Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  4 Responses »
Jul 022012
 
Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

About the site Following up from two weeks ago, I thought I’d add a few lines about another plane wreck I dived while staying at Lissenung Island Resort. The place featured above is a Japanese “Kate” bomber. Unlike the Allies, where American crews were assigned to a single aircraft, Japanese crews jumped in the closest available plane. The occupying Japanese moved to destroy all records in PNG towards the end of the war, and these two facts mean very little is known about the history of the Japanese plane wrecks around Kavieng. This particular plane was a Nakajima B5N, nicknamed a Kate bomber by the Allies and wrecked sometime during WWII. With a crew of three, she was the standard [read more…]

Through the window in Murra-el-elevyn

 Cave diving, Nullarbor  1 Response »
Jun 252012
 
Through the window in Murra-el-elevyn

About the cave Murra-el-elevyn begins as a large doline, or hole in the middle of the desert. Once you’ve lowered yourself 10m below the ground level, scrambled down a scree slope of tumbling rubble and picked your way through the boulders, the water is so clear it’s easy to miss. Stepping down from one rock to what looked like a good place to put the dive gear together gave me a wet foot, and even once I knew where the water line was it was hard to see. Despite my wet foot, it seemed like a good omen. From the entrance pool seen in the photo below, tunnels extend in multiple directions. Several come back up to air chambers with [read more…]

Propellors of the PBY Catalina

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Jun 182012
 
Propellors of the PBY Catalina

About the site The Consolidated PBY Catalina was a hugely successful American-made flying boat, produced from the 1930s and still in service well into the 1980s. A multi-function aircraft, Catalinas were used through WWII for long distance patrol bombing, as convoy escorts and for rescuing downed crews from the ocean’s surface. This particular Catalina, the A24-11 was being operated by the RAAF as a munitions carrier when she crashed in January 1942. Shortly after takeoff from Kavieng Harbour a wing bomb exploded, and the aircraft went down in approximately 20m of water. Despite another Catalina pilot witnessing the accident and landing to rescue survivors, the 9 crew aboard went down with their plane. About the dive This was my second boat [read more…]

Spider crabs under Rye Pier

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  3 Responses »
May 282012
 
Spider crabs under Rye Pier

About the site As well as the great wrecks lying out in the ship’s graveyard, diving from Melbourne also features a great set of piers. These shallow and easy shore dives showcase a wide variety of marine critters. Flinders Pier on the east side of the Mornington Peninsula is known for its weedy seadragon population, and scorpion fish, pot bellied seahorses and thousands of nudibranchs can be found between sponge-encrusted pylons all around Port Phillip Bay. While a favourite of macro photographers, the piers aren’t my usual weekend diving destination. Rye Pier lies on the south east side of the Bay, a bit over an hour’s drive from Melbourne. It has a max depth of 5m or so, and as [read more…]

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…]

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