History of Spearfishing and Scuba Diving in Australia: The First 80 Years 1917 to 1997

Copyright © 2014 by Tom Byron.

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Contents

The First 90 Years – 1917 to 2007

A Journey Through Time

CHRONICLE SECTION

1950 to1959

1960 to 1969

1970 to 1979

1980 to 1989

1990 to 1999

2000 to 2007

1917 to 2007

About The Author

Acknowledgments

The First 90 Years – 1917 to 2007

A s you read through the pages of this book, you will notice that many names appear in text as writers of numerous articles. I do not claim to be the sole author of the entire book, just part of it. I have lived through the years since sport diving first became official in this country, back in April of 1948, and have been fortunate enough to be involved in the business side of the industry for nearly three decades watching it grow from a small number of dedicated divers who made most of their equipment in backyard workshops, to what it is today, a multi-million dollar ind ustry.

The main contributors to the book are ordinary weekend divers, who over many years since the sport of spear fishing and scuba diving first began have contributed so much. One way or another we all play our part, a few have had the attention of centre stage for a number of years, whilst others performed a small segment that lasted a short time. Divers come and go and that’s the very thing that makes this sport so interesting from a personal point of view. We meet many people and make a few friends along the way. The pioneers who wrote for the first spear fishing magazine in Australia and for various other publications started to record history. These people are no longer alive time has taken its toll.

From a research writer’s point of view this book has been a hard slog, somewhat different from my last eight books. It has been both rewarding and frustrating at the same time, particularly in dealing with people. I received many promises, but few kept their word. Others simply did not have the decency to reply to my correspondence that was extremely disappointing.

In the collection of material I was confronted with copyright. Most of the chronicle section deals with happenings of past years, originally recorded by others. No author could retain detailed information in his or her memory over so many years or have their own written material about every important event that has taken place in each state of Australia since the sport first began in 1917. Those involved in the sport of yesteryear and today, people such as Barry Andrewartha of Sportdiving Magazine, George Davies, past secretary of the Australian Underwater Federation, Wally Gibbons, best all round spear fisherman Australia has produced, Ted Baker, pioneer scuba diver from the early 1950s, Crystal Golding, Danny Wells daughter and pioneer reporter from Western Australia, Harry Smith, Max Cramer and the Paxman family gave their unselfish support Ted Thornton and Barry Swales from Melbourne, Ethel Everett of Queensland and Mary-Ann Stacey from South Australia four outstanding Australia also gave their time freely, just for the cost of a memory. Without their kind support and helpful cooperation, it would have been impossible to complete a project of this magnitude. The book has taken me longer than anticipated. I allowed four years to collect and compile research not already obtained. The trouble was the more I investigated the more the project became sidetracked into other avenues of diving interests. I would then have to decide what Information to keep or reject, a difficult choice at times.

With all material at hand, it was then placed on an external hard drive I then had to eliminated part of the history of scuba diving that I thought should be in print but expenditure did not permit their inclusion. Some interesting facts are missing it’s a pity, but the foundation is there.

Finally, I would like to thank Mel Brown, Historical Officer of the Australian Underwater Federation (AUF) for his unselfish support in compiling material for this book. Without his assistance, I am sure THE HISTORY OF SCUBA DIVING IN AUSTRALIA would never have been written. Mel gave me all the help that I asked, without a single word of objection. He opened many avenues of investigation I would not have been able to pursue myself.

Tom Byron

A Journey Through Time

T he year 1993 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the sport of scuba diving. Midway through 1943 a French Naval Officer Jacques Yves Cousteau an Engineer Emile Gagnan tested a device for breathing underwater, they called it the Aqualung. It was not the first, but this was the beginning of undersea exploration where the average man or woman could explore beneath th e sea.

Underwater activities in Australia began in 1917, when a young man from the Solomon Islands, at the time living in Sydney displayed a new sport to those watching from shore. He speared fish in the waters of Sydney Harbour. His name was Alex Wickham, the son of a shipwrecked English sailor and a Solomon Island girl. Alex Wickham was born in 1888, at Roviana Lagoon. Where his father had a plantation. Alex came to Australia to be educated as a nine-year-old lad. In the summer of 1899, he astounded a crowd at Bronte Baths with his remarkable swimming speed and peculiar action. The proprietor and swimming coach, George Farmer, was amazed at the performance and said: Look at that kid crawling over the water. So was born the sensational swimming style that became known world wide as the Australian crawl. Within fifteen years Alex Wickham had become a colourful personality Australian swimming. Called the Human Fish because of his underwater feat. He became the first exponent of spear fishing activities in this country. Every time he entered the water to spear fish, he attracted large crowds to the foreshores of Sydney Harbour to the extent that many times police threatened him with arrest if he continued with his spear fishing activities. There were no regulations by which he could be arrested, so Alex Wickham continued with the sport of spear fishing and free diving. Wickham remained in Sydney until 1926 when following the death of his father he returned to Roviana Lagoon where he lived until his death in 1967. In his late 70s, he was still performing underwater feats for people visiting the lagoon.

