The photographs of the teak decking on the Sydney show that it is in remarkably good condition for a ship that was apparently on fire from stem to stern.

The exact process(es) involved in the fate of the Sydney have been the source of enormous interest from personal and military history points of view and now the archaeologists will be able to join with the historians to produce better understandings.

While the Sydney has been the main target of interest, to use a perhaps unfortunate phrase, among Australian naval historians there have been two others involving Australia's first two submarines. The AE2 was famous in the Dardanelles campaign of WWI for having penetrated the Turkish defences into the Sea of Marmara and did some damage before it was sunk; it has recently been located.

But the AE1 remains unlocated off Rabaul, where it was sent to engage the German forces in their colonial possessions.