In November 2009 I arrived in New South Wales, Australia with an open mind, visa permitting, as to how long I would stay in Australia. I had just enjoyed 48 dives in the Red Sea with typical underwater visibility of around 25 metres and water temperatures of around 28 celsius. My recollection of NSW diving was that both the underwater visibility and water temperature were a lot less! Most of my recent dives in the Red Sea had been with Luke Atkinson - a great guy apart from his unfortunate love of Manchester United. At least I would not have to put up with that downunder! Or so I thought.
Mick Todd and Nicci “Scuba Squirrel” Johnson suggested I should start my “NSW campaign” with a dive under Swansea Bridge - little did I know that Mick was another rabid Manchester United fan! Swansea lies south of Newcastle in NSW. Swansea Bridge is a popular dive as the pylons supporting the bridge are home to a wide variety of fish life. In fact there are two bridges side by side. They span the channel leading from the ocean into Lake Macquarie, the largest salt water lake in Australia. The first bridge was built in the 1950s, the second in the 1980s.
On a rising or low tide the current can sweep past the bridge at an alarming rate so it’s important to get dive times right. Mick, Nicci and I entered the water while the tide was still flowing in from the ocean. I had been using my Tokina 10-17mm lens a great deal on my recent Red Sea dives and decided to stick with it - a big mistake. The water temperature was 21 celsius, a lot less than the 28 I had recently been enjoying but still higher than I had anticipated. Similarly the underwater visibility at 8 to 12 metres was not great but could have been worse. However there were a lot of small particles in the water which I hoped would fall to the bed when the water became slack. After a short while the tide stopped flowing into the lake. But only for 10 minutes and it then started flowing back out again bringing with it dirtier water from the lake. This was not good news for me - I wished I had brought my macro lens! The current began picking up. And when it became too strong, we got out.
I had enjoyed the dive. And the company! I had seen for myself that on its day, Swansea Bridge could be a good underwater photography dive and therefore well worth returning to in the future.