Almost fifteen years were to pass after Alex Wickham first started spear fishing, before a small number of men and one woman ventured into the water to spear fish. This time it was probably the need for food rather than anything else. The great depression had just begun; banks were about to close, there were few jobs available, no social security payments and food was in short supply for most of the working population in Australia. Denny Wells, his wife May, and Frank Cunliffe were the next to participate in underwater activities. Others started a little later, men such as Bill Heffernan from Forster on the north coast of New South Wales, dentist Rod McNeill two school boys Keith Vagg and Goff Gapp and moviemaker Noel Monkman, originally from New Zealand. Except for the latter, and gradually encouraging others to participate spearing fish for food, these men and a small band of followers fished regularly throughout the depression years until the outbreak of the Second World War. Those people were real pioneers.

Shortly after the war, in the years of relief and relaxation, there was a great upsurge of interest in water activities particularly spear fishing and the new idea of using a mask and breathing tube projecting above the surface of the water. It’s like being in another world looking down on all that’s happening on the bottom of the sea, said those trying it for the first time. During the pioneering days in Australia the now popular scuba diving unit was not available nor had many people heard of such a thing, although Frenchman Emile Gagnan had designed a breathing apparatus for underwater use as early as 1943, but this was not the first scuba unit as such. Another Frenchman, Benoist Rouquayril, had in 1866 patented a demand regulator for an open water unit. Fourteen years later in 1880 Englishman Alexander Lambert dived beneath the sea. His unit was an earlier version of the oxygen rebreathers. In 1925 another French Naval Officer named Le Prigur invented or perhaps further developed an open water scuba unit using low-pressure compressed air. It is perhaps from this unit that Gagnan improved his now famous aqualung. Back in 1934 two New South Wales schoolboys, Keith Vagg and Godfrey Gapp, made a diving helmet from a five-gallon oil drum, a length of garden hose and Mr. Gapp’s tyre pump. They took their new invention to Bondi Baths for a trial run. Keith had the honour of the first dive, and remained under water in ten feet for ten minutes. He became bored with looking into the murky interior of a windowless helmet clinging to the bottom rung of the rusty iron ladder with one hand to overcome very positive buoyancy and holding the drum over his head with the other. Godfrey, made of sterner stuff than Keith, remained down for 25 minutes until the arrival of an alarmed baths manager, convinced that he had one dead boy at the bottom of his baths, saved Keith from further pumping and brought an indignant Godfrey to the surface.

Although this was not scuba diving, as we know it today, it was one of the first amateur attempts in this country to breathe continually underwater. It was not until well after the end of the Second World War that scuba diving in Australia started to gain popularity. I must stress that those who participated in the sport when equipment first became available were generally from the ranks of spear fishing clubs. There was no walk in off-the-street scuba divers as there are today. The men and women who started scuba diving were well versed in either snorkelling or spear fishing and did not fear ocean waters. The forerunners to pure air scuba diving units were the closed circuit oxygen breathers consisting of a small cylinder of oxygen that had a short life span in the circles of amateur diving in Australia, and was the first unit used in this country. Re breathers consisted of a small cylinder of oxygen attached to a backpack placed either on the diver’s chest or back and a carbon dioxide absorption canister connected to two hoses, a mouthpiece, and mask. In a closed circuit system, re-breathing occurs continuously. There is no loss of gas to the surrounding water unless expansion during rapid ascent creates excess. Wartime frogmen, to prevent detection from the surface, used this type of unit. Re-breathing requires provision for two special needs addition of carbon dioxide. In the early days, there were three systems of re-breather. One was the closed circuit used mainly by armed forces. Then there was the pendulum system used for spear fishing by civilians during the 1940s, mostly in America and France. The third was a semi-closed circuit unit worn by British military divers during the Second World War. This system had all the basic components of a closed circuit oxygen re-circulating unit, but in addition had two special components, a reliable automatic injection system of mix gas and an adjustable exhaust valve for excess breathing. The designer and manufacturer of early re-breathing systems in Australia was Ted Eldred from Melbourne. Eldred also built a device that had an automatic depth warning restriction of oxygen flow to prevent the user from descending beyond a certain depth at which the diver could suffer oxygen poisoning and die.

