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From: ddoolett@me*.ad*.ed*.au*
To: techdiver@opal.com
Subject: Australian Cave Diving (was re course prolif.)
... There are other sites in Australia that are
uncharacteristic, such as Jenolan caves that is sump diving of the
English style, perhaps Greg Ryan might post describing these.
David Doolette
Sorry to take so long in getting to this. Although I have no direct
experience of UK caving/cave diving, I think David's description of
cave diving sites in New South Wales is correct. And in the UK tradition
the cave diving was started in this state by speleologists faced with
sumps blocking their progress. To the best of my knowledge the
first Australian cave diving was done at Jenolan in the late 1950s (by
the Sydney Uni Speleo Society and later the spinoff Sydney Speleo Society
- yes! cave politics all those years ago!). Hand pumped air, military
surplus and home made equipment, later supplanted with some of the first
aqualung diving in this state.
To this day there is little recreational cave diving done in this state
as access to caves and the dive sites therein is mainly granted by permits
issued to speleo clubs (usually affiliated with the Australian Speleological
Federation) and getting permission to dive usually requires justification,
such as exploration and/or surveying.
Being somewhat remote from the CDAA which is based in South Australia, cave
diving in NSW has mainly been the preserve of those few speleos who have cross
over interests in diving, or who just view sump diving as another caving
technique. In many cases, formal training, such as offered by the CDAA,
was replaced with 'apprenticeships' (the 'sherpa' route) to experienced
cave divers. This seemed to work OK with the small numbers involved, but
most divers active in NSW at the moment have either crossed over to the CDAA
or have taken an IANTD qualification. Still, there are probably less than
20 people active in NSW at the moment.
All of the sites that I can think of in this state require dry caving
to get to the dive sites (with the exception of Burrinjuck where the
authorities moved a lake over the caving area!). Most sites are sumps,
flooded streamway. Vis tends to be good for the first one in the water.
Temperatures are usually in the 14-19 deg C range.
Greg Ryan gregr@cs*.su*.oz*.au*
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