Ron Allum sitting on his sleeping mat in Toad Hall, with his home made cave radio. This device provided underground to surface voice communication and allowed the Toad Hall team to report on the successful extension of the line in the third sump. The RDF that Ron invented also allowed the location of Toad Hall to be pinpointed on the surface 100m above.

Swimming home through the second sump. Note the additional cargo that’s been added to the sled – a few cave rocks. These aren’t decorative, as after the air had been breathed out of the 14 tanks in the sled, it was extremely positively buoyant. Fully flooding the buoyancy chambers at each end wasn’t enough to sink the sleds to neutral. Wedging rocks in the gaps helped but they tended to fall out until some bright spark came up with the idea of tying them on with string.

Another shot of the same sled, progressing home through the second sump and back towards the first rockpile. On the outward journey the central dry tubes were carefully packed with camping equipment and food. On the way home the packing was less careful and the gear expanded, as it does, and things didn’t fit. Prime among them was Dad’s white helmet and dry caving torch which can be seen perched on top of the pile, next to the empty reel. It filled with water during the swim and didn’t work again. The number of things hanging from the top of the sled demonstrates the slightly haphazard nature of the “we just want to go home” packing.

Back at the first rockpile, the sleds had to be emptied of their cargo so everything could be carried to the water on the other side. The team here is taking a rest break between loads. Only a few tanks left to go!

One of the sleds being hoisted up the side of the doline. Note the Australian flag on the top.

Nearly done…the sleds from the second sump are still covered in string where the excess baggage was tied on the outside. Tanks, drytubes and piles of regulators and wetsuits sit behind. From this angle on the sleds you can see the buoyancy control scubafeed system – the buoyancy chambers at each end could be controlled by a diver from one end. The sleds just needed a little more lead in the frame for the empty tank situation.

With the gear finally on the surface, the dive is done.

Ron hiked 4kms from base camp to reach the spot identified by his RDF device as being directly over Toad Hall. The cairn is still in place today.

With a celebratory beer in hand and the Australian flag in front of the group…check out the short shorts! From left to right in the back row we have:

Paul Aarbon, George Navas, Robert Gaillot, Chris Brown, Dennis Thamm, Robyn Allum, Peter Stace, Brendon Griffin, Simon Jones, Phil Prust, Charlie Tong, Peter Hudson, Graham Morrison, Stefan Eberhard, Peter Brown (local station owner), Darren Lille, Lester German.

Crouching in the front row are the three push divers, Ron Allum, Hugh Morrison and Peter Rogers.

For reference, here’s the map of Cocklebiddy that shows the exploration covered by the 1982 team, and that this 1983 expedition expanded on.

For another viewpoint on the exploration here’s Dad’s Cocklebiddy 1983 article covering the expedition as published in The Scuba Diver in early 1984.

Here ends the trip down memory lane for the original push dives into Cocklebiddy Cave. In case you missed the earlier parts, check out the 1979, 1982 and the first part of the 1983 expeditions by clicking here. Next week I hope to post some of the shots from the 2008 expedition which extended the line that Chris Brown laid on the end of Hugh Morrison’s 1983 line. The difference 25 years makes to the technology is amazing!

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1983 (Part 3) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

Rest stop in the second sump, sleds against the roof. Ron Allum on the left and Phil Prust on the right. The line dangling from the spare reg on the left is a neck strap.

Welcome to Toad Hall. It’s a long way to the top, but less gear to be carried over for the third sump push with only three divers going ahead. The camping gear was taken to the flat section at the top of the chamber.

Phil Prust takes a rest break at the top of the Toad Hall chamber with a tank. Note the single tank carrying pack as seen on the tank Hugh was breathing off in the first sump. Someone else is setting up camp in the background.

Phil waiting for the billy to boil in Toad Hall. All of this miscellaneous equipment has been swum through the 1km first sump, carried over the first rockpile, swum through the 2.5km second sump, and carried up the rockpile in Toad Hall. It’s a lot of work for a cup of tea! Drinking water and orange juice was carried as the cave water was too salty. Note the helmet propped on the rock to light the job at hand.

Phil Prust, tucked into bed in Toad Hall with a redundant torch by his side. High humidity made everything damp.

