidence from Steve Paulsen - 13 April 2010 [PDF]
Evidence from Jim Puckett - 26 June 2010 [PDF]
Lead Paint Test Results - 13 July 2010 [PDF]
PCB Test Results - Envirolab [PDF]
Warship going cheap - the inspection
What happens when two dive shop proprietors stumble upon a deal too good to be true?
These photos, except the toilet, are from FOI requests on the final inspections of the ex-HMAS Adelaide before she was dumped in the bay at Avoca Beach. The toilet is a photo from within the dumped vessel at Avoca Beach by a diver in early 2011. What were these blokes thinking?
Courtesy Adrian Brightmoore What Happened at Avoca?
Ocean Grove Voice
July 13, 2011
Wreck dive site closed
Four months after Parks Victoria warned divers about visiting the ex-HMAS Canberra dive site, the scuttled ship is now closed.
Oz Dive Boat Charters owner Tom Wende visits other wrecks off the Victoria coast that date back to 100 years old and Tom said he was disappointed that the Canberra had come apart so soon after it was scuttled.
“It’s a pity that it hasn’t lasted more than two years” he said
Click here to read full article or visit http://www.oceangrovevoice.com/2011/07/ship-temporarily-shut/
Pictured above is the ex-HMAS Canberra frigate which was scuttled on October 4 2009 off the Geelong coast and is the identical sister ship of ex-HMAS Adelaide.
Our government spent $10 million of our taxpayer dollars to sink the wrong ship in the wrong place for a comparatively small financial gain and timeframe.
Geelong Advertiser
July 6, 2011
A further structural assessment has confirmed the helicopter hanger on the port side of the ship has now come loose requiring a temporary closure of access to the site in the interests of public safety.
Parks Victoria website
July 4, 2011
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=294
HMAS Canberra was scuttled on October 4, 2009 off the Victorian coast near Geelong and is an identical sister ship to the Ex-HMAS Adelaide.
It is less than two months since the ex-HMAS Adelaide was sunk on April 13 2011 and divers have already reported the hull has cracked. The crack has appeared in the ship’s ‘weak spot’ as outlined by a marine engineer in a $4000 report the No Ship Action Group commissioned in the month before the Adelaide was sunk in a last-minute bid to prove to authorities the ship would break up quickly and pollute the bay.
Read Werner Hoyt’s report online here http://bit.ly/fLRcqY
The marine engineer predicts the Adelaide will break up faster than the Canberra as the site has less protection from large swell conditions.
Click here http://bit.ly/fwNZFi to read NSAG Media Release April 6, 2011 ‘New report says frigates are wrong ship to scuttle’
The report was the basis of a summons in the Land and Environment Court the day before the scuttling in what was a last-minute bid to stop the dumping. Read the Summons here http://bit.ly/kJi8EB
However, Premier Barry O’Farrell and Member for Terrigal Chris Hartcher chose to ignore the report, endangering swimmers and marine life for the next 250 years.
Metal sections of the ex-HMAS Adelaide have been washing up on various parts of North and South Avoca as the ship begins to break up. One piece of aluminium sheet measured two metres by 60cm and hundreds of smaller sections measuring on average about 20cm by 20cm have been found strewn along the beach.
Click here to see photos of the same aluminium sheeting littering the ocean floor around the ex-HMAS Canberra. Figures 7,8,14,15,16.
The sheet is of sandwich construction with air trapped in a honeycomb of very thin aluminium between two sheets of aluminium. The trapped air gives the sheets enough buoyancy to keep them floating
According to expert marine engineer, Werner Hoyt, “The material washing ashore are internal partitioning aluminum wall materials not removed during preparation for reefing.”
In this form with razor sharp edges it could prove deadly in the surf zone. A surfer or child struck by a thin sharp sheet this size could sustain a very serious injury.
Local surfers want answers. How many of the deadly sheets are still lurking in the surf area from Avoca Beach to North Avoca? This could be a serious hazard to marine life if ingested such as whales, dolphins, turtles and other marine creatures.
“It appears that the Adelaide is becoming the poster child of why ships should no longer be reefed,” Mr Hoyt said. “Cost of reefing is now at four times the raw cost to recycle with out counting the resource recovery. The planners failed to account for differences in construction technologies and their likely behavior when subjected to a reefing environment.”
Beach sculpture made of washed up HMAS Adelaide debris on Saturday June 18 at Avoca Beach in conjunction with the Five Lands Walk.
It attracted a lot of attention and debate. Many people were shocked at the size of the larger pieces and the sharp edges. They clearly understood the danger posed by them washing in through the surf zone.
There have been almost daily reports of the aluminium honeycomb padding that is sandwiched between the aluminium walling of the ship washing up on the beach. It is disgusting to imagine the vast amount of it that must be littering the ocean floor.
A marine biologist commented that it’s silver colour would look just like a fish in the water and would most certainly be being consumed by marine life. ”This is an act of extreme environmental polluting.”
Central Coast Express
June 8, 2011
p4 Central Coast Express
June 8, 2011
Central Coast Express
June 6, 2011
The Department of Primary Industries, formerly Department of Lands, were up to their old tricks again.
DEBRIS washed up at Avoca and North Avoca beaches late last week is “not likely’’ to be a structural part of the HMAS Adelaide, the Department of Primary Industries has said.
Click here to read full article and view comments
http://express-advocate-gosford.whereilive.com.au/news/story/avoca-beach-debris-not-likely-to-be-from-adelaide-government-says/#comments
Newcastle Herald 4 June 2011
Flotsam Furore - Channel 10 News 3/06/2011
