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 MUDJIMBA BEACH, Australia (AP) - A decommissioned U.S.-built Australian naval destroyer was scuttled Sunday with explosives, then sank slowly to the bottom of Pacific Ocean to become the newest diving attraction in Australia's Queensland state.
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday on beaches and high vantage points along the eastern state's Sunshine Coast to watch the spectacle that lasted only a few minutes.
Queensland state Premier Peter Beattie detonated 38 explosives from one of just a few boats allowed inside the half-mile exclusion zone around the HMAS Brisbane. The vessel sank evenly to its resting point about 115 feet beneath the surface, now to become an artificial reef and a major diving attraction.
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