Hugh lays yellow line into the third sump. The white line was laid by the French brothers Frances and Eric Le Guen who had dived the cave in September 1983 using Aquazepp scooters to push 1500m into the third sump. In October 1983 the Australian team was determined to regain their cave and their record. Removing the European white line from the third sump and pushing beyond into unknown territory was a good response to the French invaders and their lead stealing activities.

Reeling into the third sump, Ron (L), Hugh (R) and Dad (behind camera) headed for the end of the cave. Hugh is carrying a spare single tank under one arm for when the cave gets smaller at the known end of the tunnel. In this photo you can see the large passage size earlier in the system has started to shrink. The dangling regs and underarm tank carrying technique indicate that clips haven’t yet been invented in Australian cave diving – but when the tunnels are huge, who needs them?

At the end of the cave, Hugh moves to a more streamlined configuration for checking out side passages and finding the way on. This photo was taken approximately 6km from home, and with this configuration Hugh investigated a number of side tunnels and managed to push 1790m into the third sump, or 240m past the end of the French line. The end of Hugh’s line was not surpassed until Chris Brown reached it in 1995.

The end of the line, in defence of the record. Hugh Morrison holds the furthest extent of the line laid by the French brothers, with his yellow line ready to go. This picture was the evidence that the French exploration had been passed.

Coming up next week, the swim home, cave radios, derigging the cave and group shots. If you’ve missed an episode of history, all of my Cocklebiddy exploration posts can be found listed here. If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1983 (Part 2) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

L to R, Hugh Morrison, Robyn Allum, Simon Jones (back to us), Ron Allum far right. Ron explains his newly designed home-made aluminium sleds to the divers. Ron had become skilled in aluminium welding as he built a boat and made these in his back yard. Note the constant volume scuba-fed buoyancy chambers incorporated into the design.

It’s a long swim to Toad Hall….Ron showing off his extra large fins, with a combined length almost longer than he was tall. The impressed audience is Robyn Allum, Phil Prust and Peter Stace.

Tanks by the entrance lake in Cocklebiddy, with four empty sleds ready to be loaded.

Unsure, Hugh’s brother Graham Morrison and Ron Allum loading the sleds at the entrance lake. The dry tube running down the centre contains food and camping equipment – the team intended to sleep in Toad Hall before pushing into the third sump. Triple tanks are being prepared in the background, and this photo gives a better view of the low pressure scuba feeds on the sled buoyancy chambers.

Hugh Morrison and Simon Jones concentrate on loading a sled in preparation for pushing it through to the first rockpile, 1km in. The long hoses were left accessible in case of emergency, with no plans to breathe the sledded tanks in the first sump.

It’s all about getting the sled in the water. 14 tanks plus a dry tube of supplies and various pieces of diving equipment tied on the outside weigh a lot. Dad’s the one in the middle with the battery box on his waist. The guy of the right is so strong he’s left his weightbelt on for the exercise. Hugh is showing true trip leadership by watching carefully to make sure no-one makes a mistake (other side of the sled, facing the camera).

Hugh Morrison with a sled, transiting the first sump. Note the emergency long hose hanging down while Hugh swims 1km in a single tank and BCD, pushing 14 tanks. The single has a second plastic backplate on it, facing the camera, for carrying it through the dry cave. Those who were paying attention to the 1982 trip will note the modified wetsuit has returned. Hugh turned his wetsuit into a shortie with a dive knife at the first rockpile before starting the second sump push dive that discovered Toad Hall. Bare knees are much better for long distance cave diving.

Of course, a 14 tank fully loaded sled was not going to make it over the first rockpile. With a 1km underwater swim behind them, the divers deconstructed each sled and carried the gear across the rockpile, before putting it all back together to tackle the second sump. 12 divers came through to the first rockpile in total.

At 1km and 2km intervals into the second sump, the team stopped and parked the sleds on the roof for a break. This also gave Dad a chance to grab some underwater photos of what was an epic swim. Six divers and three sleds swam the length of the second sump, with two divers to a sled – one at the back to push and one at the front to steer. From left to right the divers in this picture are the bare-kneed Hugh Morrison, Ron Allum and Phil Prust. The other second sump divers were Dad, Simon Jones and Graham Morrison. Dad had spent the weeks leading up to the trip practising pushing the sleds around Ewen’s Ponds.

