The HMAS Brisbane was sunk off Mooloolaba, Queensland at the end of July 2005. I set off to dive the wreck with Richard and Diane Foate (and two friends of theirs, Jennifer and William), to set a benchmark so that, when I visit the wreck in years to come, I would have a point of reference for how much and how quickly life changes in the oceans.
History
The ship was a Charles F. Adams class guided missile destroyer, the third of this class to be purchased by the Royal Australian Navy. The other two, the HMAS Hobart and HMAS Perth, also lie underneath the ocean now, continuing their service as marine parks and dive sites in Adelaide and Albany.
The ship was launched on 5 May 1966 and commissioned on 16 December 1967. Nicknamed the "Steel Cat" (a name you will continue to hear among the dive shop staff) and with a black panther as its mascot, it had a crew of 332. It undertook two tours of duty in Vietnam and one in the first Gulf War. It also was the first ship to arrive in Darwin after the devastation of Cyclone Tracy to lend assistance.
The Dives
Unfortunately, the skies decided that the Sunshine Coast (someone had a great sense of humour when they named the area!) needed a bit of a drenching. So our weekend was a pretty wet weekend. And while that wouldn't have been an issue most of the time, the rain and the accompanying wind did stir up the water a bit.
Still, the four dives that we did on the Brisbane gave us a good feel for the wreck.
The first dive on the wreck is strictly a no-penetration dive under government regulations. So, we hit the wreck midships and then worked aft (aren't you impressed by all the boat terminology?!). We had a poke around the missile loading room and Diane did a wonderful rendition of Cher's Turn Back Time on the aft gun - you can see the bare patch where, obviously, everyone else has had the same thought! The barrell of the aft gun (unlike that of the bow gun) has not been blocked off - so you can still see the rifling inside the barrell. On our way back, we stopped by the bathroom, where William demonstrated the technique for throwing up into a toilet bowl! It turned out to be useful as a couple of people were sick on the boat between dives.
Our second dive was around the bow of the ship and some easy penetration up to 18m deep. The Brisbane has a pretty impressive pointy end - ironically, it was one of the fastest ships in the Navy and all subsequent RAN ships have been slower ships (understandable given the speed of missiles these days - the speed of the ship is irrelevant!). Of most amusement to the divers was the missile control room, which still has the "kill" buttons. Richard and I also spent some time in the engine room - a good three storeys high. You wouldn't have wanted to get your fingers caught in some of the gears!
The second day proved to be much calmer on the waters. Being an instructor has its privileges. On the third dive, I was able to take Richard and Diane through the belly of the wreck without a guide. After starting off having a good look at the rudders and the propeller shafts (the propellers themselves have been removed), we poked around the inside of the wreck, often for periods without access to natural light. We did similar things on the fourth dive around the bow, with Diane once again posing for photos - this time, from Titanic.
Another two dives would have allowed us to explore some of the nooks and crannies of the wreck, but we had to wrap up our wreck diving for that weekend. Given the amount of life that there already is on the wreck after just two and a half months (there are some large tuna chasing around little fish, lots of smaller fish around and inside the wreck - apparently, there is more when the visibility is better, there are lots of barnacles already settling on the ship with a dark green algae covering some of the deck areas, an octopus hiding in one of the rivet holes from one of the aerial guns on the deck, a type of trumpet or flute fish that the staff at Sunreef Diving have not yet managed to identify), there is bound to be a great deal to see in the future. After all, the reefs around Mooloolaba and Maroochydore supported four dive stores - it's only a matter of time before more fishlife from the reefs make the HMAS Brisbane their new home. (But how do the fish know the wreck is there? Interesting question, isn't it?)
The staff at Sunreef Diving are extremely professional and look after their divers very well. Their operation is highly recommended. They are going to be getting a bigger boat shortly, which will cater well for photographers and give divers a bit more room on board. They also have nitrox facilities available.
Statistics & Equipment
For you wreck-fanatics out there, here's a bit of technical info on the wreck.
Length: 133.19 metres
Beam: 14.3 metres (now sitting in as shallow as 5 metres and as deep as 27 metres)
Displacement: 4500 tonne (full load)
Speed: 35 knots
Powered by 2 x GE steam turbines driving two shafts producing 70,000 shaft horse power.
Weapons included 2 x 5 inch Mk42 Mod 10 automatic rapid fire guns, standard anti-air missile system, Harpoon anti-ship missile system, 2 x 20mm Vulcan Phalanx Mk15 close in weapons systems, 4 x 0.50 inch calibre machine guns and 2 x triple mounted anti-submarine torpedo tubes firing Mk48 torpedoes. Unfortunately, most of these were removed prior to its sinking.
Picnic at Wolf Rock
Having come all this way, we wanted to take the time to dive reefs as well. So we had one day booked up at Wolf Rock (near Rainbow Beach, near Fraser Island) and one day booked at Noosa. The Noosa dives were called off, but we did get to dive at Wolf Rock.
Wolf Rock is a pinnacle. It is a habitat for grey nurse sharks (although in far fewer numbers than at South West Rocks) - we counted about six. We also saw a huge eagle ray, a few small turtles and lots of other fish enjoying the warm waters around the top of the pinnacle. However, the area is quite small and the two dives were pretty identical. Having said that, though, we could see the potentially wonderful diving around there, especially if the visibility improved.
4WDs, boats and tanks
And if the diving was not much to talk about, it was the stuff that happened out of the water at Wolf Rock and the HMAS Brisbane will live long in our memories. I'm not going to go into too much detail to protect the innocent, but quiz Richard, Diane or me when we have some time and loose tongues. But here's a bit of a taster: digging out four wheel drives from the sand, breaking boats, almost drowning, four wheel drives being driven into divers, boats crushing fingers, tanks smacking skulls, 6 hours of one day that simply cannot be explained (no, there were no kidnappings by aliens) and more!
