Historic Shipwrecks (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 29 November 2016.)

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (17:08): I rise to speak on the Historic Shipwrecks (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2016. I would like to advise that I am the lead speaker on this bill. It is the first time that I have been a lead speaker, and what a riveting bill with which I get to start my shadow ministerial career. This is a fairly straightforward piece of legislation and I will not be speaking about it at length, apart from making a few brief remarks to indicate to the house that the Liberal Party will be supporting this bill, as we did when it moved through the other place a couple of months ago. The bill before us is essentially a piece of legislation which seeks to update an earlier bill to make some contemporary modifications to the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981.

It is quite interesting to look through the history of this legislation. The 1981 act, the original act, was brought into law following the 1976 commonwealth legislation for shipwrecks in commonwealth waters, which itself was really initiated in response to the growth in scuba diving in Australia and people's interest in historic shipwrecks that lie off the coast of Australia. There was concern that these shipwrecks were being damaged, that some of them were being plundered, as people were more and more able to access them. The commonwealth legislation came in in 1976 and corresponding state legislation was introduced in 1981.

The miscellaneous amendment bill has its genesis following the introduction of marine parks in South Australia. With marine parks, there has been more vigilance around the policing of what happens within these parks, and that has led to more attention being paid around what happens to the shipwrecks that lie off South Australia's coast, in particular the wreck of the Zanoni, a 135-year-old vessel located off the coast of Ardrossan and found in the offshore Ardrossan marine park sanctuary zone.

That wreck is one of the most complete examples of a merchant vessel shipwreck in South Australia and possibly in Australia. Wrecks such as the Zanoni are fragile, and activities such as dropping an anchor or lying near them can cause damage. Recent prosecutions show that the compliance provisions and penalties under the act are outdated, and these prosecutions came up as a result of increased policing around those marine park sites, particularly in relation to the Zanoni.

The miscellaneous amendment act looks to update the current penalties found in the 1981 act, increase them to be more in line with modern-day expectations, and make the penalties required for breaching the provisions of the act more substantial. Obviously, in 1981 the figures were quite substantial, but that has dropped off as the value of our currency has changed over time.

As well as making some updates to the financial penalties under the act, the miscellaneous amendment bill also makes a few other minor amendments, including the streamlining of the declaration of historic shipwrecks, historic relics and protected zones under sections 4A, 5, 6 and 7 of the act. It makes changes under section 22 of the act in relation to the powers of inspectors, which are being rewritten and broadened to bring them into line with other contemporary pieces of legislation containing similar provisions. There are also some changes made in relation to delegation, amending the minister's ability to delegate any duties, functions or powers conferred to him or her under other acts.

With that brief overview of this piece of legislation, I would like to reiterate Liberal Party's support for the legislation and commend it to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (17:13): I wish to speak to the Historic Shipwrecks (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill. This bill will amend the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981 to better protect South Australian shipwrecks and relics of historic importance.

The original act, the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981, was introduced to protect South Australian shipwrecks and their relics from removal, damage and exploitation. Currently, any wreck in South Australian waters that is at least 75 years old is automatically classified as historic and protected under the act. The minister may also make a declaration regarding a shipwreck prior to the 75-year period accumulating.

The development of scuba diving equipment throughout the 1950s led not only to the discovery of many shipwrecks but also to their exploitation. Many wrecks were pillaged for scrap metal or souvenirs, while others were illegally blown apart with explosives. Back in 1976, the federal government recognised the need to protect the integrity and future of these shipwrecks and introduced the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976, and South Australia followed a few years later with the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1986, with the express purpose of protecting vessels in South Australian waters.

There are currently two protected zones in South Australia: one for the recreational dive site, the HMAS Hobart, and one for the Zanoni, which is a 35-year-old vessel and the most complete 19^th century merchant shipwreck in South Australia. With the introduction of the marine park sanctuary zones the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has become more aware of illegal activities in and around the zones.

