Divers say wharf platform plan sinks

GOLD Coast dive businesses say plans for a dive platform attached to the proposed new cruise ship wharf don’t make sense, as it would be at least 150m from the key site and they’d have to bring a boat anyway.

There are also concerns the protected shipwreck Scottish Prince, which sunk in just 10m of water in 1887, could be completely covered by sand fanned by 150 cruise ships a year docking at the new terminal.

Long-time Southport diver Ian Banks, of Diving the Gold Coast, said he’d like to know where the council got their information about local conditions.

“How does a platform where you have to swim 150m make it any easier for diving?” he said. “They put these things out there but they haven’t spoken to anyone who knows.”

Gold Coast Divers owner David Wyatt said ship movements could completely cover the Scottish Prince in sand.

He said it was “a nice little dive” and that a platform 150m from it would not improve it.

“You would have to have a boat in anyway for safety and access,” he said. “If the council is going to offer us some investment, it needs to be world-class.

“The pier construction could be an attraction in itself – but it would be subject to swell and currents so it would be very limited when it could be dived.”

Mr Banks said the plan for an 800m rock wall, parallel to the beach, could create a new place to dive in certain conditions.