A view of Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
May 212012
 
A view of Lissenung Island

About the site As you can see from the photo above and the one below, both of these shots were taken within close vicinity of Lissenung Island. Lissenung is located between the Bismark Sea and South Pacific Ocean, in Papua New Guinea. I was there in April for a week of diving after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. About the dive The photo up top was taken towards the end of the week. After two morning boat dives out on the deep walls that drop into the Bismarck Sea, I spent a cruisy afternoon diving on the house reef. With poor visibility out deeper, the shallow reef flats had clearer water. I was also tempted into [read more…]

Laying line into Unnamed Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  2 Responses »
May 142012
 
Laying line into Unnamed Cave

About the site As I talked about two weeks ago, Unnamed Cave is located down on the Roe Plains. Freshly discovered last October by Paul Hosie of CEGWA, a number of trips have now seen over 2kms of line laid into virgin passage. Over Easter this year I was lucky enough to join a group heading out there. About the dive While I was determined to take both photos and video footage in the newly discovered tunnels, I was also quite keen to find a little bit of new tunnel of my own and add to the rapidly developing map. After an orientation dive in the cave to get my bearings, Ken and I planned a stage dive to take [read more…]

Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  2 Responses »
May 072012
 
Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

About the site Lissenung Island is a tiny sandy island in New Ireland, PNG. Located between the Bismarck Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, the waters here see incredible biodiversity. With coastal mangroves nurturing juvenile fish and corals walls down off the continental shelf all within a stone’s throw of each other, the marine life thrives. I visited Lissenung Island Resort in April 2012 for my prize trip after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. Over 6 diving days there were clouds of fish, huge barracuda, dolphins surfing the bow wave on glassy seas and some great photographic dives on WWII plane wrecks. As the boat winds between sandy tropical islands over 30 degrees water, paradise is [read more…]

Hanging Roots in Olwolgin Cave II

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  3 Responses »
Apr 302012
 
Hanging Roots in Olwolgin Cave II

About the site Olwolgin Cave is located on the Roe Plains, south of the escarpment that curves across above the Great Australian Bight. Unlike the Nullarbor Caves above the escarpment, where the water table averages 100m below the desert, on the Roe Plains the water table is only 10m under your feet. This makes for much easier access. On the other hand, there aren’t the spectacular dolines that punctuate the Nullarbor and act as great big signposts of cave formation. Olwolgin Cave is shallow, up to 14m deep, has small, twisting passages in multilevel formation and a greenish tint to the water. From my dives here in 2010 I’d admired the massive hanging root formations. As I mentioned, I didn’t [read more…]

A year of photos

 Other  No Responses »
Apr 292012
 

This week marks twelve months since I began posting weekly photo articles on this site. In that time I’ve been lucky to visit caves and dive sites across Australia, and it’s been great to share some of my favourite shots. In recent months I’ve dived Jenolan and McCavity Caves in New South Wales, finally achieved sunbeams in the Shaft in Mt Gambier, and travelled to the Nullarbor and Roe Plains to dive virgin tunnels. I’ve also just returned from a trip to tropical Papua New Guinea, courtesy of Lissenung Island Resort and the Underwater Festival. My latest photos from this trip have just been uploaded, and can be seen here.   My posting schedule of a weekly article hasn’t quite [read more…]

An orientation dive in Unnamed Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  2 Responses »
Apr 162012
 
An orientation dive in Unnamed Cave

About the site Unnamed Cave lies under the Roe Plain in the West Australian desert. Unlike the caves on the Nullarbor Plain above the escarpment in the same area, the Roe Plains caves have the distinct characteristics you can see in the photo above – tinted green water, long shallow tunnels with tempting leads off each side and extreme scalloping of the limestone walls. Unnamed Cave was discovered last October by Paul Hosie of CEGWA, and the initial few days of exploration were carried out by Brian Kakuk, Ken Smith, Richard Harris and Grant Pearce. Paul did the first push through a particularly nasty restriction and after 90m or so, the cave opens up to the very large passage you [read more…]

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