Sponges on Lonsdale Wall

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Oct 132015
 
Sponges on Lonsdale Wall

About the site I love Lonsdale Wall. It’s my favourite dive site in Melbourne – better than the scuttled wrecks, better than the really-hard-to-get-on reefs. Even in terrible conditions it’s usually not bad and on a good day it’s stunning. With good vis you can hang over the edge of the wall and look down into deep blue water below. If there’s a little bit of tide still running you can drift slowly along beside the yellow zooanthids and orange sponges, watching fish follow you curiously. In short, it’s nice. About the dive Sunday’s dive was the afternoon slack at the end of the flood tide. With good vis outside that morning I was looking forward to blue water and [read more…]

Cave Diving Kupang, Timor

 Cave diving, Overseas  No Responses »
Oct 042015
 
Cave Diving Kupang, Timor

Timor! I have just finished my third annual trip to the karst region of West Timor. In 2013 following some of Stefan Eberhard’s research, Stefan and I went for a quick reconnaissance trip. We spent a lot of time driving around and looking at dry holes in the tropical sun before finding our way into a major underwater system. On the last day we laid half a kilometre of line into massive blue tunnel with crystal clear water beckoning us on. It was enough of a high that organisation for the next trip began pretty quickly. In mid 2014 myself and five others headed back to the same area for further investigations. The first dive to continue the master tunnel [read more…]

Wreck diving the Wareatea

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  2 Responses »
Sep 222015
 
Wreck diving the Wareatea

About the wreck Unlike other wrecks in the Ship’s Graveyard, the Wareatea was a passenger and cargo transport, built in 1883. She ran between Melbourne and the north coast of Tasmania between Federation in 1901 and the end of WWII in 1945, when she was scuttled. The wreck has great life on it with nice sponge growth and schools of fish around. While the bow is somewhat twisted and flat to the seabed the stern stands up and has the prop and rudder still in position. About the dive After a few weeks of diving in some pretty average vis, I was wondering if wreck diving was all it’s cracked up to me. Upon jumping into deep blue ocean I decided [read more…]

Dark water on the ex-HMAS Adelaide

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  No Responses »
Sep 152015
 
Dark water on the ex-HMAS Adelaide

About the wreck The ex-HMAS Adelaide is a sister ship to the ex-HMAS Canberra. Both were deliberately sunk after a useful life of service and now serve as diver attractions. I have dived the Canberra (which sits out of Melbourne) a few times, but I hadn’t visited the Adelaide. She can be found on the NSW Central Coast, just over an hour’s drive north of Sydney. About the dive I was up in NSW to give a talk at Dive Imports on the delights of cave diving around the country. After a great night with an enthusiastic audience we were up early Saturday morning to head out to the wreck. The topside weather was fantastic with bright sunshine. Unfortunately the [read more…]

Green water on the Pioneer

 rEvo, Wrecks  1 Response »
Sep 082015
 
Green water on the Pioneer

About the wreck The Pioneer was built in 1905 and worked as a dredge ship. She was scuttled in the Ship’s Graveyard off the Barwon coastline in 1950. She sits on the sand in approximately 45m with much of hull still intact. The twin propellors, the stern and the bow are still there, covered in sponges and sealife. About the dive Despite flat seas up top it was green and murky in the water. The sunshine was percolating down through the dark water so we had a bit of light on the bottom. We dropped down the shot near the stern and I ducked under the back of the boat. Down on the sand there was a touch of current running [read more…]

A lightshow in Fossils Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Aug 112015
 
A lightshow in Fossils Cave

About the site Fossil Cave is a small cave-rated dive in Mt Gambier. It’s close to Tank Cave, close enough that there’s ongoing speculation that one day divers might be able to swim from one to the other. It’s a shallow affair but does display the crystal clear water that makes you think you’re diving through air. The cave was named after the fossil remains which were extracted for study back in the 80s. About the dive There’s less light in winter but the lower angle of the sun means it comes in at a better angle for cave entrances like Fossil and Pines. On the day we had high winds and scudding clouds so the sun beams were a [read more…]

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