There were many deaths and the units were eventually replaced by self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) enabling the user to swim underwater at a safe depth, without the effects of oxygen poisoning. Whilst increasing his knowledge of re-breathers, Ted Eldred became aware of the Gagnan aqualung, and by 1954-55 had designed a single hose two-stage regulator. Eldred manufactured his new regulator under the trade name of Porpoise. It was the first single hose regulator in the world.

During early 1955, tests were carried out on the new Porpoise units and shortly afterwards they were ready for distribution. Unfortunately, the Porpoise design was never patented in Australia, as finances were limited. With the publication of a book titled The Coast of Coral featuring a Porpoise scuba outfit, overseas manufacturers copied the design and began selling similar units worldwide. However Ted Eldred remains the first person to design and manufacture a single hose regulator. By 1947 two pioneer spear fishermen decided that after ten years of spearing fish they would like to stay underwater a little longer than one or two minutes at a time. Always seeking new methods to increase their efficiency, the obvious quest was to be able to breathe underwater. Eventually two brothers heard of an oxygen re-breather that was for sale. They contacted the owner, and he offered a demonstration. This almost proved fatal. They retrieved the unconscious body from 20 feet of water. The trauma of resuscitating the victim and transporting him to hospital eliminated any idea they might have had about re-breathing unit. It was also in 1947 that Australians first learned about the invention of an underwater breathing apparatus made in France. This was the catalyst for the brothers from Newcastle, in New South Wales, to design a regulator, not for scuba diving, but for staying down longer than one breath would allow and catching crayfish in shallow underwater cave. The two brothers George and Trevor Davies set about to make a primitive two-stage regulator. Initially they discovered an old GIG Endurance type oxygen regulator with a rubber diaphragm that was an ideal reduction valve already made for this purpose. Sections of the GIG regulator were discarded and the tedious job of turning a demand valve from a piece of 5-inch solid brass into a reduction valve began. One of the major problems to overcome was the manufacture of a sensitive rubber diaphragm. Fortunately, they had already made a hydraulic press using the landing gear from a Second World War Wirraway fighter airplane, scavenged from an RAAF target field.

Rubber diaphragm for the regulator was subsequently moulded, and after that, George made a steel mould for the mouthpiece. Material used for the mouldings were off-cuts from a tyre re-treading factory. Now they were ready to assemble the new regulator. Unable to find any high-pressure cylinders, they faced another hurdle, eventually overcoming it by using steel tubing, with a 1/4-inch wall thickness, cut to length, with domed ends forged under a blacksmith steam hammer at Cardiff Railway Workshop in Newcastle. Trevor had a brass adapter welded to tubing and valve George had machined were brazed directly onto both ends of the cylinders. At this time, neither man had considered exceeding 500 lbs per square inch of air pressure in each cylinder. Later when 27cf aviator’s oxygen breathing tanks became available, the high-pressure problem was solved.

Twin corrugated hoses from the regulator to the mouthpiece were from wartime gas masks as was the one-way valve in the mouthpiece. The harness was of brown canvas straps from an army disposal store. Sometime in 1951, their regulator was ready for testing, but another problem arose.

Pure compressed air was not available, so they built a compressor. Their first small compressor was capable only of pumping to pressures of around 700 lbs per square inch. It was of little use for scuba diving but served its purpose to crayfish hunting inside shallow underwater caves for which the tanks and regulator were originally designed.

Their first trip was to Seal Rocks, New South Wales, to test the new regulator for the first time. The two men, although they did not realise it at the time, were to carve a piece of Australian underwater history by being one of the first in this country to build and use, for sport diving, a pure air underwater breathing apparatus. George managed to fill both cylinders and he shudders to think they were fabricated from steel piping with forged ends and a welded first-stage regulator to both cylinders.

A small pump with a hand booster was one answer but the manual labour involved far outweighed the joys of diving. Eventually they were able to construct a four-stage water lubricated compressor that operated until Trevor’s untimely death from an exploding cylinder on New Year’s Eve 1961. Nineteen ninety-seven was the 45th year since these two pioneering brothers first ventured underwater with a homemade breathing device. Along with Michel Calluaud and Ted Baker they were amongst the first in this country to use the units.

In the following years there were many regulators made in Australia. Some were backyard devices whilst others such as the Porpoise and Sea Bee regulators enjoyed worldwide success.

