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From: mdufour@CA*.OR* (Marc Dufour): > > I find the situation depicted in Australia somewhat curious. I remember a >few years back seeing pictures a friend took there during a long >train-watching trip, and we were startled at the number of people riding >trains on "normally" out-of-reach places, like roofs, steps and the like. >Likewise about wandering unanounced (and uninvited) into a locomotive >service shop or any other "off limit" place and going all over the place to >take pictures, something that is impossible to do here (the railroad cops >will nail you in seconds flat)... My friend said that the Australian >attitude towards safety/liability is "if you come here and you're stupid >enough to get hurt, well, though luck" (likewise in France, if you're on a >train without a ticket and the train derails, tough luck, you can't claim >anything at all against the railroad - OTOH, I recall that once, a bus hit a >car in New-Orleans. By the time the police arrived, about 15 people had >boarded the bus and complained of back injuries...). So, given all this, it >is somewhat strange to see such stringent "regulation" of diving in Australia. I'm not sure when you were in Australia last or where you were, but in terms of liability, we are almost as restrictive as the US. So far, there haven't been too many cases of litigation in the dive industry, but the number is increasing. These days, to work as a divemaster, you need to have at least $1m liability insurance. For instructors, $5m is recommended. The limitations on diving in Queensland were imposed due to the huge number of dives conducted annually up there (estimated at over 1 million). The government saw diving as an important part of the tourism industry and hence wanted to control it to limit the risk of the industry being damaged by accidents (I certainly don't support this, by the way!) As far as tech. diving goes, as Rob Cason has said, it seems to be a knee jerk reaction by those who don't understand the tehnology. In my home state of Victoria, we have not had problems so far, but then there has been little trimix diving attempted. I don't believe you will see much trimix or heliox diving here until rebreathers become commonplace, due to the very high cost of Helium over here. Cheers, David. ______________________________________________________________________________ David Giddy, | Voice: +61 3 9253 6388 Telstra Research Laboratories, | Fax: +61 3 9253 6144 P.O. Box 249, Rosebank MDC, 3169, AUSTRALIA | Internet: d.giddy@tr*.oz*.au* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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