31 July 2018
Hull or high water: Protest over Cerberus plans
By Clay Lucas July 31, 2018
The wreck of the Cerberus at Half Moon Bay, Black Rock.
Photo: Joe Armao
Hull or high water: Protest over Cerberus plans
By Clay Lucas July 31, 2018
The wreck of the Cerberus at Half Moon Bay, Black Rock.
Photo: Joe Armao
Launched in 1869 as the Victorian navy's flagship, the sunken vessel the HMVS Cerberus has become the battleground for a fight over how Melbourne deals with its heritage.
On one side are heritage and community groups saying the state's history is being sacrificed so a local council can reduce its legal liabilities.
On the other are the state's heritage authority and Bayside Council.
Last month, after a long-running debate, Heritage Victoria issued a permit for the council to pump thousands of tonnes of concrete into the hull of the historic wreck off Black Rock.
The council says this will preserve the slowly crumbling former warship.
But community and heritage campaigners say that, far from saving the wreck, the plan will only hasten its destruction.
Ordered on behalf of the people of Melbourne, the Cerberus served for five decades only within Port Phillip Bay and has closer ties with the history of the city than any other vessel, its Heritage Victoria listing says.
Mostly sold for scrap in the 1920s, its hull was purchased by what was then the Sandringham Council and scuttled in 1926 at Black Rock's Half Moon Bay.
Ever since, it has served as a breakwater and became a popular diving spot at Half Moon Bay, although access to it is now banned.
Bayside Council mayor Laurence Evans said the planned injection of 1700 cubic metres of marine concrete would stabilise the shipwreck and secure its future.
"Investigations have concluded that stabilisation of the wreck with concrete in-fill [is] the most suitable long-term method of conservation," he said.
Cr Evans said more was needed to preserve the wreck, which remains intact and above the waterline.
Critics of the move though argue that pumping what amounts to 4000 tonnes of concrete into the hull will accelerate the ship's corrosion, and sink it further into the sand - making it less visible from the shore.
"Bayside Council is just worried about being sued," said John Rogers, president of community group Friends of the Cerberus.
A snorkeler died at the boat while diving in 2010, and Mr Rogers said the council wanted to avoid this ever happening again.
In the process they would destroy important state heritage, he said.
"No-one will get in it if it's concreted up, but it's a bloody expensive way to solve your legal liabilities," he said.
The concreting will cost $705,000 - with half a million dollars of it, ironically, to come from a federal government grant secured by the Friends of the Cerberus in 2009 and now held by the National Trust.
The money is coming from Canberra despite the shipwreck also being listed as one of only 114 federally listed heritage places.
The community group argues the concrete will ensure the wreck corrodes more quickly and can never be restored.
"It is irreversible; you cannot get that concrete out," Mr Rogers said. "An important part of any conservation is never doing anything that is irreversible."
Friends of the Cerberus wants the federal money instead spent on injecting polyurethane and tank foam into the ship, to support it and block diving access.
The council argues that approach has never been used on a submerged wreck like the Cerberus before and it was not clear it would be suitable.
The National Trust's Victorian chief executive Simon Ambrose said a solution needed to be found to stabilise the Cerberus that was reversible. "We are disappointed with the outcome," he said.
