Local diving

Diving around Perth

Locations

There are dozens of good dive sites around Perth. Favorites are around Rottnest Island, Carnac Island, the Marmion Marine Park, and Rockingham. (There's a good Perth Dive Guide by Dick Beilby.) Rottnest is reliable because there is always one side of the island sheltered from the weather.

Another 200-300 km south there is the Busselton Jetty (one of the 10 best shore dives in Australia) and the wreck of the Navy destroyer HMAS Swan at Dunsborough. About 400 km south-east of Perth, in Albany, you can dive the wrecks of the Navy guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth (the largest prepared wreck in Australia) and the whaler Cheynes III (the first prepared wreck in Australia, sunk 1982). Albany and Esperance have lots of other good diving. About 120 km north of Perth there is the huge wreck of the oil rig Key Biscayne.

Weather

Perth is diveable almost all year round. The Leeuwin Current brings warm water and marine life from the tropics down as far south as Perth. The best diving conditions are in November and in April-May. July and August are often stormy but you can get some beautifully calm and clear days. Sea temperatures are typically 18-22 C. Most people wear a 5mm wetsuit all year round, and a hood in winter. Be prepared for surge (moderate), swell (moderate) or current (slight). Diving is insanely busy at the start of the crayfish season (15 November).

Summer weather in Perth is dominated by an endless series of highs rolling in from the Indian Ocean. The typical daily summer weather is a cloudless, hot still morning, then a marked sea breeze (the Fremantle Doctor) coming in sometime between 12 and 4. Here's a typical wind chart from the SeaBreeze site. A healthy 1 metre swell can often whip up from nowhere in the afternoon. Summer nights can be quite cool, because of the lack of cloud cover. February is insufferably hot for many people, but the night dives are fantastic.

Local contacts and dive shops

Miscellaneous

Other local divers

The Key Biscayne

How it was lost

The oil rig Key Biscayne sank off the WA coast on 1 September 1983. The rig was being towed from the North West Shelf down to Fremantle for repairs. Buffeted by a 50-knot (100 km/h) Westerly gale and 7 metre waves, the rig was pitching heavily, eventually breaking its tether lines with the towing vessels, and taking on water. Crew were progressively evacuated as attempts to regain control were frustrated by the weather and the flooding. Eventually the rig was abandoned and broke free of all its anchors, rolling and sinking at approximate position
31° 10' S, 115° 11.7' E. Recent dive boats have given the GPS location as 31° 09.89 S , 115° 11.81 E. This is about 15 km off the coast, about 20 km SW of the town of Lancelin and some 120 km north of Perth.

For a detailed account of the loss of the Key Biscayne, see www.oilrigdisasters.co.uk.

Dive site

The rig lies upside down (like an upturned triangular table) on sand at 42 m. The shallowest parts of the wreck are at 26 m. The underside of the lowest part of the main platform lies at about 35 m, facing the surface, with an interesting dome at the centre. Under the main platform lie the superstructure (living quarters and drilling machinery). The legs broke off during the sinking and lie to one side. There were salvage attempts later but most of it is still there.

See the mudmap originally drawn by Gary Brennand (redrawn by me).

On a good day it's a spectacular dive: you feel like you are orbiting a space station. The wreck has a gaudy covering of tropical/temperate sessile animals, there's a wide variety of resident fish, and there are stacks of crayfish. A two-metre wobbegong shark and a large smooth stingray can sometimes be seen.

Dive planning

This is a very exposed and windy site, and is usually only diveable in the calm summer months of November and March. Divers should be trained and experienced in deep diving, should have been in a current before, and should carry a signal tube for emergencies. Dive operators which visit the Key B include Perth Diving Academy and Image Dive. Image Dive, run by Luke Nelson, is highly recommended. He is the only operator who will allow decompression diving or technical diving on this site for divers with appropriate qualifications. Most boats leave from Two Rocks (100 km north of Perth, 2 hour boat drive) although small boats can moor at Lancelin (140 km north of Perth, 1 hour boat drive from wreck)

Anchoring is not feasible on this site. There is currently (november 2006) a mooring line tied up to the shallowest part of the wreck, at 24 metres depth, in the north-east corner. This makes it straightforward to get to and from the wreck, and to navigate a tour of the wreck in good conditions. However, plan for the possibility of poor visibility, strong current and loss of contact with the wreck. Previous mooring lines have "gone missing". When there is no mooring line attached, some lucky divemaster has to dive down with a rope and fasten it to the wreck. So you're not always moored to the same place on the wreck. For a decompression dive, always take a surface marker and reel. Even on a good day, the mooring line will yank up and down in the water, so be prepared either for mid-water decompression or for hanging on hard with one hand.

My logged dives on the Key B: 200, 201, 248, 249, 287, 288, 333, 364, 365, 366, 367, 569, 570, 675, 676, 749, 750, 770, 771, 829, 830. Logs 333 onward include pictures.

The Swan

The decommissioned Australian Navy destroyer escort HMAS Swan was sunk in Geographe Bay near Dunsborough (300 km south of Perth) in late 1997 as an artificial reef.

Here are images of the sinking. See Cape Dive website and Michael McFadyen's home page.

The wreck now has a full complement of interesting fauna, including heaps of fish, and very different selection of sessile organisms on the two sides of the hull.

This is a boat dive requiring a permit. Most divers use one of the local dive shops in Dunsborough (which is closest) or Busselton. I recommend Cape Dive.

My logged dives on the Swan: 98, 99, 157, 158, 159, 160, 220, 221, 285, 358, 359, 361, 541, 542, 650, 651, 844, 845. Logs 358 onward include pictures.

Nearby Dive shops
Nearby dive sites

The Perth

The decommissioned Navy guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth was sunk in King George Sound close to Albany (450 km south west of Perth) in november 2001. She is larger than the Swan and has retained more of her original fittings, including gun turrets, control panels and furniture. She is resting upright (after a few very tense moments at the sinking) in about 35 m of water, with the top of the radar mast sticking out of the water.

This is a boat dive, easily reached from the town jetty in a private boat, or with a dive shop.

See the HMAS Perth website, including webcam!

My logged dives on the Perth: 256, 257, 258, 259, 679 (with pictures), 680 (with pictures).

Dive shops:

Other dive sites nearby:

Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef (NW coast of Western Australia)

The Ningaloo Reef is a large coral reef system which (unlike the Great Barrier Reef) comes very close to the
coast of mainland Australia. Around Northwest Cape, the continental shelf is only a few km from the coast.

The town of Exmouth is the usual destination for scuba divers to dive on the reef.
From Exmouth you can also go on whale shark spotting trips and snorkel with these graceful giants.

Exmouth was recently flattened by a tropical cyclone. The web pages are still there...

The Ningaloo Reef is threatened by the proposed "development" of a marina and residential/tourist area
on the Coral Coast.
Save Ningaloo Reef!!!

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Last update: July 2002