South Australian and Sunderland delegates on board the City of Adelaide during the conference convened by The Duke of Edinburgh (Peter Christopher is standing on the right hand side)
Peter Christopher, OAM, (born 1948, Cyprus) is an Australian author and photographer who writes about shipwrecks and riverboats. He is also a Director of the not for profit organisation, Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd (CSCOAL), set up to save the 1864 clipper ship, City of Adelaide.[1][2]
Christopher is the author of seven books, co-author of another and co-editor of another. Australia's large collection of original operating paddle steamers has been the subject of three decades of research by him, and hence the subject of two of his seven books.[3][4]
Since 1967, Christopher has been an active scuba diver and volunteer maritime archaeologist who has visited and documented wrecks in South Australia (SA) in particular, but also around Australia. Christopher's contribution to maritime archaeology was recognised by an Award presented to him by the Australian Government in 1982 and by the award of a life membership by the Society for Underwater Historical Research in 2000.[5][6]
In 1973, Christopher was a member of the South Australian Government's inquiry into scuba diving deaths in fresh water sink-holes and underwater caves in the south east of SA. The Report of the Committee "appointed to investigate safety precautions for Scuba Divers in Fresh Water Sink Holes and Underwater Caves" which was presented to the Government in January 1974 essentially recommended non-legislative response to the problem. The subsequent voluntary program of regulation via diver training and certification has been carried out by the Cave Divers Association of Australia. The success of the program is evident with nearly four decades of low fatality cave diving following the implementation of the Report's recommendations.[7]
Christopher is a Justice of the Peace for South Australia.
He is not a full-time author; he worked as a senior Trade Union official, with his role until mid June 2015 being the Chief Industrial Officer of the Public Service Association of South Australia. He retired to focus on a volunteer role developing a seaport village for the historic 1864 clipper ship "City of Adelaide' in Port Adelaide's inner harbour.[8][9][10]
Shores of Tragedy: shipwrecks of South Australia. (Christopher.P) (ISBN0731613481) OCLC: 27527347, published by Peter Christopher in 1987, details the ten most commonly dived wrecks in South Australia.
Divers Guide to South Australia. (Christopher.P) (ISBN0958804400) OCLC: 27626745 published by Peter Christopher in 1988
" ...to save the lives of strangers" (Famous Shipwrecks of South Australia) (Christopher.P) (ISBN0958804419) OCLC: 27626764, which was published in 1989, describes the history of SA's most famous wrecks. Its title comes from a newspaper account of the rescue of the survivors of the Admella shipwreck in 1859.
Let's go for a Dive, 50 years of the Underwater Explorers Club of SA, edited by Peter Christopher with Nicholas Cundell and published in 2004 (ISBN0958804427) OCLC: 223893318.
^'Editorial', Soundings, October 2000, pp.2 , in Cowan, David (editor), (2007), The Society for Underwater Historical Research – Publications 1974-2004, Port Adelaide, SA, Society for Underwater Historical Research, (ISBN978 0 9588006 6 2)
^Annual report. Parliamentary paper / The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Government Publishing Service. 1981.
^South Australia. Committee Appointed to Investigate Safety Precautions for Scuba Divers in Fresh Water Sink-Holes and Underwater Caves; Draper, Laurence D. (Laurence Desmond), 1923- (1973), Report, [The Committee]{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
"South Australian Maritime History: A reading list". Government of South Australia. Department for Environment and Heritage. Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2009. "This DEH Heritage Webnote is an online version of information originally published as Heritage Information Leaflet 1.12."
