The comprehensive environmental assessment of the scuttling of the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE is available on line. This assessment was completed over a period of one and a half years and considered aspects such as the potential for impacts on flora and fauna, coastal processes, sediment movement and marine archaeology. The assessment shows that the scuttling of the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE will have no significant impact as defined by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. View the Ex-HMAS Adelaide enviromental assessment report.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has considered a comprehensive range of environmental issues in reviewing the Permit issued by the then Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA). Read the decision on the AAT website, or alternatively go to the plain English summary of the decision.
The following is a report created after the scuttling of the Ex-HMAS Adelaide and available for download below.
Environmental and structural integrity monitoring has been carried out for the Ex-HMAS Adelaide in accordance with the requirements of the Long Term Monitoring and Management Plan.
The monitoring was carried out by Worley Parsons who were commissioned to carry out the work by NSW Crown Lands. Copies of the main report for Sediment Sampling and Reef Communities can be accessed below.
The first of the reports below covers the initial sampling of sediments carried out one month post-scuttling of the ship, the finding was that that were no appreciable differences in the concentrations in a suite of heavy metals from marine sediments around the Ex-HMAS Adelaide and from control sites within Bulbararing Bay.
The second report on sampling some six months post-scuttling concludes “… there has been no appreciable increase in the concentrations of the metals tested in marine sediments adjacent to the ship. Rather, for many of the metals analysed (aluminium, chromium, iron, nickel and zinc), concentrations were lower than in previous surveys. Concentrations of copper and lead were similar for all surveys.” Further, “Testing of sediments which have accumulated within the hull of the ship did not indicate significant lead contamination.” And that “Based on these findings, impact to the marine environment and associated benthic biota as a result of metal corrosion and/or degradation of paint layers from the Ex-HMAS Adelaide is considered unlikely.”
The survey at six months found that “... the majority of the ship’s surface had changed from being virtually bare to completely covered in encrusting organisms including serpulid polychaetes, barnacles, ascidians, encrusting algae, bryozoans and hydroids.” and that “... fish abundance and diversity observed around the Ex-HMAS Adelaide have also increased substantially.”
Control samples were lost during an incident where the special mark to which the samples were attached broke free during severe storms in May. The sampling will be the subject of a re-test and reported when the results are available.
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