If you look at the left hand sled, the yellow bundle on the top is Dad’s foam sleeping mat which was too big to fit inside the dry tube. The middle sled has the reels of line destined to unroll in the third sump. The team had fruit boxes to drink before continuing on down the tunnel.

Coming up next Thursday, the excitement of camping in Toad Hall and the dive into the third sump. For those who’ve missed an episode all of my Cocklebiddy history posts can be found listed here. If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1983 (Part 1) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

Here Hugh and Ron park the depleted sled on the roof half way through sump 2, before moving to breathing their backmounted triple tanks and continuing down the tunnel, freeing Dad up to take photos again. You can see a full reel of line hanging off the sled on the left hand side. The diver in the foreground is Ron, with the knees still in his wetsuit and orange snorkel attached.

Sled parked, Ron (left) and Hugh (right) take a reel each and swim along the line laid by the West Australians three and a half years prior.

Hugh Morrison, swimming the line through the second sump in triple tanks, reel in hand. With the sled parked, Dad is back to taking pictures with Ron assisting with the lighting.

Hugh (left) and Ron (right) tie into the end of the line, 3.15km from the entrance lake and 1.9km into the second sump. There are three reels in the picture, with the reel that was left by the South Australians at their further point of penetration in 1979 looking slightly rusty around the edges. Note the silt percolating off the roof, and Ron’s off-camera strobe that has fired to light the scene. From here on, the three push divers were into new territory.

Hugh reels out as he swims. It’s likely that this picture was taken more than 3.5kms from the entrance, with nary a scooter in sight. Dad hadn’t used this lens before and this photo was very underexposed – new technology in scanning in the slides has worked wonders in bringing out the details.

Three thousand seven hundred metres from home, the trio looked up to see a surface rippling above them. After very little decompression they surfaced into Toad Hall. Dad immediately had the photographer’s problem – huge cave, very small light. This shot was taken sideways along the wall above the lake so that the strobe could light something up. He was using the 16mm Sea&Sea underwater lens which can’t focus out of water, and as a result the image is slightly fuzzy. The back of the head is Hugh’s. While they were keen to explore further, the push divers were aware the divers back at the first rockpile were timing their return, and would begin to get anxious if they spent too much time in this new air chamber.

The entrance lake again, gear everywhere.

Group shot of the trip. Back row, left to right: Robert Gaillot, Ron Allum, Peter Rogers, Simon Jones, Hugh Morrison, John Clarke, Ross Williams, Keith Cook, Martin Jones, Graham Morrison, Justin Burman, Lee Burman. Front row: Simon Groves, Lyndall Jones, Tim Williams, Keith Dekkers.

For a first person perspective check out the article Dad wrote at the time, published in The Scuba Diver: Cocklebiddy 1982.

In case you missed it,the photos from the 1979 Cocklebiddy trip can be seen here and here, and the first half of these photos from 1982 can be seen here. Coming up next Thursday, photos from the 1983 trip: the push beyond Toad Hall. In 1983 the team camped overnight in Toad Hall before diving the third sump for the first time, and the technology improved with aluminium sleds and a cave radio built by Ron Allum.

If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1982 (Part 2) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

Left to right: Hugh Morrison, Ron Allum, unsure, Keith Dekkers, Simon Jones in yellow, unsure. The 1982 trip was led by Hugh Morrison from West Australia. Dad, still based in South Australia, knew Hugh from his FAUI instructing and invited himself along as trip photographer. The other South Australian representative was Ron, who was keen to get back to Cocklebiddy and came as photographer’s assistant. Various bits of gear have been hung on the shrubbery to dry, including a buoyancy vest on the salt bush behind Simon.

Simon Jones from Perth Diving Academy. The triple bands were a West Australian invention, overcoming the limitations of the velcro method used by the South Australians in 1979.

Ron Allum down by the entrance lake, considering methods of binding tanks together for a sled.

