To all our Sydney Dive Wreck supporters who signed our online petition:

I want to share some significant updates with you relating to Sydney Dive Wreck. As you know, a key component of our campaign to create an Artificial Reef by scuttling an ex-Navy ship included petitioning the NSW government to support this initiative.We had two parallel petitions running,  a ‘Change.Org' online petition and a paper petition.

The paper petition reached the number required to be submitted in Parliament first (minimum 10,000), so the paper petition was planned to be tabled . No doubt some of you signed both!

In late October, we discovered that the paper petition, with 14,000 signatures, had been registered, tabled and debated in NSW Parliament. Unfortunately, due to a breakdown in communications, we were not made aware of the fact that the petition had been registered until after the debate had been completed. We were therefore not able to generate the media attention that we had planned, nor were we able to notify all our supporters so that we would have had the opportunity to attend NSW Parliament to listen to our petition being debated.

We had several MPs speaking in support of our cause. No MPs spoke against it. However, the outcome of the debate, and the subsequent formal written response from the Minister for Crown Lands, Mr Steve Kamper, was that, while the government supports in principle the idea of an artificial reef, they are not currently in a position to fund it. As our Member for Coogee, Dr Marjorie O'Neill, puts it ....'The answer is not a no, it is just a not yet'

Thank you for all the support you have given Sydney Dive Wreck so far, in particular to those many supporters who have been out in the streets, in dive shops and charter boats, at fairs and at local markets collecting signatures and gaining community support. Those signatures have enabled us to get to this point.  

We are not giving up.

Our next steps are to request a meeting with Minister Kamper to discuss lower cost options, including potentially a purpose built reef (perhaps similar to the Gold Coast Wonder Reef), or possibly a Manly Ferry.

We will be in touch again when we have more news.

Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any comments or suggestions for the Sydney Dive Wreck committee.

Thanks again for your support,

Your Gordons Bay SCUBA Diving Club Sydney Dive Wreck Committee Representatives - Sam Baxter, Charlie Elliott, Mathew Kempton, John Rowe (Marine Scientist)