I have always loved diving the New South Wales south coast, and have wonderful memories of colourful sponge gardens, gutters packed with Port Jackson sharks and getting buzzed by fur seals. When I lived in Sydney it was easy to drive down the coast for a wonderful weekend of diving, however I now live in Brisbane, and it had been many years since my last visit. So with a few days to spare between Christmas and New Year, we packed the car and headed south for a diving road trip
Our first stop was Shellharbour, 80km south of Sydney. After loading the dive gear onto Shellharbour Scuba Centre’s dive boat, we were on our way out to Lou’s Rock, off the northern tip of Bass Point.
As the boat was tied to the mooring line we could see that the water was clear, the mooring line visible for a long way as it disappeared into the blue water.
Once in the water I could see the bottom below, but only just, as there were masses of one spot pullers swarming all around us. Halfway down the mooring there were more fish obscuring the bottom, this time a cloud of bullseyes. We finally touched down on the rocky reef, to find that the visibility was easily 20m.
The wall on the northern side of Lou’s Rock drops from the surface down into 30m of water, with most of the best growth found below 20m. Exploring the boulder wall we soon had our torches out to light up the colourful sponges, gorgonians, sea tulips, bryozoans and ascidians.
I spotted a large cuttlefish hiding in a crevasse that displayed a barrage of colours under torch light. Helen, my buddy, pointed out a blind shark that was half out of a hole. We gently extracted the shy shark for some photos before it disappeared back into a dark crevasse.
As we drifted along the wall poking our heads into holes, we also found green moray eels, more cuttlefish, beardie, nannygai and three more blind sharks. The blind shark is one of my favourite small sharks, though common in New South Wales, they are hard to find and photograph, due to their habit of wedging themselves in tight crevasses.
The rocky reef also supports a healthy population of invertebrate species and reef fish; nudibranchs, basket stars, sea stars, shrimps, leatherjackets, gobies, blennies, wrasse, morwong, sergeant baker, eastern wirrah and blue gropers are all common.
Heading back to the mooring line we could see a large dark shape cruising over the reef and coming straight towards us. As it got closer we could see it was a large smooth stingray. Surrounding it were a small school of juvenile silver trevally, piloting the huge ray. I captured a number of quick photos as it did a circuit around us, before the ray disappeared into deeper water.
Back on the boat we were buzzing, but a little disappointed that it was only a single boat dive. However, we weren’t disappointed for long as returning to the harbour we looked over to see what conditions were like at the Blue Metal Loader. Flat, and blue.
After an air fill, we drove down to The Loader, which is located on the northern side of Bass Point. Over the years I have done some wonderful shore dives under this 100m long pier, although the best visibility I had seen at the site was 10m. It looked like it was going to be a lot better today.
Once in the water we found the visibility was around 18m, more than adequate for wide angle photography. The loader sits in 12m of water, with dozens of steel pylons rising out of the rocky bottom. Most of the pylons are encrusted with sponges, ascidians, sea tulips and delicate orange and red jewel anemones.
Moving between the pylons we found a cuttlefish resting in the kelp that grows under the pier. Within a minute we had spotted another ten cuttlefish, all around 30cm to 40cm long. I captured a number of photos of Helen with the cuttlefish close to the colourful pylons. Most of the cuttlefish ignored us and appeared to be half asleep.
Swimming around one of the pylons was a school of old wives, their stark black and silver colouration striking against the clear blue water. Also swimming around the pylons were leatherjackets, mado, red morwong, globefish, blue gropers and a number of species of wrasse.
Reaching the tee junction at the end of The Loader, we started to find masses of varied nudibranchs. It must have been the breeding season as groups of four or more were packed together on the pylons and around some of the junk on the bottom.
We headed off to explore some of the isolated clumps of pylons, easily visible in the 18m viz. Heading towards the first cluster of pylons we spotted a large female smooth stingray swimming around the base.
As we swam toward the ray she changed her path and turned towards us. Coming straight for me I got down low to take some photos of her. As she got closer, I could see she was quite fat, either very pregnant, or very over fed. She also had a fish hook in her mouth and was trailing a length of fishing line.
About a metre away from me she lifted off the bottom and glided straight over my head. She then quickly turned and circumnavigated me, before swimming off into the nearby kelp.
We continued our exploration of the area beside and in front of the pier. A number of large truck tyres can be found out here, which are covered in kelp and provide shelter for nudibranchs and octopus. Then the smooth stingray returned to us again, this time swimming right under me.
Swimming over the sand patches we spotted half a dozen common and kapala stingarees, and one large coffin ray. This ray was over 60cm long, however I didn’t want to get too close, as I have experienced enough electric shocks from these rays over the years.
Heading back to shore we explored the kelp and found a small sea-moth and a baby weedy sea dragon, only 2cm long. We watched the little dragon for a while until it vanished into the kelp.
Packing the gear we jumped into the car and headed 200km south to Batemans Bay.
The next morning found us on National Diving Academy’s dive boat and heading out to Black Rock. With little wind the seas were still slight, and the water was clear and blue.
The crew anchored the boat off the southern corner of Black Rock so we could dive The Arch. Once in the water we found the viz. to be 15m and the bottom clearly visible 16m below. Descending to the rocky reef the resident blue groper swam over to check out the new arrivals.
Heading north we explored the rocky reef as we made our way to The Arch. The boulders all around us were pink in colour, encrusted with coralline algae, and many were also decorated with pastel coloured sea tulips, sponges and small gorgonians.
