Outcroppings on Lonsdale Wall

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  5 Responses »
Oct 242011
 
Outcroppings on Lonsdale Wall

About the site Lonsdale and Nepean Walls form two sides of the shipping channel through the Heads of Port Phillip Bay. With such a narrow opening to the large area of the Bay, the channel is also known as the Rip for the speed and volume of water that flows through it when the tide is running. A couple of times a day, the tide levels inside and outside the Bay are balanced, and the current stops for around 45 minutes…perfect for a dive. Slack water timings are based on mathematical calculations by the Bureau of Meteorology and nature doesn’t always co-operate. Inevitably, if you’re running late at the boat ramp, slack water will be running early. It’s also important [read more…]

Reflections of Underwater Photographers in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  2 Responses »
Oct 172011
 
Reflections of Underwater Photographers in Tank Cave

About my buddy As I mentioned last week, following the CDAA AGM and symposium I was lucky enough to spend a week over in Mt Gambier diving in Tank Cave and Piccaninnie Ponds with our international speakers. The first of these was Brian Kakuk who runs Bahamas Underground, a cave diving oriented training and adventure facility in Abaco, the Bahamas. The Bahamian caves are highly decorated with some extreme stalactites and other formations, so it was no surprise to discover that Brian’s buoyancy and awareness of the cave were better than excellent. If you’re looking for some tales of adventure and cave discovery, Brian writes these up in the “Exploration” section of the Bahamas Cave Research site. After a break [read more…]

Action shots in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  3 Responses »
Oct 102011
 
Action shots in Tank Cave

About the cave I’ve talked about Tank Cave before…over 8km of interconnecting, labyrinthian tunnel in my somewhat local cave diving region of Mt Gambier. Tank Cave is a single level system, with tunnel depths varying from about 6m down to just over 20m at the far end of the cave. There’s great variation in the cave characteristics, from pure white breakdown rooms with flat ceilings, big dark chambers with air pockets, tight silty tunnels with scalloped walls and long, low flatteners. The shallow depths and clear water are great for photography, with well-marked permanent lines helping you to resume navigation after peering through the viewfinder for a while. About the dive Following the CDAA AGM, I was lucky enough to spend a [read more…]

Reflections in Ewen’s Ponds

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  3 Responses »
Oct 032011
 
Reflections in Ewen's Ponds

About the site Ewen’s Ponds is part of the 8 Mile Creek in the Mt Gambier region, near the coast and the Victorian border. It consists of three relatively circular ponds, with the creek flowing between them through channels. Ewen’s doesn’t contain any kind of overhead environment or cave, and as such it can be dived without a cave diving certification. The centre of the Ponds feature freshwater springs, with water bubbling up through the sand. The middle of the deepest pond gets to about 9m, and the brown algal growth across the bottom and the rocks creates the impression of a moonscape. Around the edge of each Pond there’s a selection of greenery, and the flowing channels are full [read more…]

Bow of the ex-HMAS Canberra

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  2 Responses »
Sep 262011
 
Bow of the ex-HMAS Canberra

About the site I’ve previously discussed how the ex-HMAS Canberra came to rest as an artificial reef for divers, on the seafloor about 2 miles from Torquay. As time passes and the marine life moves in, the wreck becomes a more and more attractive dive site. One of the key features is its sheer size. This is especially so when many of the other wrecks dived out of Melbourne are of a similar size to the J class submarines – about 100m long. The ex-HMAS Canberra is 138m long and in a whole dive spent swimming it’s impossible to explore the whole thing from end to end. Given her size, it takes multiple dives to explore all of the different [read more…]

Long exposure in the Shaft

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  4 Responses »
Sep 192011
 
Long exposure in the Shaft

About the site The Shaft is a massive sinkhole in the Mt Gambier region, and the deepest cave in Australia. It’s noted in the history books for the four divers that died there in 1973, an event which contributed to the decision to form the Cave Diver’s Associate of Australia and allow Australian cave divers to self-regulate to prevent further deaths. From a manhole sized hole in a sheep paddock, there’s an 8m freehanging drop to the water’s surface. The cave is about 20m in diameter at this point, and the walls continue to widen out as you drop into the depths. Directly below the entrance hole is a feature known as the Rockpile. While this would originally have been [read more…]

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