Currently, a permit is required to enter a zone, either by vessel, diving or other means. As these relics and shipwrecks are typically very old and delicate, even simply dropping anchor or line fishing may cause damage. Furthermore, shipwrecks tend to attract diverse marine life, which in turn increases the appeal for fishing.

The amendments include increasing the penalties under the act, introducing an expiation fee of up to $750 (and that will be done by regulation), amendments to powers of authorised officers, administrative changes to enable the minister to transition classification from declarations to the 75-year period and amendments to delegation powers. There will also be amendments to the information provisions of the register.

We have been informed that the government has consulted with the community and various stakeholders on the proposed amendments, and obviously this includes sectors of the boating, fishing and scuba diving groups, the Local Government Association, the South Australian Maritime Museum, the Australasian Institute of Maritime Archaeology, the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University, Australia's International Council on Monuments and Sites, and other relevant state and commonwealth government agencies.

Public consultation seeking feedback on the bill commenced in May last year and closed on 24 June last year. There was a consultation survey on YourSAy, a public advertisement and letters were sent out to key stakeholders. From all advice, it appears that people were quite supportive of the bill. In regard to budget estimates and a question I asked the Minister for the Environment on marine parks and the matter of historic shipwrecks, the minister replied to a question from me in relation to marine park expiations. In part of the reply, the minister indicated:

…there were a number of incidents related to a historic shipwreck. I can advise that, as of July this year, there has been over 3,000 shore based, 280 vessel and 70 aerial compliance patrols. That has resulted in the issuing of 31 educational letters…240 formal warnings, six expiations and 23 prosecutions.

That is a significant number of contacts under the Historic Shipwrecks Act. It is good that we are seeking to protect these shipwrecks. We need to acknowledge that those of us who were not here with the first peoples all arrived by boat, and some by plane in latter years. For those who came out with their families in the 1800s—and my family travelled here by ship in the 1840s—far too many vessels were destroyed off the coast of South Australia and, in fact, right around the nation. There is quite a bit of history surrounding those tragic events and it is certainly a part of our history that we need to acknowledge.

In talking about acknowledging history, I want to mention a ship that thankfully has not become a wreck but could have been, and that is the clipper ship City of Adelaide. This ship was very important in the history of South Australia. It was built in Sunderland in the United Kingdom in 1864 to carry passengers and cargo to and from the City of Adelaide. The ship completed 23 return trips between London and Adelaide.

The City of Adelaide is the only remaining sailing ship which provided a return service from the United Kingdom to South Australia. It is quite unique in that it is only one of two remaining clipper ships in the world, with the other being the Cutty Sark. It is the world's oldest composite clipper ship that has a wooden hull with iron frames. It is estimated that some 250,000 Australians can trace their ancestry through passengers who travelled on the City of Adelaide.

In 1923, the ship was purchased by the Royal Navy. It was then converted into a training ship and renamed HMS Carrick. Up until 1948, HMS Carrick was stationed in Scotland before being decommissioned and towed into central Glasgow. Under its name at the time of Carrick, it remained on the River Clyde until 1989, when it was damaged by flooding, and in 1991 this clipper ship sank at its mooring. Once it was retrieved, the Carrick was placed under the control of the Scottish museum. Restoration work was being undertaken, but ceased in 1999 due to funding lapses.

With people having a good look at what could happen with this ship into the future, rescue proposals were being considered by groups in Sunderland and South Australia. In 2010, it was confirmed that the ship would be moved to Adelaide and preserved as a museum ship. There was quite a bit of toing and froing in regard to this vessel: a squatter got on board and reckoned he was not going to move—a Scottish character.

In the end, the save the City of Adelaide group based in South Australia, including Peter Christopher, the Chapman family from The Marina Hindmarsh Island and many others, got on board to save this ship and managed to get control. It included a lot of work by industry here in South Australia where people made frames to bring the ship home. This involved companies from not just urban Adelaide but also regional South Australia, including Bowhill Engineering from my electorate, which made a cradle to bring the ship back to South Australia. There was some excellent work, and much work was donated. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably approaching into the millions of dollars now, were put into this project to bring this ship home.