The final 1982 sled in use. Two sets of triple bands were used, with the bottom tank held by both bands at the apex to form three sets of five tanks in a row. A piece of plumbing pipe down the middle, a broom handle through the front for steering and three horse collar vests attached at various points for buoyancy completed the rig. Torches were tied into the structure at various points to provide more light. The sled was propelled by a diver on each side at the front, and one behind. These three are attempting to following the roof of the cave. Staying shallow helped conserve air but following the roof also meant regular depth changes, leading to a change in buoyancy of the sled with no ability to inflate or deflate the attached vests.

As the next shot shows, the sled has headed down through the water from the roof to the floor and the bubble trails show the divers are working hard. As well as the torches and vests attached to the top, check out the 4L orange juice container for hydration at the end of the dive. Dad and Ron moved around the trio as they swum the first sump, taking pictures of the sled in action.

A shot of the first rockpile, with someone (possibly Simon Jones) carrying his twin tanks over the pile. When compared to the 1979 shot, a fair bit more mud has been tracked up over the rocks. The off camera strobe in this shot is a land strobe that could be triggered by a remote flash in a home made perspex box. Advanced technology for the time!

Putting the sled back together in the water on the far side of the first rockpile. Simon Jones is inserting the broom handle while his brother looks on. At this point the planned push divers were Hugh, Keith Dekkers and Simon Jones. The plan was for each push diver to breathe off the sled tanks (5 each) while swimming, then to drop the sled and continue on using the triples each diver carried on their back.

In the entrance pool of the second sump. By this point Keith and Simon have decided not to join the push dive, and Ron and Dad have volunteered to accompany Hugh. Ron was known to be an excellent cave diver, and Dad was by now a FAUI instructor whose skills at pushing sleds in 1979 had not gone unnoticed. Hugh has also taken time while in the air space to cut the legs off his wetsuit after finding it too warm and restrictive on the swim through the first sump – nice knees Hugh! Ron is in the red vest on the left hand side, holding a fresh reel of line. With Dad now push diving (push being more literal than we’d think of it today) there aren’t any more underwater photos until the sled is deposited on the roof further down the tunnel and the trio moved to triples.

In case you missed it, the photos from the 1979 Cocklebiddy trip can be seen here and here. Coming up next Thursday, photos from the dive into the second sump, and the first ever photo of Toad Hall. If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1982 (Part 1) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

Alan Grundy and Peter Rogers on the surface of the entrance lake, pre-dive. Orange fenzies and orange tanks…a cave photographer’s dream.

Alan Grundy poses next to the stage tank. Given the length of the first sump, this steel tank was left on the line some way along. Given it was a (very negative) steel, and there wasn’t an easy way for a diver to attach it to themselves beyond carrying it by hand, it’s probably a good thing it didn’t need to be used. You can see Alan has both his torch and his back up torch ready to hand.

We suspect this may be the first photo ever taken of the first rockpile in Cocklebiddy. The line running up the right of the image is diving guideline, which was run through the dry cave to assist transiting divers in case of torch failure. Dad took this photo to illustrate how steep the climb is. When compared to the photo from 1982, the rocks here are very clean and white.

Dad with a pack, stopped half way down the entrance of the cave for a chat with Russell Kitt (right). High pressure copper plumbing pipe was run from the compressor on the surface to allow tanks to be filled, although it only reached three quarters of the way to the water’s edge. The red cable on the right is Telecom cable used for a cave radio. The black box radio behind has regular power points on it – 240 volt was run all the way down to the water for charging lights.

As I said last week, staging tanks through a cave was not yet standard practise, so the team was looking for new ways to carry more tanks with them. This particular configuration shows the third tank attached to the back of a manifolded twinset with velcro. The idea behind this system was that four (or six) divers would set off from the first rockpile, pushing into the second sump and hoping to reach the end of the West Australian line laid the previous year.

The push diving buddy pair would breathe from their velcro’ed third tank, while the support divers breathed from their twins. When thirds were reached, an underwater swap of velcro’ed third tanks took place, leaving the push divers with three full tanks while the support divers turned for home on their twins, carrying the empties. By the 1982 trip Hugh Morrison and the West Australians had invented triple tank bands, and this configuration became redundant.

A wider shot of the fill station inside the cave. You can see the copper pipe running into the split hose system. Peter Rogers on the left, Russell Kitt on the right.

