After much planning, negotiation, hard work. tears and laughter; Victoria is now home to Australia's newest and most exciting wreck dive.... The Ex-HMAS Canberra.

HISTORY
Launched on 1 December 1978 at Todd Pacific Shipyard Corporation in Seattle, USA ,HMAS Canberra was commissioned on 21 March 1981. The FFG was the second RAN ship to bear the name HMAS Canberra. HMAS Canberra was powered by gas turbines for it's main propulsion. Guided-missile frigates could be underway from a cold start in less than 30 minutes. In addition, two forward mounted auxiliary propulsion units provided a secondary means of propulsion and excellent manoeuvrability in confined waters.

HMAS Canberra participated in numerous operations, including Operation DAMASK following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (November 1992 to March 1993), Operation BRANCARD to evacuate Australian nationals from Jakarta (May 1998), and Operation SLIPPER (March to July 2002) as part of the international coalition against terrorism.

HMAS Canberra was decommissioned from the Royal Australian Navy at Fleet Base West at 10:00 hrs Saturday 12 November 2005.

SCUTTLING
Following the celebrated decomissioning of the HMAS Canberra in November 2005, VARS (The Victorian Artificial Reef Society) commenced discussions with the Federal Government and Minister for Defence in the hope of sinking the HMAS Canberra in Victorian waters as an artificial reef and dive tourism destination.

In March 2007; members of VARS officially met with HON Dr Brendan Nelson (Minister for Defence) to officially discuss the potential scuttling of the HMAS Canberra as wreck dive site for all Victorian and visiting divers. July 2007 saw the federal government announced it would contribute $7million towards the creation of a new artifical reef and temperate water wrek diving site off Victoria's Port Phillip and Barwon Heads.

On 27th May 2008; VARS officially announced that their efforts to have the HMAS Canberra sunk in Victorian waters had been successful and confirmed that the ship would soon arrive at Geelong. Not long after, she was towed through the heads of Port Phillip Bay Tuesday 10th June 2008.

After a many months of preparation by the VARS committee and preparation contractor; on 15th July 2009, VARS officially announced a confirmed target date and site for the scuttling of the now Ex-HMAS Canberra following previous concerns and renegotiations about the final resting place of the Canberra. Final preparations then commenced to ensure she was ready for the target of August 2009.

As is natural with any project the size and complexity of the sinking of an Australian Naval Ship, the scuttling was delayed past the target of August '09 due to a number of factors; however at 5.30am on Saturday 3rd October 2009 the HMAS Canberra left Geelong grain warf under tow on her way to the final sinking site off Ocean Grove along Victoria's "Shipwreck Coast".

At 2pm on 4th October 2009; the conditions were perfect and and the Canberra in place and ready; the scuttling contractors commenced the sinking whilst hundreds of on lookers watched from boats and the coast as she slowly and gracefully subsided below the surface creating Australia's newest artifical reef and wreck diving desitination.

DIVING THE HMAS CANBERRA
On Nov 21st '09, Jason Salter- Treasurer of VARS announced that a team from Dive Victoria had conducted and survey dive of the HMAS Canberra and reported that the site was in excellent condition, including the mooring system installed by divers from Parks Victoria.

The HMAS Canberra now sits in approxiamately 26m of water off the coast of Ocean Grove and is now open for diving by the public. metro DIVE have a range of dive packages, departing from Portsea to explore the celebrated and historical addition to Victoria's shipwreck diving mecca. For more information about bookings and trips to the Canberra, please contact us on 1300 METRODIVE (1300 638 763), emailing hmascanberra@metrodive.com.au or dropping into the shop.