via Brisbane Times, 19 February 2022: As a tourist site the already-looted war grave of the HMAS Perth would have the protection of visibility, but veterans and family members understandably do not want to have it turned into a diving attraction.
Torpedoed by Japanese destroyers in the Battle of Sunda Strait, HMAS Perth sank just after midnight on March 1, 1942, followed soon after by the American heavy cruiser USS Houston, which lost 693 crew there the same night.
The area around HMAS Perth’s remains is a protected maritime zone, Indonesia’s first, a designation made after Hosty’s team and their Indonesian counterparts made the shock discovery in 2017 that 60 per cent of the hull had been scavenged for scrap metal.
Families of those who were on board were left angry and upset by the finding, knowing that according to historians’ estimates, between 40 and 60 crew had been trapped in sealed compartments of the Allied cruiser when it went down.
Now, with the 80th anniversary of its demise a fortnight away, they and the ship’s last remaining survivor – 102-year-old Frank McGovern – are aghast at the latest development concerning the shipwreck: a plan to make it a marine tourism site and open it up to diving.
Source: HMAS Perth: World War II families resist proposal for marine tourism, diving off Indonesian coast
