Bottles on the wreck of the Loch Ard

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  2 Responses »
Mar 122012
 
Bottles on the wreck of the Loch Ard

About the site The Loch Ard is one of the more famous wrecks in Victoria’s history. One of the last passenger sailing ships to travel from the UK to Australia as steamships began to take over; she made the journey in 13 weeks in 1878. Aboard the 3 masted square rigged ship were 36 crew and 18 passengers. After leaving England in March, the Loch Ard was nearing her destination in Melbourne when disaster struck in the early hours of June 1st. Captain Gibbs was expecting to sight land when the ship encountered heavy fog. Unable to locate the Cape Otway lighthouse, he instead spotted cliffs looming out of the darkness. Despite attempts to turn the ship using sails and [read more…]

Friendly fish at the Grotto

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  1 Response »
Mar 052012
 
Friendly fish at the Grotto

About the site Melbourne sits at the northern end of Port Phillip Bay, and the heads open out into Bass Strait at the southern end. A comparatively large volume of water flows through a small heads entrance, leading to strong tidal currents each day. This water movements carries nutrients through the entrance, and when the water flow stops as the tide changes direction, great diving become accessible. Diving between the heads of the Bay is of necessity a well-timed activity, and one that’s well worth it. In some places the wall of the channel steps down from 12m reef flats at the top to over 60m deep in 5m blocks. The vertical walls are coated with soft corals and sponges [read more…]

New perspectives in tunnels

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Feb 202012
 
New perspectives in tunnels

About the site The photo above was taken in Tank Cave, although it could easily be taken in almost any tunnel of about the same size. Tank has shallow depths allowing plenty of time for photos, and with over 8km of interconnecting tunnels there’s a lot of clear water to play in. The cave also shows a lot of variation between different areas of the cave with white walled breakdown chambers giving way to orange tunnels and dark brown rooms. About the dive This particular dive was the first of the weekend, without any particular photography goals in mind. We travelled down the Gold Line to visit an offshoot tunnel known as the A extension. This area of the cave [read more…]

Exposure compromises in Kilsby’s Sinkhole

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Feb 132012
 
Exposure compromises in Kilsby's Sinkhole

About the site Kilsby’s Sinkhole is a huge, crystal clear freshwater cave formation in Mt Gambier. From most areas in the cave you can look back and see daylight, although past 40m you can get down between the rocks. A classic sinkhole formation created by a roof collapse thousands of years ago, Kilsby’s has a rockpile in the middle coming up to 15m depth or less. One side descends to 25m or so, and the other down to 60m+. Visibility is usually in excess of 40m – you can watch divers swim along the opposite wall and see their trailing bubbles ascend to the surface above. About the dive The clear water, natural light and sheer size of the space [read more…]

Backlighting in McCavity Cave

 Cave diving, NSW  2 Responses »
Jan 302012
 
Backlighting in McCavity Cave

About the site McCavity Cave is used by local cave divers to refer to the underwater portion of Limekiln Cave, part of the Wellington Caves near Wellington, NSW. Approximately a 5 hour drive from Sydney, Wayne and I flew up from Melbourne one Friday night to check out the cave diving. McCavity is notable for a couple of reasons, the first being the underwater stalactites and stalagmites. The second reason is the unusual entrance. After climbing down through the dry cave to a chamber known as Central Station where gear is assembled and drysuits are donned, divers duck and crawl through the last section down to a small hole. Recent rains had brought the water level up to the top [read more…]

Long exposure in the Shaft III

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  2 Responses »
Jan 232012
 
Long exposure in the Shaft III

About the site The Shaft is a site that I’ve talked about twice before. From a manhole-sized hole in the middle of a paddock divers are lowered to the water’s surface 8m below. After gearing up in the water you drop into the depths below – the central rockpile and debris cone starts at 35m, and the cave gets down to over 100m on one side. The walls are predominantly black and the small entrance means there’s very little natural light in the cave. Dive lights struggle across the huge distances. In summer the angle of the sun allows rays of sunlight to pierce the darkness. The ambient light coming straight down the hole is enough for the human eye [read more…]

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