Annemiek : Messages

The Navy Pier is one of the most fantastic dive sites in Exmouth. To get there you have to get onto the terrain of the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication centre. Every year one dive company in Exmouth gets the chance to take people scuba diving on the navy pier. It's actually on American soil, so you have to bring your passport and there are several checks before you're allowed access to the pier itself. Once you're there you'll see the magnificent beauty of this location. The species you'll see are nudibranchs, flatworms, octopi, wobbegongs, parrotfish, all kinds of butterfly fish, batfish and angelfish, lionfish, boxfish, moray eels and many more. The maximum depth under the pier is 17 meters deep and this dive site can only be dived at low or high tide because of the currents. This is a very special place to go scuba diving and an adventure you won't forget easily.

About 5 kilometers off Cape Moreton lays Flinders Reef, a nice coral reef with a large population of marine life. You can spot Green Turtles here and Wobbegongs as well as Stingrays and the occasional Manta Ray. If you go for a scuba dive during the Whale season you might even here a Whale song under water! Flinders Reef is Brisbane's only real coral reef and you can find hard and soft corals here. The walls, gutters, pinnacles and caves provide good scuba diving all around the reef.

The SS Yongala is a passenger ship that sank on 23 March 1911 off Cape Bowling Green. It was on its way from Melbourne to Cairns when it got trapped in a cyclone. All the 122 people on board of the Yongala died. In 1958 the wreck was discovered south of Townsville and not long after the discovery it became a major dive location and tourist attraction for Townsville. The SS Yongala is 109 meters long and is laying approximately 22 km east of Cape Bowling Green and 89 km south east of Townsville. In the more than 90 years since the SS Yongala sunk the wreck has become an artificial reef and houses a diversity of marine life.

Blizzard Ridge is located on the west side of the North West Cape. This dive site is approximately only 15 meters deep, but it's an excellent site. The bottom is covered in colorful soft corals, gorgonian sea fans and sponges. On the sandy patches between the corals you can find wobbegong sharks hiding. Other fish you are likely to see are lionfish, stingrays, gropers and even an occasional sea snake.

On the bayside of Moreton Island there are 15 shipwrecks called the Tangalooma Wrecks. These vessels have been deliberately sunk to provide shelter for small boats. Although relatively shallow with depths from 2 up to 10 meters, this still is an interesting site. The wrecks attract a large amount of fish and other marine life such as Wobbegongs, Kingfish and lots of other tropical fish.

Hugo's Trench is a deep gutter with a depth of around 12 meters. It cuts straight into Julian Rocks and is filled with a lot of fish like blue gropers, bullseyes, wobbegongs, turtles, stingrays and many more other marine life. The trench cuts through the entire rocks and in perfect weather conditions you can swim all the way through.

On 24 February 1894 the 170 feet long Danish barque Aarhus was on its way from New York to Brisbane. It had sailed already for 122 days when it sank north of Moreton Island. Its cargo consisted of kerosene, wire balls, alarm clocks and glassware. When the pilot did not arrive Captain Gram decided to sail the Aarhus to sea for the night. They struck Smiths Rock at around 08.50pm and in about fifteen minutes the Aarhus had sunk to the bottom. Fourteen members of the crew, including the Captain and his wife, could evacuate the ship safely in one of the boats. The survivors arrived on Moreton Island after three hours of rowing. In 1979 the remains of the Aarhus were found by the Underwater Research Group of Queensland.