"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." Saint Augustine
Saturday 5 August 2017
Queensland diving
On our trip to Australia we managed to fit in three days' full diving. We started at the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, and first tried to dive at Fitzroy Island, near Cairns, but the visibility was pretty bad, so we gave up. We headed out the next day with Tusa Dive to Hastings Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, where we did two dives at a site called Fish Bowl, before heading to another site called Coral Gardens at Saxon Reef for our third and final dive of the day.
diving at Hastings Reef, Great Barrier Reef
The diving was good but visibility was so-so, and as we're used to diving in tropical waters a lot of what we saw was similar to our Indian Ocean diving. As August is (southern hemisphere) winter, temperatures were similar to Reunion at the same time of year (23-24°C), even though Cairns is further north (16°N).
diving the Great Barrier Reef
We didn't take our own wetsuits, and the 5 mm ones they supplied us with were long-sleeved but short-legged - something I'd never seen before!
with a clam, Hastings Reef
Hastings Reef
Hastings Reef
me with a turtle, Saxon Reef
spot the ray! Saxon Reef
Two days later we were about 450km further south near Ayr, to dive the Yongala with Yongala Dive. The SS Yongala was a vessel built in 1903 that sank during a cyclone on 23rd March 1911 en route from Melbourne to Cairns with the loss of all 122 passengers and crew aboard . It created one of Australia's most intriguing maritime mysteries, as she lay undiscovered for more than half a century, until 1958.
diagram of the SS Yongala
Today the coral-encrusted wreck has become home to an incredible array of marine life: giant gropers, giant trevally, cobia, sea snakes, turtles, batfish and moray eels. Everything we saw there seemed larger than the same marine life seen elsewhere.
We did two dives, and frustratingly another group of divers who came up from their second dive a few minutes after us had just seen a bull shark.
looking back from the bow§, SS Yongala
The wreck is 109 metres long. The bow points in a northerly direction (347°), and although she lies listing to starboard (right), the vessel's structural integrity has been retained.
SS Yongala
The depth of water to the sea floor is approximately 30 metres, with the upper sections of the wreck 16 metres below the surface.
SS Yongala
Although the Yongala lies within the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, the sea floor surrounding the wreck is open and sandy, so it has become an established artificial reef, providing a habitat for a wide range of marine life.
moray eel, SS Yongala
As there was loss of life on board the vessel when it sank it is now a protected dive site and you are not allowed to penetrate inside.
spot the turtle, SS Yongala
Our final Australian dives were probably the best! We dived with Wolf Rock Dive off Rainbow Beach in southern Queensland, a full thousand or so kilometres south of Ayr (latitude 25°S). What makes Wolf Rock special is that grey nurse sharks (also known as sand tiger shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark, or blue-nurse sand tiger) are found there all year round.
map of Wolf Rock
The numbers of sharks vary according to their lifecycle and the largest amount are always seen from spring through to autumn (the dive club has counted up to 54 in one go).
grey nurse sharks at Wolf Rock
We did two dives and on the first dive saw a handful of sharks, plus several manta rays, an eagle ray, a Queensland grouper (also known as giant grouper) and schools of batfish and barracuda. On the second dive we hit the jackpot and saw 16 sharks! We also saw an enormous green turtle and a manta ray during our safety stop.
grey nurse sharks at Wolf Rock
shark's tooth in the hand of the our dive guide
Despite many of the sharks being pregnant females they didn't seem to be perturbed by our presence, however they did react a little agitatedly to a free diver during our first dive.
manta ray, Wolf Rock
Wolf Rock is actually a set of four volcanic pinnacles two kilometres north-northeast of Double Island Point in Cooloola, Queensland. It is said the rock was named for one of Captain Cook's crew who first saw the rocks on rounding Double Island Point. There was certainly an Archibald Wolfe on Cook's voyage, but Cook doesn't record the rocks, nor anyone in particular seeing them (or the point) first.
manta ray, Wolf Rock
Wolf Rock is considered by the Queensland Government to be Queensland's most important habitat area for the critically endangered grey nurse shark.
we saw many (unidentified) jelly fish during our 2nd safety stop at Wolf Rock
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