A council of war, planning the push dives. From left to right Ron Allum, Peter Stace (seated), Phil Prust in brown, Alan Grundy, Alan Joliffe, Russell Kitt, Peter Rogers. The small dog was Alan Joliffe’s, known as Woofer. There was a small incident where Phil mysteriously didn’t have enough weetbix left for breakfast, but Woofer had found weetbix to enjoy…Phil was not impressed.

The two compressors at the top of the cave, shown here at the end of the trip after tanks started to come out.

Pulling the gear out at the end of the trip, including the plumbing pipe. Russell Kitt on the right, Alan Joliffe in white, Alan Grundy’s wife, Jo on the left. The blue kombi van belonged to Ron Allum. You can see the dive harnesses attached to the twin bands at three points – between the top bands and to D rings each side of the bottom bands. Slip into the harness, throw the fenzy over your head and off you go.

In case you missed it, the first half of the photos from the 1979 Cocklebiddy trip can be seen here. This trip didn’t manage to lay line beyond the existing line in the second sump, laid by the West Australian divers the previous year. Coming up next Thursday, photos from the combined South and West Australian trip in 1982. The 1982 trip invented some sophisticated sleds, dived a long way past the known line,  and discovered Toad Hall, where Dad took the first ever photo in the famous chamber.

If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1979 (Part 2) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.

As trip photographer, Dad captured the unfolding events. A lot of divers now visit Cocklebiddy and more than a few histories have been written around the initial exploration. While every person tells it from their own point of view, a photographer has the distinct advantage of pictorial evidence to back up their claims.

Lastly, these images are no good to anyone sitting in a cupboard. As you can see from the marks on some of these images, the earlier slides in the collection are starting to degrade. Dad has spent a great deal of time sorting and scanning and sorting again. I’m proud to present the results of his efforts, and I’ll post the Cocklebiddy photo files each Thursday for the next six weeks. If you’d like to use, reproduce or get copies of these photos, please get in touch at liz@lizrogersphotography.com. Captions are below each photo.

Lowering a tank and reels over the edge with a larkin frame. The 1979 trip was a South Australian affair with Peter Stace on the left, Phil Prust in the brown jumper, Russell Kitt with the blue hat, Ron Allum standing on the trailer and Jenny Hiscock off to the right.

With a large assortment of gear down by the water’s edge. Front and centre is Ron Allum in the green shirt. Alan Joliffe on the left, unidentifiable person behind, Russell Kitt crouching down and Peter Stace on the right.

Alan Grundy (left) and Ron Allum packing a dry tube in preparation for the first dive. The perspex box with a garden hose coming out of it in the foreground is a homemade dive torch. The first rockpile had been discovered the previous trip, and at nearly 1km from the entrance was considered a big dive.

The first attempt at combining tanks together to form a sled. Two sets of banded twins were strapped around a drytube for buoyancy. Peter Stace, Alan Grundy and Ron Allum were the only three divers on this trip who had previously been to the rockpile, and staging tanks throughout the cave hadn’t yet been dreamt up. Alan and Ron set off for the first rockpile with this contraption, only to return about 40 minutes later having realised they were past their thirds – not the most hydrodynamic getup to be carrying around underwater. Dad and Peter Stace headed off on the next dive and picked up where they left off, making it all the way to the rockpile.

Ron Allum getting ready to dive at the entrance lake in Cocklebiddy.

Peter Stace gearing up at the water’s edge, helped by Jenny Hiscock.

Peter Rogers in wetsuit and fenzy on his first Nullarbor trip, prepping for a dive into Cocklebiddy.

Alan Grundy swimming through the first sump. The drytube between his tanks may have had snacks and other useful things. There was also some concern that the fenzies wouldn’t have enough lift with the twin tanks. Most diving at the time, even in caves, was done using single tanks.

Next Thursday I’ll upload the other half of the 1979 photos, and after that share the 1982 push to Toad Hall and 1983 push into the third sump. If you’d like to stay updated without checking back, you can subscribe via RSS or email (scroll up to the top and enter your email under “Follow me on the web” and click “Subscribe to articles”).

The post Cave diving through history: Cocklebiddy Cave, 1979 (Part 1) first appeared on Liz Rogers Photography.