Hopefully we're all well aware of Avoca Beach's newest tourist attraction which is scheduled to arrive sometime at the end of March. It's the HMAS Adelaide that apparently isn't being sunk off Terrigal but is being sunk directly off Avoca. There's a lot of opposition to the scuttling of the HMAS Adelaide and it's important for us all to understand why. Without any organisation on our parts, we all might be left with a tremendous, irreversible mistake sitting in the water just off Avoca Beach. We owe it to ourselves and the future of Avoca Beach to give this issue the detailed attention that it deserves.
Below is a some text from an email doing the rounds and a flyer which we can each print out and share with others in the community.
Please take the time to read the attached invitation to a public meeting to be held at Avoca Beach Surf Life Saving Club next Thursday 18th February at 8.00 pm.
If you attend the meeting we hope you will realise the scuttling of the Ex HMAS Adelaide could lead to a real environmental disaster for future generations of Avoca residents and beach users.
We have called for a public meeting for the very specific reason that we have researched the vessel and found it contains very toxic materials that will leach into the water. These materials cannot be removed entirely from the ship due to their placement within the hull. To completely remove these materials is cost prohibitive and would make the ship structurally unsound and unsuitable for transport from Sydney to the proposed site off our beach.
We have decided in light of the information we have found that to not call a public meeting would be negligent. We will present our findings and hope that people will realise that all is not what it seems.
Please come to the Avoca Beach SLSC next Thursday 18th Feb at 8.00 pm with an open mind. Make your own decisions from listening to our findings. Ask questions.
Please have a look at this document [PDF]. It will give you an idea of some of the problems we could face at our own beach in the future if this ship is sunk so close to our shore.
Thanks for reading this email.
Please feel as I do about the proposed scuttling of the Adelaide. I speak for a committee of very concerned locals. The Adelaide scuttling is a commercial venture all the way and as such has had a very positive image from the start. If the scuttling does go ahead, then there is no turning back.
There has been no Environmental Impact Statement carried out on this project so little public consultation has occurred.
All we ask is for a second opinion on the sanity of scuttling this vessel so close to shore with the knowledge it contains toxic materials of the worst possible kind. Materials that will leach into the water and sediment over time due to corrosion and breakdown of the hull.
