Dive Review of
Southwest Rocks Dive Center in
Australia/Southwest Rocks

Fiji, Hawaii, California, Florida, Virgin Islands, Cozumel

Dive Conditions

Follow the dive master. Divers low on air sent up anchor line; others
allowed to remain below longer.  

No rinse tank.  

Overall Rating

Southwest Rocks is a small town about 6 hours drive north of Sydney. It is
a favorite spot for families to vacation at the beach and for fishermen.
The town is very pleasant and an excellent place to spend a quiet few days
doing bushwalks (as Australians call hiking) and hanging out at the pub in
the afternoon. It also boasts one of the best dive sites on the
south-eastern coast of Australia (just to confuse things geographically
with the name of the town).

I signed up with Southwest Rocks Dive Centre. This is a small operation
that goes exclusively to Fish Rock which is the main site. Occasionally
they may go to another site if the weather is bad. When we were there in
late February we encountered heavy rain showers every day but not enough to
keep us inside, nor enough to stop diving, at least on the first day. The
ride to the site is about ½ hour in a fairly small boat. The boat
has room for about 8 divers; on my day there were only 4 customers. One
dive master went with the 3 certified divers, the other was busy with a
student. The crew was very helpful but an appreciation of Australian humor
would be useful.

Fish Rock sits alone about ½ mile off shore. The rock is only about
200 yards or so in diameter. A tunnel opens up at 80 ft below the surface
and runs through the island, via a vertical chimney in one part, to exit at
about 40 ft. Before we entered, we spent 20 minutes watching the grey nurse
sharks that congregate at Fish Rock in the late summer. There were about a
dozen 6 to 10 ft sharks. On the first dive, they kept their distance. On
the second dive, when I was without my camera due to a small leak on the
first dive, they approached to within a few feet. It was a great sight.

The tunnel is completely dark so this was a sort of a night dive. A large
wobbegong shark was resident in the dark recess of the tunnel and did not
budge as we moved by. Near the exit of the tunnel, we moved through a sea
of fish. It was a beautiful sight to see the enormous schools of fish
silhouetted against the open blue ocean.

Some pictures are available at 

http://web.mac.com/kennedyim/iWeb/Site/New%20Zealand%202006.html
 

Questions?
Send an email to the author of this report

What others have to say about Undercurrent
And get immediate access to ALL 84 dive reviews of Australia
and all other dive destinations immediately!