We found an overhanging cave, which was filled with bullseyes. Helen, shining her torch through the bullseyes, spotted a large cuttlefish at the back of the cave. Continuing along the reef we then found The Arch, a large L shaped cave cutting through the rock wall. The walls and ceiling of The Arch are coloured by sponges, gorgonians, anemones and a thick covering of yellow zoanthids.
We swam through the cave twice, too have a close look at the colourful growth, before we found a darker side cave at the end of The Arch. This cave was also full of bullseyes, and through the curtain of fish we could just see a Port Jackson shark.
On the way back to the boat we had a look over the kelp beds and sand to the side of the rocky reef, finding leatherjackets, pike, wrasse and a kapala stingaree.
For the next dive the crew moved the boat up to the Tollgate Islands so we could dive Dragon Rock. The site at Dragon Rock is one of the most important grey nurse shark habitats on the New South Wales south coast. Therefore the pre-dive brief included the new Code of Conduct for diving with grey nurse sharks. Wayne, the skipper, limits his divers to a 30 minute bottom time at the site and keeps all divers under the supervision of a divemaster, ensuring the least amount of disturbance to this threatened species.
Once in the water we followed the divemaster down a rocky gully to the main gutter. Approaching the shark gutter from shallow water gives the sharks freedom to move into deeper water and prevents anyone hemming the sharks in. We then got into our positions at the edge of the gutter.
The bottom here is only 12m deep, unfortunately the visibility was a little cloudy, only around 8m. As we watched a grey nurse glided up the side of the gutter, across the gutter mouth and disappeared into the gloom again. Then a second shark materialised, swimming across the gutter and was gone. For ten minutes we watched these two sharks swim past the gutter, not close enough for photos, as they appeared to be a little wary. Wayne informed us later that they get up to 30 sharks packed into the gutter at times, though a dozen would be the average. The grey nurse are present at Dragon Rock from December to June, and the two sharks we were watching were the first of the season, a little late this year possibly due to the water being quite cold.
After watching the grey nurse for ten minutes we returned to the shallows to explore the gutters and ledges in only 4m of water. There were lots of small reef fish to be seen, but the highlight for me was the large ornate wobbegong I found resting in a cave.
Packing the gear again we continued 70km south to Narooma, the gateway to Montague Island. I last dived Montague Island 10 years ago, so was looking forward to exploring this spectacular island again.
We woke to find the wind quite fresh, which made for a bumpy trip over to the island, however we remained warm and dry on Narooma Charters large dive boat. Arriving at the island, the water was cobalt blue, so clear you would think we were in the tropics, except for the fur seals swimming around.
The first dive was to be at the Shark Gutters at the northern end of the island. In the choppy conditions it was decided to run a live boat, no anchoring, and do a drift dive south to calmer waters.
Jumping in the visibility was fantastic, over 30m, and the water was very warm. We quickly headed to the bottom and as I descending I could see two grey nurse sharks below. Reaching the bottom at 20m, we positioned ourselves on the rocky slope to allow the sharks to swim past us. I shot a couple of photos and following the path of the sharks suddenly realised that there were over a dozen grey nurse further down the reef.
We moved down to 26m and stopped about 6m away from the sharks to watch the procession. As we watched, the sharks slowly glided up and down the reef. They appeared to be all females, ranging in size from juveniles only 1.2m long, to mature, and possibly pregnant, ones 3m long. The sharks would glide in to inspect us, and then continue down the reef.
Most of the sharks appeared to be heading south, and following them we realised that the slight current was actually heading north, so much for the drift dive south!
We swam close to the sharks, and they didn’t seem to be concerned by our presence as they had plenty of room to move around. It was hard to tell how many grey nurse there were, as the sharks were spread across the reef. I did a quick count of 16 sharks in my field of vision, although there could have easily been 30 grey nurse.
My roll of film quickly disappeared with so many sharks to photograph, so we thought it a good time to continue south down the reef. Exploring the rest of the boulder reef we found a Port Jackson shark, plenty of reef fish, schools of one spot puller, kingfish and yellowtail and had a southern eagle ray cruise close by.
The next dive was to be at the Seal Colony. Over summer fewer fur seals are in residence, generally less than a hundred, unlike in winter when over a thousand can be packed onto the island.
We anchored in the sheltered bay near the Seal Colony and could see a dozen seals resting on the rocks, while another couple of dozen were cooling off in the water. After changing tanks, and my roll of film, we were once again in the clear warm water.
Heading over the sand towards the seals I spotted a large smooth stingray and a number of stingarees, we didn’t stop as we were heading towards the dark shapes ahead. As we reached the rocky reef the seals spotted us and came zooming over. We watched in awe as they swam circles around us, charging in at our heads, only to turn away at the last second. We watched as they chased each other across the reef and inspected every object that caught their eye.
We tried our own antics, doing somersaults and turns to entertain the seals, however these underwater acrobats easily out performed our clumsy moves. At any one time we had up to a dozen seals swimming around us, then they would tire of our company and disappear for minutes at a time.
Suddenly they would reappear, the most inquisitive ones stopping to investigating our fins with their whiskers or peering into our masks. One small female even found the anchor chain to her liking and nibbled on it with her large canine teeth.
We spent almost an hour with the seals and couldn’t think of a better way to end our south coast sojourn.