Project information

There is a significant amount of work to be done to prepare an ex-war vessel as an artificial reef and dive site.

View the links below for more information about each stage of the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE project:

• Site selection
  
• Long term wreck management
  
• Environmental assessment
  
• Ship cleaning and preparation
  

Or you, can view a more detailed progress report including upcoming project activities.

What's happened so far?

In 2000 the Central Coast Artificial Reef Project (CCARP) began lobbying the Australian Government to secure a navy vessel to be sunk as an artificial reef and dive site off the NSW Central Coast.

After little success with the Ex-HMAS Brisbane (now a wreck off Mooloolaba, QLD) and the Ex-HMAS Canberra (recently sunk off Barwon Heads, Victoria), the group were finally successful in obtaining the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE for the NSW Central Coast.

In February 2007 the Australian Government announced that the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE would be gifted to the NSW government for the purpose of creating an artificial reef and recreational dive site in waters off the NSW coast near Terrigal.

The HMAS Adelaide was decommissioned by the Australian Navy in January 2008. It was demilitarised and all oils and fuels removed by Australian Department of Defence during 2008.

History of the ship

The Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE is the second ship to be christened HMAS Adelaide in the Royal Australian Navy. View more information on the history of the HMAS Adelaide I here.

The HMAS Adelaide II (now known as Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE) was a long-range escort frigate with roles including area air defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance, and interdiction.  Built in the United States, HMAS Adelaide was commissioned in November 1980 and was the first of six Adelaide class guided-missile frigates to be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy.

The ship is 138.1 metres long, with a beam of 14.3 metres and displacement of 4100 tonnes.

The HMAS Adelaide participated in the 1990/91 Gulf War, in peacekeeping operations in East Timor in 1999 and 2006, and was deployed to the Arabian Gulf in 2001 and 2004.  The ship was also involved in the high profile search and rescue of solo yachtsmen Thierry Dubois and Tony Bullimore from the Southern Ocean in 1997.

Four former warships have already been scuttled as dive sites in Australia:

• ex-HMAS Swan and ex-HMAS Perth in Western Australia (in December 1997 and November 2001 respectively)
• ex-HMAS Hobart in South Australia (November 2002)
• ex-HMAS Brisbane in Queensland (July 2005)
• ex-HMAS Canberra in Victoria (October 2009)