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…]

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…]

rEvo training in Kilsby’s Sinkhole

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  2 Responses »
Apr 092012
 
rEvo training in Kilsby's Sinkhole

About the site Over the Labour Day long weekend in March, I joined students and instructors for a dive of their rEvo rebreather course. After the initial training dives in Goulden’s Sinkhole, the rEvo courses had moved on to the much more photogenic Kilsby’s Sinkhole where these shots were taken. Following the successful morning dive for both student buddy pairs and their instructors, I jumped in with afternoon sunlight streaming down. By this time of year we’ve progressed from summer into autumn, and it takes longer for the beams of sunlight to hit the bottom of the sinkhole in the morning. The stairs cut through the high rock walls allows spectacular beams to hit the water later in the day [read more…]

Panning shots on a drift dive

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 
Panning shots on a drift dive

About the site The Heads of Port Phillip Bay are one of the more dangerous stretches of water in the world for shipping. A combination of huge tidal flow through the narrow entrance, wind conditions and the prevailing south westerly swell from Bass Strait can create incredibly unfriendly conditions in this small area. Even if the conditions are acceptable for diving outside the Bay, it can be impossible to transit the Heads to get to these dive sites. With nasty waves in the Heads, the attention turns to dive sites within the Bay. These include Pope’s Eye, a rock annulus in the middle of the bay, South Channel Fort and Chinaman’s Hat to play with the seal population. Lastly, parts [read more…]

Harvester in One Tree Sinkhole

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  1 Response »
Mar 192012
 
Harvester in One Tree Sinkhole

About the site One Tree Sinkhole is located to the south east of Mt Gambier, near Little Blue and other sinkholes in the area. Unlike the crystal clear visibility of Kilsby’s Sinkhole, it can be quite murky. The shallow layers of water are often warmer and have a greenish tinge from the algal growth. After breaking through into the deeper, colder and hopefully clearer water, sunlight only filters down very dimly. One Tree has a classic sinkhole formation with the shallowest area being the middle of the hole, dropping steeply away to deeper areas around the edge. The natural rockpile in the middle has been augmented by a variety of farm implements and other items disposed of over the years. [read more…]

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