Edward (Ted) Baker from Granville, a suburb of Sydney was another early pioneer of scuba diving. He started in 1951 when most underwater equipment was home made; few diving items were available in retail stores in those days.

Ted’s story goes back to the late 1940s when Michel Calluaud, a Frenchman, immigrated to Australia and they worked together for a time. With Michel’s considerable command of English and Ted’s minuscule French, they got on quite well together. When he saw Ted’s mask and spear gun, Michel revealed that in his fertile mind he carried the working principle of a compressed air underwater breathing unit that he had learnt from a man named Cousteau before leaving France. Never having heard of such a thing, Ted was skeptical, but Michel convinced him that he understood what was required and that they each should build a unit. So off they went to a disposal store. ‘‘Yes, said the man. ‘‘We have plenty of pressure regulators, gauges, controls and fittings, salvaged from war surplus aircraft. There is a stack of aviator’s breathing oxygen cylinders down by the back fence. Be careful though, some are still full.

Loaded with a. selection of these items and a dozen gas masks, for their corrugated flexible hoses, they paid up and with the aid of a third person, set to work. Three sets of equipment were manufactured at the one time. They did not even have a name and labelled were compressed air breathing equipment. Ted’s was ready for its first test, still without a webbing harness, in late November 1951. Eager to see if it really worked, Ted filled his bathtub with water and was just able to submerge with the cylinder and regulator tucked under his arm. It worked.

In the days before wet suits, Ted wore any old clothing to give protection against cold, and on one particular day had on a ragged old green pullover, with aqualung, lead belt, harness and mask. Lying on the bottom in four or five feet of water at the Tuggerah Lakes Entrance Channel he could feel the reduction in air flow as the tank approached exhaustion, but he waited a little longer to fully test its effect. Then with little air left, he crawled along the bottom and made his way up the shelving sand toward the beach. With all air gone, and in only two feet of water, he lifted his head and shoulders above the surface. As he did so, a woman gave, a, terrified, scream, grabbed her two children, and ran off along the beach. Thus, the appearance of sport scuba diving in Australia with compressed air began in 1951. These men and others that followed in the next few years possessed the true spirit of under water pioneers.

An interesting aspect of early scuba diving between 1952 and 1953 was that regulators in Sydney and to a lesser extent in other capital cities throughout Australia numbered no more than a dozen, all designed and made infringing the French patent. During that time in France the sale of licenses was negotiated by the Cousteau-Gagnan organisation, which then sold the rights to a company named Liquid Air. However, no court action took place in Australia over these pirate scuba units. Perhaps the French designers did not know or were not interested in a small number of backyard manufacturers in Australia.

The first overseas aqualung reached this country in the late summer of 1953 when a visiting Frenchman, Emile Landau lent one to members of the USFA of New South Wales. Six months later a Victorian diver obtained a Siebe Gorman aqualung from England. There were still a small number of re-breathers being used in Victoria and New South Wales for sport diving at that time.

Re-breathing units by now had been or were being fitted with a safety device as a precaution against oxygen poisoning if a diver descended below 30 feet. After the first Porpoise regulators reached the sport diving scene so did one or two other overseas brands. There was certainly no mass movement of people to take up the new sport. Few, if any, were novices. Most if not all, came from the ranks of spear fishing clubs. These early models were manufactured under patent factory conditions.

Pioneer diver Jim Agar from Melbourne manufactured one named Sea Bee; others were the Barnes Scubamatic, and the Lawson lung. They came out in 1955-56, the latter made in a jewelers factory at Greenwich, Sydney. These regulators were popular and outsold imported units until the early 1960s.

There was also the Dawson lung produced in the mid 1950s by Gordon Dawson, from a backyard workshop at Artarmon, also a suburb of Sydney. Gordon was a ship’s engineer on the Northern Firth when she ran aground and became a wreck at Brush Island on the south coast of New South Wales, near Ulladulla. He later worked for the Electricity Commission. He did not dive much himself but his son Ian was a keen diver and dived for a while with two times Australian spear fishing champion and charter boat operator from Queensland, Barry May. Another backyard manufacturer was a man named Jack Hogg. His regulators were mounted on the divers chest for ease of breathing.

The diving lung in the early days was not looked upon as potentially dangerous. Users considered they were at no great risk, and didn’t need discipline or care whilst underwater. The general public during the 1950s was not interested in scuba diving as such but showed a tremendous fascination with the few divers who were about at the time, following them from one location to another, asking all sorts of questions concerning life underwater, especially sharks.