The ship was brought into London up the Thames. I cannot remember the exact date, but the Duke of Edinburgh and Andrew Chapman were at the ceremony and, from what I understand, it was renamed the City of Adelaide, so it certainly had royal assent. From then on, it was transported to the Netherlands by barge in preparation for its move to South Australia. In late 2013, the City of Adelaide departed for Adelaide and arrived in early 2014.

I must acknowledge that there are quite a few people who have had something to do with the ship. If I have not been to every function, I cannot think of too many that I have missed in regard to raising funds or knowledge about the clipper ship City of Adelaide. When it came in on the barge in 2014, I know that the member for Port Adelaide was present, and I know that the member for Newland and the deputy leader have had an interest—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: What about me—and I remind you that it is not really an historic shipwreck, and I know you are going to get back to the topic shortly. It is a wide bow, as in bow of a ship, and if you start naming members who are interested in the ship you need to name us all.

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, there were many members involved in some of the events around this ship, and it is so pleasing that it did not become one of the shipwrecks off our coast that we are protecting with this piece of legislation.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Very good, back to the bill.

Mr PEDERICK: But I do hope that it does not become a relic and get to the bottom of the depths in finding a permanent home for it at Port Adelaide. Fletcher's Slip was put up and that seems like it is not happening but I have noticed there has been some work done in the background so that the City of Adelaide does not join these rusting, rotting hulks on the bottom of the sea, to become a partner in this legislation. I certainly hope it stays well above the surface. I want to note and congratulate all of the people involved in this restoration and wish them all the best into the future. With that slight distraction—

The Hon. P. Caica: You were distracted for a long time.

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, a little while. I would just like to acknowledge this bill and what it will do for the protection of historic shipwrecks. I think too often we forget about the history that has made this state and if we do not reflect on the past we will not get better into the future. I commend the bill.

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:27): I rise to speak on the Historic Shipwrecks (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2016 and indicate, of course, that we are supporting this, as our newly appointed shadow minister has represented to the parliament. This is to ensure that we make amendments to our Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981 which currently makes provision for vessels that are automatically protected if they at least 75 years old. It seems that the advent of the marine park sanctuary zones has meant that we need to introduce some amendments.

Some of the penalties might be a bit harsh, but this legislation generally, as does this amendment, recognises the important value of South Australia's assets in its historic ships. Largely the ships protected by this bill are sitting at the bottom of the ocean but, as has been pointed out by other speakers, we have the City of Adelaide or the remnants of it which now sit at Port Adelaide perched on a platform still waiting for a home, sadly. But, nevertheless, the Department of Transport and those responsible for it, wade their way through the rules and regulations and provision of funding, presumably, to ensure that the City of Adelaide has a home. I, for one, will be very pleased when that happens. There has been a dragging of the chain or anchor for too long and we do need to deal with it, because the ship is rotting.

Millions of dollars have been spent on restoring this ship and getting it to South Australia from Scotland, and many hours and much energy put into the fight to try to secure it from the Scottish in the first place to bring it here, so it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we encourage the government to get on with doing it. I, for one, would have gone to the developers of the Newport Quays development number 2 or 3 or whatever we are up to, who have been given an exclusive opportunity to develop some of these areas under the Newport Quays proposal (the parts of it that have now been let out to develop) and asked them to incorporate our historic ships in the development to make sure that we do not lose this great maritime history.

The Falie and the One and All are sitting there getting barnacles on their hulls and expensive to continue to survey. They, too, need to be put to productive employment and use. As a former member of the trust for the One and All, I am bitterly disappointed at what has happened since the Hon. Kevin Foley took control of that ship and took it away from the trust. It was used as a plaything, it did not actually pay its way and it ended up sitting down at Port Adelaide, a wasted resource, yet it was a valuable training source opportunity, particularly for children in schools, for learning teambuilding and the like.

I remember when I was on the board that a group came to us asking, 'Can we use it also for children who might be out at the children's prison at Magill?' Well, that was a bit of a hard call because once you are on a boat out in the middle of the ocean you cannot afford to have kids smoking or damaging facilities, particularly if a fire starts. There can be some limitations on what it was available for.

