HMAS Adelaide signed over to Central Coast

29 August 2008
A Deed of Gift has been signed so that HMAS Adelaide II can be handed over to the New South Wales government from the Commonwealth to create an artificial reef and dive site off Terrigal on the Central Coast.

A Deed of Gift has been signed between the Premier Morris Iemma and the Federal Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon, that will see the ownership of HMAS Adelaide II transferred to New South Wales in late September.

The Adelaide, a 138-metre long escort frigate with 28 years of naval service, will provide a major tourism boost to the Central Coast as a national and international attraction for divers.
The ship was decommissioned by the Navy earlier this year and is currently at Garden Island in Sydney for final preparations prior to handover including the removal of military equipment, fuels and oils. 

This should be completed within two months and then the ship will be handed over to the Department of Lands that is managing the project.

Expressions of interest were called for the ship preparation and scuttling component of the work earlier this year and three contractors have been short-listed to bid for the work. Tenders are now being called to prepare HMAS Adelaide II as a dive wreck and scuttle it off the Central Coast.  It is expected that once the contract is awarded work will start within the next three months.

The work will involve towing the ship to a dockyard to be prepared as a dive wreck, achieving stringent environmental and safety standards, and then towing the ship to Terrigal and scuttling it. Lands has also engaged consultants to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment for the project.  Once scuttled, the final resting place for the ship will be the HMAS Adelaide Crown reserve in an area between Terrigal and Avoca off the Central Coast.
The NSW Government has allocated $250,000 towards the project.

HMAS Adelaide Reserve created off the Central Coast

20 June 2008
The NSW Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly, announced the gazettal of the ex-HMAS Adelaide Reserve off Avoca Beach on the Central Coast of NSW. The creation of the reserve will now enable preparations to commence for the scuttling of the Adelaide in late 2009. The Reserve includes Crown land below the high water mark to the three nautical mile limit of state waters in an area between Terrigal and Avoca. Normal activities in the area such as commercial and recreational fishing, diving and all other uses will not be affected by the gazettal. The reserve boundaries will be refined once further studies have been completed. The longer term plan is to create a much smaller reserve boundary of approximately 500m radius around the wreck itself once it has been scuttled.