HMVS Cerberus - Decommissioning and Fate

Decommissioning and Fate

Cerberus was sold to the Melbourne Salvage Company for £409 on 23 April 1924, with the buyer to break her up for scrap. The warship was towed from Corio Bay to Williamstown Naval Dockyard on 14 May for disassembly. After the salvage company removed what they could, she was then sold on to the Sandringham council for £150. The monitor was scuttled on 26 September 1926 at Half Moon Bay to serve as a breakwater for the Black Rock Yacht Club. During her life, Cerberus never left Port Philip Bay, and never fired in anger.

The wreck sits in approximately 10 feet (3.0 m), less than 650 feet (200 m) from shore. Over time, the breakwater became a popular site for scuba diving. The ship was penetrable from many openings along both sides, and featured two submerged deck levels with heavy silting. With care and lights, it was possible to travel from stem to stern without leaving the ship. The interior of the ship has also seen use as a training course for assault swimmers. Her exposed decks were regularly used for picnics.

During the 1970s, the Cerberus Preservation Trust was formed to study the feasibility of raising and restoring Cerberus. However, by 1983, the Trust had made little apparent progress.

In 1993, there was a major structural collapse after rusting deck supports and stanchions gave way, leaving only the deck beams to support the deck, turrets, and superstructure. Cerberus began to subside at 16 millimetres (0.63 in) per year. Following this, a 100 metres (330 ft) exclusion zone was placed around the wreck.

In 2001, the Friends of the Cerberus organisation was formed, with the goal of preserving Cerberus. After campaigning by Friends of the Cerberus for funding to remove the four 18-ton guns from the monitor to reduce the load placed on the monitor's deck, the Victorian government provided an A$80,000 grant that was project managed by Heritage Victoria in October 2004. After being coated with preservative and receiving an electrolysis treatment, the guns were placed on the seabed next to the wreck.

From late 2005, Friends of the Cerberus began to campaign for A$5.5 million in funding to stabilise the wreck site, first by installing additional supports for the deck and turrets (the latter weighing 200 tons each), then raising the ship off the seabed and placing her in an underwater cradle. To help attract funds from the Federal and Victorian governments, the wreck was nominated by Friends of the Cerberus and the National Trust for heritage listing, which was achieved on 14 December 2005; Cerberus was also listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and is included on the local Heritage Overlay. In July 2008, an application by Friends of the Cerberus for a grant of A$500,000 of federal funding was successful, with the National Trust of Victoria holding the funds on behalf of Friends of the Cerberus. The money was originally intended for the construction of a jacking frame and support cradle, but in late 2010, it was instead earmarked for structural preservation work on the monitor's gun turrets. By April 2012, the target of the funding had changed again, with plans to spend the grant on corrosion control of the wreck, along with "interpretive devices" on the nearby shore.