SYDNEY, Australia (7 July 2004) -- THE decommissioned warship HMAS Brisbane will soon be sunk off Queensland's Sunshine Coast to be used as a dive wreck, Premier Peter Beattie said today. He said the Federal and Queensland Governments had reached agreement on the transfer of the destroyer as a gift from the commonwealth to Queensland. The ship has sat for the past three years in a naval dock in Sydney at a cost of $11,000 a week, while the two governments squabbled over the conditions of the gift. Mr Beattie said he was grateful to Defence Minister Robert Hill for the agreement. "The deal's been done, now we've just got to get it here. I anticipate that we will have it in Queensland waters by the end of this month with a bit of luck," he said. "It's going to be fantastic for the Sunshine Coast and for all of the tourism industry because you'll get people coming into Cairns, the Gold Coast, Brisbane who'll want to dive off the Sunshine Coast. "It will become an international diving wreck. Divers love to dive on wrecks like this, particularly former warships. This is going to be a magnet for international diving." In late May, Mr Beattie accepted an offer from the Federal Government after seeking changes to the deed of gift from the commonwealth. In October 2001, the Federal Government gave the Queensland Government the ship and agreed to pay the state $3 million to have it towed and sunk off Mooloolaba. | 
