|
HMAS Perth was scuttled on 24 November 2001 in about 40 metres of water, making her the largest deliberately scuttled vessel with the intention of creating an artificial reef for recreational divers.Water temperature here ranges from mid-teens to low 20's. Season is October/November through to April/May, with mid-February to April generally the best for temperature & visibility.Viz here starts at 5-10 metres, generally 10+ and can range up to 25m+.The Royal Australian Navy de-commissioned HMAS Perth in December 1999 after a 34 year career, and thereafter presented her to the City of Albany in the south of Western Australia.The Perth had 3 deployments on active duty during the 1960's and 1970's with many tours of duty around the world. The Perth was built as a guided missile destroyer and during her career has steamed more than 1 million nautical miles and has the dubious distinction of being the only RAN ship to be hit by enemy fire during the last 50 years. Fortunately there were no casualties
|
|
The HMAS SWAN is a River Class Frigate Destroyer Escort built on the 16th of December 1967. Launched at HMA Naval Dockyards in Williamston, Victoria. Twenty months later on the 20th of January 1970 she was commissioned and ready to serve the Australian Navy.She served for 26 years with the Australian Navy travelling to Australian and international ports mostly in South East Asia, She also served in the Vietnam War escorting the Troop Ship HMAS Sydney . In September 1981 she also visited China.She had a full load displacement of 2700 Tonnes, carried 250 Officers and Seamen and the Commander was Commander D.W. Falconer. and was the most expensive warship ever built in Australia costing 22 million dollars. During the course of her career she steamed approx. 800,000 nautical miles.
On September the 13th 1996 she was de-commissioned. The Commonwealth Government gifted her to the Western Australian State Government, who then received submissions from various areas in WA She was finally gifted to Busselton Shire, then the Geographe Bay Artificial Reef Society received the right to relocate and deploy the SWAN.On the 27th of November 1996 the SWAN left the Naval Base on Garden Island and headed for Bunbury, where for the next 20 months the GB Artificial Reef Society and volunteers from all over the State prepared her to become an artificial reef, dive wreck and a major tourist attraction. Before She could be scuttled the environmental and diver safety had to be satisfactory. One of the biggest dangers was the miles and miles of cabling which could have fallen down creating a dangerous web of entanglement for divers. Diver access holes were cut so there are entry and exit points in all areas of the ship. The engine room and the boiler room had to be closed off due to possible entanglement hazards. The biggest environmental problem was the removal of oil and hydraulic fluid in the engine and boiler rooms and the mechanics of the gun turret.On December 14th 1997, She ended her 26 years with the Australian Royal Navy. Her final resting place now lies in a bed of sand, in 30 metres of water, off the South West Coast of Western Australia in Geographe Bay, creating an artificial reef for corals and marine life.The SWAN has now become a popular dive site; being the second largest ship in the Southern Hemisphere to be sunk as a dive wreck. Measuring 112m in length, 21m in height and 13m in width, she is truly a spectacular site. Situated 1.3 nautical miles off Point Piquet, Meelup, at a latitude of 155.06'2" East and a longitude of 33.33'2" South.
The State Government, due to the Geographe Bay Artificial Reef Society, has established an exclusion zone of 500m around the ship which prohibits any fishing or hunting of any kind. There is also restricted access of recreational vessels, 6 at one time and no anchoring allowed to protect damage to the reef and divers.
Their is already an abundance of sea life taking advantage of the SWAN as there new home. Large schools of Bullseye inhabit many rooms, with King George Whiting and Brim swimming around the hull. The inquisitive Samson Fish give divers an added bonus when looking around the wreck, along with Dhufish, Shaw's Cowfish, Blue Devil, Sweep, Talma; the list goes on. Not only is there fish, plant life is starting to grow on and around the wreck with several Flowering Softcorals, Seagrass, Hydroids and Coral Formations. All this happened in the first few months after sinking. Now it is a veritable forest of coral, & schools of fish.
|
