Bathtub in Piccaninnie Ponds

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Aug 082011
 
Bathtub in Piccaninnie Ponds

About the dive The eagle eyed may have noted an extra diver in the background of the last Piccaninnie Ponds shot I talked about here. The little white speck in the distance is actually a diver heading into the usually-forbidden depths of the cave. The photo was taken on a weekend reserved for research into some of the more unusual aspects of this unique wetlands and cave site. In particular, the team was checking on salinity monitors that had been installed in the cave on a previous project weekend. Piccaninnie Ponds is just over the sand dunes from the ocean, and a reduction in ground water flows following the recent drought may lead to salt water incursion from the ocean [read more…]

Haloclines in Olwolgin Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  7 Responses »
Aug 012011
 
Haloclines in Olwolgin Cave

About the site I’ve already talked about a couple of photos I’ve taken of unique features in the Roe Plains caves, including the Black and White Raft Room and the hanging roots. Cave diving in the Roe Plains provided the biggest photographic challenge I’ve experienced thus far – taking clear pictures in a graduated halocline. Haloclines occur where salty and freshwater meet, creating a mixing layer. Unlike the Mexican caves on the Yucatan Peninsula, the halocline in the Roe Plains caves runs at every level of the water. This means it isn’t possible to swim above it, and any diver movement through the cave mixes water of different levels of salinity. For those who haven’t dived in these conditions before, [read more…]

Turtles in sunlight at Layang Layang

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  5 Responses »
Jul 252011
 
Turtles in sunlight at Layang Layang

About the island Layang Layang is a diver’s paradise, with huge walls dropping off the side of the reef into the blue ocean depths. The isolated location mean the fish life is prolific, with colourful reef fish hovering between the coral and pelagic fish shooting through at speed. Excellent visibility in the warm tropical waters and huge amounts of life led to a large number of photos over the 20 dives of our trip. I had a good time experimenting with a number of new techniques and other things I hadn’t consciously played with before. The advantage of a dive trip like this for me is that you can download and review your shots after each dive, note any difficulties [read more…]

F tunnel in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  5 Responses »
Jul 182011
 
F tunnel in Tank Cave

About the dive Tank Cave is a labyrinthian maze of intersecting passages, located in the Mt Gambier region of South Australia. First dived in the 60s, the challenging narrow and silty entrance meant exploration didn’t truly begin until the 1980s. Today, the cave has approximately 11km of mapped passage. The main tunnels run on an approximate NW-SE trend, and the cave develops a distinct character in the different areas. The tunnels are named by letter and number, and tags are placed in the cave on the permanent lines at key points to aid navigation. Tank Cave is generally shallow, with most tunnels being between 10m and 20m deep, allowing for long dives. This photo was taken in F tunnel, which is [read more…]

Agnes Milowka

 Cave diving, Other  5 Responses »
Jul 112011
 
Agnes Milowka

  I joined the Melbourne University Underwater Club in 2003; Ag was President that year. It wasn’t until a few years later, when I was President, that I better understood and envied the natural talent she had for getting hungover students enthused about getting up early and going diving. In February 2005 we did our first cave course together. In mid-2005 I headed off to England for 18 months. Back in the country in 2006 Dean, Ag and I were over in Mt Gambier every 2 to 3 weeks, practising for the third and final cave course. We were all still determinedly wearing our tanks on our backs at this point, removed by Ag on one notable occasion to facilitate [read more…]

Torpedos on the J4 submarine

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  3 Responses »
Jul 042011
 
Torpedos on the J4 submarine

About the wreck The J class submarines were built by the British in a hurry during WWI in response to a rumour that the Germans had invented a faster submarine. After the war, the remaining 6 of the original fleet of 7 was gifted to the Royal Australian Navy, and travelled across the world to eventually be based out of Geelong. After a very expensive refit on arrival, the running costs for the J class subs was found to be a fair bit higher than estimated. Built using old technology, they also became obsolete in fairly short order. With budget cuts for the Navy, the subs were handed over for salvage and scuttling. Two of the six subs ended up [read more…]

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