HOBART, Tasmania (30 Jan 2005) -- RED tape threatens to strangle another proposal for an old ship to be sunk off Tasmania's Maria Island to make a dive reef. A $636,000 plan to sink the Troy D hinges on a Friday deadline for the Orford-Triabunna Chamber of Commerce to pay a 25 per cent deposit on the ship. Former Tasmanian Brett Devine has offered to clean the ship to Australian environmental standards and tow it from Sydney to Hobart. But Captain Devine, of Sydney, is insisting on payment of the deposit by Friday. The chamber will miss out if it cannot meet the deadline because there is another proposal for the ship to be sunk off Fiji to make a dive reef. Chamber spokesman Chris Peterson said an application for funding to the federal Department of Transport and Regional Studies had become bogged down by red tape. Mr Peterson said meeting the deadline was a "tall order". He said the dive reef proposal, 1300m off Darlington, was widely supported by politicians, the tourism industry and Dive Tasmania. The chamber is seeking $260,000 each from the federal and state governments. Mr Peterson said the chamber had held talks with the State Government but further support hinged on Federal Government funding. He said a feasibility study, an environmental survey and business and marketing plans had been completed. It is the second proposal for a dive reef off Maria Island. | | The chamber had proposed another ship, the Cotswold Prince, be sunk in a $498,000 project. But the plan failed after the ship's owner, Les Dick, contested the State Government's option to buy the vessel, which had been rusting away in the Tamar River. The Cotswold Prince was eventually sold for scrap metal in India. The chamber believes a dive reef would provide big benefits for the East Coast. All similar artificial reefs in Australia have been successful - there are four in Western Australia, one in Adelaide and one proposed for Brisbane. "It would be something different for divers because it is in temperate waters," Mr Peterson said. Special Minister for State and Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the Liberal Senate team would like to see the dive reef established. "We have given some grants in Western Australia and where these [dive reefs] have occurred it's been a real boon," Senator Abetz said. "It would add to Tasmania's tourism infrastructure." SOURCE - Mercury |