The Falie was used regularly for recreational fishing and opportunities in tourism. These are really important assets of the state. It is a bit like having a heritage building: unless you actually occupy it and maintain it, it crumbles. I urge the government to make sure that they have a plan, a future and funding to ensure that these ships are protected. There are many people in the community who have supported and will continue to support, even financially, securing the maritime history of the state. It is terribly important that we work together on this.

When I read about this bill, it reminded me of my late father's cousin Gifford Chapman, who was a former abalone diver and who operated an abalone business in South Australia for many years. He also undertook recreational diving to inspect the numerous vessels that are now shipwrecks at the bottom of our ocean, particularly around Kangaroo Island. His 1972 book, titled Kangaroo Island Shipwrecks, which is an account of ships and cutters wrecked around Kangaroo Island, is a masterful compilation of dozens of shipwrecks, most of which are unheard of but some of which are very famous around Kangaroo Island, which has some of the roughest water around any of the coast of Australia, particularly through the passage between Penneshaw and Cape Jervis.

I recognise him. He passed away recently. He had recorded, for our benefit, some of the incredible stories of the ships that had gone down. I will pick out one to refer you to, which is called Island Girl, which went down about five kilometres north-west of Western River on Kangaroo Island. It was a ship built in Port Lincoln in 1960 by A.A. Stenross and Co. For those interested in these things, it had a plywood deck, measured 44 feet long, and it had a 13-foot beam, a 6.9-foot draft and weighed 15.65 tonnes.

I am going to tell you about this ship because it went down as a result of a fire. We need to be really careful in South Australia not only about bushfires but about obviously anything catching on fire while on the water. The vessel was originally built for E.F. Hendry and Sons of Edithburgh and it was powered by a Kelvin diesel engine.

At the time that it went down, it was owned by Mr Gavin Buick, who using it for rock lobster fishing. The ship was renamed the Island Girl under his ownership. It departed Snug Cove on 18 February 1987 to pull rock lobster pots. The book continues to tell the story in relation to that venture one morning. It states:

...Mr. Buick left the wheelhouse to boil the kettle in the forecastle galley, to make a cup of coffee prior to pulling the pots. About five minutes later he came up on deck from the forecastle, and noticed smoke coming from the engine room.

Running to the wheelhouse, Mr. Buick opened the engine room hatch, which was in the wheelhouse floor. The engine room was full of black acrid smoke and quickly filled the wheelhouse. Both men ran to the forecastle and grabbed the fire extinguishers...to put the fire out. The extinguishers were emptied...By this time the fire had a good hold and was spreading. Mr. Buick was worried that the fuel tank may explode....

Nevertheless, the men left the ship and, sadly, the whole thing burnt from end to end. Luckily, it was fully insured. It was valued at about one-quarter of a million dollars. The stories about these ships tell us a lot. If anybody with scuba diving experience has the chance to dive on these wrecks, it is a great opportunity and I commend it to you.

Certainly in terms of the vessels that are sitting and wallowing in water below the surface, many international tourists visit these wrecks. They are also particularly attracted to the Western River area, which I most familiar with, because of the abundance of seahorse. The leafy sea dragon is of course our state's marine emblem and highly sought after for photography. Fortunately, they do not eat them anymore, which is good.

An honourable member interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: I don't care so much about the cuttlefish. Nevertheless, Gifford did at least record for us fascinating stories about these vessels for anyone interested in maritime history generally and in the lighthouses around the coastline of South Australia, which is the third longest coastline of any state in Australia, I point out, so we have plenty of them. If anyone looks at the Cape Borda lighthouse at the end of Kangaroo Island, they will know the history of how it was built to alert Adelaide of the approach of the Prussians, when we were at war with them in the 1800s.

We have a rich maritime history. I agree that it is important to contemporise this legislation to upgrade and protect other vessels that are shipwrecks. However, be under no illusion: it is also important that we protect our other maritime infrastructure and assets for future generations. Thank you, Gifford.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Picton.