A bid for HMAS Darwin was submitted by the state government at the beginning of the year with news of the sale expected as early as next month.

RELATED: Decommissioned HMAS Darwin on Tasmania's agenda

While the announcement is still pending, St Helens local and Chamber of Commerce president Peter Paulsen has been strongly campaigning for the ship to be sunk near Binalong Bay.

With the state budget to be handed down on Thursday, Mr Paulsen said the chamber was hopeful the dive wreck project had been taken into consideration.

“Given they have put forward a formal application to the Defence Department for the ship, we would hope there would be some sort of funding to support that,” he said.

It is understood South Australia and Queensland may also be vying for the decommissioned warship. 

In 2016, hopes of landing ex-navy ship HMAS Tobruk were crushed when Queensland beat Tasmania in the bidding battle.

It was the second decommissioned ship for the sunshine state, which already had HMAS Brisbane.

“Queensland is leading the way, they very clearly understand the value of ex-navy ships as a dive attraction,” Mr Paulsen said.

A shipwreck for the North-East had been on the chamber’s agenda since 2001 and Mr Paulsen said it would all come down to the state government’s ability to negotiate with the Defence Department.

“We have got to take it on good faith at this stage that they’re in the game and they recognise what a great benefit this would be to the North-East corner of the state,” he said.

The state government said it had not yet received any news about HMAS Darwin.