Below the surface the mast, the highest point of the former Royal Australian Navy ship Brisbane is surrounded by sun rays. We slip into the water and drop through the fish schools over her to the deck. The Brisbane’s new life is far removed from her former one, guarding Australia’s coast. She has become a man-made reef a few kilometres off Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Fish quietly go about their business on the encrusted hull. A school of kingfish move in and across.
On the forward deck one of the ship’s guns points out into the blue water. To the creatures down here it isn’t a threat, but part of their home. An octopus appears in a hole below the gun. It changes colour, perfectly matching its surroundings.
The ship is almost intact, with only her bridge no longer in place. The bridge now on display at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra.
We swim to the funnel with its coating of marine life. Wrasses, the most colourful of the ship’s inhabitants, move up and down, nipping encrusting pieces off.
Thousands of baitfish drift over the ship, feeding on small organisms in the water. They dive for cover as a school of kingfish race in and the serenity is gone as they are followed by several large trevally.
Snappers, morwongs, butterflyfish and others continue around us as we duck into a hole in the superstructure. From every direction light dances into the ship’s interior, lighting the way out for us and other divers who have ventured inside.
We drift up the mast, passing batfish that hang halfway up. The Brisbane is now a man-made reef, attracting marine life - a far more fitting end than in a scrap yard in a country far away.
