Friends of the Cerberus logo
a "National Heritage Place"
www.cerberus.com.au
Cerberus Newsletter No. 202
20 July 2018

Did Heritage Victoria Read Our Objection to Concrete Fill?

They can't have read it, as their reasons for rejecting polyurethane are contradicted by the facts.

Heritage Victoria rejected polyurethane as "This option was not supported based on cost, environmental risk, and that polyurethane foam has not previously been tested on ship wrecks or similar contexts."

Our submission pointed out that:-
  1. Polyurethane is affordable and we included an indicative quote to support this.

  2. When injected into sea water, polyurethane cures within seconds. The Safety Data Sheet (included in our submission) for a two compound structural polyurethane foam states that "Cured material is environmentally safe. It can be used in drinking water."

  3. Our submission included a number of examples where polyurethane has been used in similar contexts such as in sea going barges, sea walls and underwater pipes.


Heritage Victoria further states "Further, the use of polyurethane foam would not adequately address public safety concerns or prevent the collapse of the wreck."

The reason that the NHII grant conditions were varied in 2009 was to address the main risk to Cerberus, being the risk that one or both turrets would collapse and thereby initiating a catastrophic collapse of the whole ship. Given Bayside's admission that the concrete fill will not provide enough support to allow the guns to be returned to the turrets, it is clear that the turrets will not be supported by the concrete. Even if some concrete flowed past obstacle and under the turrets before setting, it would not expand up to support them. Polyurethane injected under the turrets will support them thereby preventing their collapse.

This leaves public sa felty as the only justification for destroying Cerberus for posterity. The excess funds that Bayside committed to cover the large excess for the cost of concrete fill over the amount of the grant, could be used to restrict access to Cerberus. Underwater access would need to be restricted in any case for the concrete fill approach.

Clearly Heritage Victoria has not kept an open mind, or even read our submission,

Don't Let the Facts get in the way of a Predetermined Outcome
or
Concrete Fill - In Search of a Justification

The use of concrete was proposed on the 7th of April at a secret meeting between the representatives of the Federal Heritage Department, Heritage Victoria and the City of Bayside. Friends of the Cerberus and the National Trust, who co-nominated Cerberus for inclusion on the National Heritage List and who respectively obtained the $500,000 grant and holds it in trust were excluded from this meeting.

When information on the polyurethane solution was provided by us to Bayside it was not even passed on to their archeologist investigating possible solutions. Then Mayor del Porto stated "This [concrete infill] is the way that we were told by both the Federal Minister and by the Heritage Victoria rep, who came and spoke to us, this is the way forward for them." The Mayor further stated that "The concrete infill is supported by both the Federal [Heritage] Department and Heritage Victoria."

From this point on it was full speed ahead for concrete with no genuine consideration given to alternatives except for how to discredit them.

Mailing List Problems

After sending Newsletter 201 (reproduced below) a major failure of our mailing list software occurred with most members not receiving the newsletter. We have therefore adopted a new mailing list program and on a different server. Feel free to reply to this email me to let me know that our new system is working. Even more important is to email the newspapers listed below.

John Rogers
Fleet Engineer (Victorian Navy)
website, research & Friends of the Cerberus President.

Friends of the Cerberus logo
a "National Heritage Place"
www.cerberus.com.au
Cerberus Newsletter No. 201
18 July 2018

Permit to Approve Filling Cerberus with Concrete Approved

This a brief newsletter to advise our supporters that the Executive Officer of Heritage Victoria, Steven Avery, has approved the permit application by the City of Bayside to fill Cerberus with 4,000 tonnes of Concrete. One has to wonder whether Heritage Victoria is considering changing their name to Vandalism Victoria but there is no indication of this yet. Our committee is meeting tonight and there will be another newsletter on Thursday or Friday.

Permit Details

Heritage Victoria's Questions and Answers

From Heritage Victoria's Questions and Answers.


What other options were considered?

Options considered by the applicant included the use of cement stabilised sand, epoxy grout and polyurethane foam instead of concrete

The City of Bayside undertook thorough investigations into the use of a polyurethane foam as proposed in many of the submissions.

This option was not supported based on cost, environmental risk, and that polyurethane foam has not previously been tested on ship wrecks or similar contexts.

Further the use of polyurethane foam would not adequately address public safety concerns or prevent the collapse of the wreck.

Notes re above points

  1. It is true that the use of polyurethane would not address Bayside's public liability concerns. After all it is a heritage grant. Safety concerns could easily be addressed but have not been as this does not appear to have been a concern for Bayside until recently. We are not aware of Bayside having done anything to limit access to Cerberus during the last two decades. Steel mesh over access points was installed last century.

  2. It is true that polyurethane has not been used in shipwrecks but our objection pointed out examples of its use in marine environments, including in vessels, from the 1960s up to this year.

  3. We are surprised by the claim that the City of Bayside thoroughly investigated the use of polyurethane, as their Archeologist had not received our information on polyurethane that we sent a month prior to my meeting him, or even seemed to be aware of this option. This was just six days prior to the concrete solution being presented to Bayside Council.

  4. The safety data sheet for polyurethane points our that "Cured material is environmentally safe.".

  5. An indicative quote indicates that the cost is within the existing budget, which cannot be said for the concrete approach.

  6. Polyurethane injected under the turrets would prevent their collapse which has been determined as the main risk to Cerberus. It is a collapse of the turrets that would be most likely to cause the entire ship to collapse. As very little, if any, concrete is likely to find its way under the gun turrets, these would not be supported and would therefore be more likely to collapse if the concrete approach was used.

What can Supporters Do?

At this stage we suggest that supporters might like to write polite letters to the editors of The Sun, The Age, The Australian and The Bayside Leader newspapers pointing out the stupidity of concrete fill as opposed to the use of polyurethane. We cannot emphasise enough, that until over 200 concrete trucks are driving towards Half Moon Bay, the battle is not lost.

We believe that for letters to be considered for publication, they must have a name, street address and phone number so their authenticity can be checked. An email address is not sufficient.

Letters to The Age Newspaper

Letters to The Sun Newspaper

Letters to The Australian Newspaper

Letters to The Bayside Leader

Our Case that was Rejected by Heritage Victoria

Friends of Cerberus Submission

John Rogers
Fleet Engineer (Victorian Navy)
website, research & Friends of the Cerberus President.

Unsubscribe