HMAS 'Hobart', scuttled off Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia in 2002, adds to diving reefs in the same region
A permit was required for diving at the site of the HMAS Hobart (inset), scuttled in 2022 off South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide.
Image courtesy Underwater Sports Diving Centre (by Greg Adams), South Australia, and Royal Australian Navy
The decommissioned Royal Australian Navy Perth-class guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart was sunk as a dive wreck in 2002 at Yankalilla Bay, south of Adelaide, 8.9 kilometres west northwest of Marina St Vincent (Wirrina Cove), within the Encounter Marine Park.
Officially known as Fleurieu artificial reef, the scuttled ship was scheduled under the South Australia Historical Shipwrecks Act with a protected zone of 550-metre radius prohibiting boating activity without a permit.
HMAS Hobart (D39) was built in the United States of America as a slight variant of its navy’s Charles F. Adams class and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1965. Two years later, Hobart became the first RAN combat ship to fight in the Vietnam War with six-months deployments until 1971. After the war, Hobart served in Cyclone Tracy disaster relief at Darwin and was the first RAN ship to dock at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia. She completed a round-the-world voyage in 1976.
Hobart was paid off in 2000 when she was given to the South Australian government by the federal defence department. Before the scuttling, work was done to ensure safe diving and minimal environmental impact, based on international best practices, mostly at Port Adelaide by contracted labour and some volunteers. Oil and other contaminants were removed. The vessel’s character as a fighting ship was maintained but, for safety, some entrances were sealed, some doors, hatches and sharp and protruding objects were removed, and corridors and openings widened.
The Hobart wreck came to be regarded as one of South Australia’s, and even Australia’s, premier diving sites, complementing other diving reefs in the region such as Aldinga and Port Noarlunga. The site was managed by the South Australian government’s environment and water department’s marine parks operations, along with the tourism and infrastructure/transport departments.
A permit was required to dive the Hobart wreck and the needs of divers and dive tour operators, as well as the wreck and its marine life, were given highest priority at the site. The HMAS Hobart memorial lookout was north of Marina St Vincent (Wirrina Cove) at Little Gorge, on the road to Normanville.
