East Coast community members protest against proposed HMAS Darwin wreck

No Diver Wreck for the Bay of Fires coordinator Lesa Whittaker said about 30 people attended the protest on July 14.

“It was so the community knows that people in our area oppose the dumping of scrap metal into our pristine environment,” Ms Whittaker said.

The HMAS Darwin was decommissioned in December.

A bid for the ship was submitted by the state government at the beginning of the year, and news of the sale was expected to be announced this month.

“It’s not ethical to scuttle a ship in this day and age. The bottom line is you’re polluting the ocean,” Ms Whittaker said.

“I think what makes us most sad is if the bottom line is money, the environment is always going to lose out.

“We have such beautiful, natural resources, and this area, the Bay of Fires, is already known as an ideal dive site. There is actually no need to dump a ship out there to get people into the area, they’re already coming for those reasons.”

St Helens Chamber of Commerce president and Bay of Fires Dive owner Peter Paulsen had campaigned for the HMAS Tobruk to be awarded to Tasmania for about five years. It was instead scuttled off Queensland’s coast.

Mr Paulsen now has high hopes for the HMAS Darwin to be scuttled off the East Coast as a unique tourism drawcard.

“This is my backyard. I’ve lived here for close to 40 years now, and I’m very much aware of the great aspects of this being such a magnificent environment,” he said.

“This will become just a giant fish habitat.”

North East Bioregional Network president Todd Dudley said the region already had “more tourists than we can handle”.

However, Mr Paulsen said the tourism impact to the region would not be huge.

“It’s a low-volume, high-value tourist, and their impact on the area is less. They’ll carry us through the quieter periods. The best time to dive is [winter]. Divers know this, and understand this,” he said.

“I think we should contribute to the massive tourism trade in the state. We’ve got a lot to offer with our natural resources. There are so many benefits that will flow from it.”

Mr Paulsen offered to do a full presentation on the scuttling for those in opposition to the dive wreck.

The HMAS Darwin was in service for more than three decades, and was deployed to the Middle East, East Timor, and Solomon Islands.