There was certainly no mass movement of people to take up the new sport. Few, if any were novices. There was certainly no mass movement of people to take up the new sport. Few, if any, were novices. Most if not all, came from the ranks of spear fishing clubs. Strange as it may seem, in the early days of scuba diving, a small number of participants in Australia were using dry suits.

In a time just after the Second World War, there were a limited number of these suits available to divers. Dry suits in those days were either English or Australian ex-navy or Pirelli suits imported from Italy or second hand commercial apparel made from sheet rubber or rubber covered fabric which involved considerable effort in dressing and undressing via an entrance through the neck seal. This problem was solved many years later with the introduction of a waterproof zipper.

There was still a matter of squeeze in the thin suits as pressure increased with depth. Installing a small tube at the front left or right hand shoulder overcame the problem to some extent. A diver could then remove the demand valve from his mouth and blow air into the suit and this had a two-way effect relieving the pressure to some extent and assisting as a buoyancy compensator. However, dry suits were never popular and many divers still preferred woollen jumpers and overalls.

In December of 1951, a spear fisherman by the name of Les Hawley started to manufacture and sell wraparound cold-water suits that retailed for one hundred and fifty pounds, ($300.00). He sold them at little profit to members of the Underwater Spearfishermens Association, (USFA). The suits proved very popular particularly during winter months. As time passed materials from overseas became scarce and when prices increased, suits became far too expensive, and demand declined.

The years in between saw most skin divers wearing long sleeve woollen jumpers, overalls, or thick street clothing for warmth and protection. This underwater wear was certainly not flattering by any means, and when a diver emerged from the water he or she looked like a creature from The Black Lagoon. But it was the standard dress for about ten years and did to some extent keep a diver warm for the first couple of minutes underwater.

Toward the end of 1953, an early underwater photographer named Jeff Jackson made himself a working C02 inflatable vest. It was not for buoyancy control, but for floating him and valuable photographic equipment in mid-water, and was the first BC of its kind used in Australia. Divers before 1953 did not wear buoyancy vests, except for the Dick Charles safety vest.

A small number of overseas vests became available in Australia during the early to mid 1960s. It was not until about 1972 that vests, particularly the French made Fenzy became popular. At the time others were also on retail shelves, namely Typhoon, Nemrod, Sous-Marine and Bouee. They were not compulsory to wear and most scuba divers considered them uncomfortable and unnecessary.

As the number of scuba divers slowly increased throughout Australia, six men decided to form the country’s first underwater scuba club to cater exclusively for that section of the sport. They were Don Linklater, Wally Gibbins, Dr. Roscoe Fay, Dick Charles, Rod McNeill, and Ron Ware. Named the Underwater Explorers Club, it was a breakaway from the Underwater Spearfishermens Association. Before entry to the club, intending members were required to have a medical examination and a select committee of senior club divers reviewed their underwater experience. Once admitted, instruction followed involving the use of equipment, underwater techniques, and training to qualify students to take part in undersea exercises and teamwork. They could then plan and carry out projects in a mature and carefully controlled manner. Just before the end of 1955, Victorians formed their first scuba club it was also a breakaway group of divers from the Victorian Underwater Spearfishermens Association. At first, there were only a few members but numbers slowly increased later.

About mid year of 1956, no more than about a dozen girls participated in the sport of scuba diving Australia wide. Considered a man’s pastime, few women became divers. Female sport divers at the time were anything but masculine in appearance; they were mostly underwater models and very good divers. Some came from a background of The Aqua Show and were prospective underwater film performers for a forthcoming Australian movie to be shot on the Great Barrier Reef called "Deep Down, Down Under starring Chips Rafferty. Noel Monkman assisted by Wally Gibbins filmed all underwater footage.

In this country at the beginning of 1960, the Australian Underwater Federation (AUF) emerged as a national body at government level, representing the sport of spear fishing and scuba diving. The federation produced a set of scuba diving, standards, initially based on the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), and later modified it to meet the needs of Australian scuba divers. These were the first recorded standards laid down by a diving association in this country, but they were not compulsory.

There were few scuba clubs at the time in Australia and most had different sets of rules related to teaching. New participants were taught to dive by older club members. There were few certifications issued at the end of the course since scuba divers of that era dived only with the clubs or people they knew personally, and considered certificates unnecessary. A small number of people during the mid to late 1950s taught themselves to dive. I (Tom Byron) was one, and can vividly remember in about 1956 walking into Mick Simmons Sport Store at the Haymarket in Sydney to buy a new set of snow skies, and after seeing a display of scuba diving equipment in the shop window, consisting of a rubber hood, a rather small face mask, a 40cf steel cylinder with canvas straps and a twin hose regulator, weight belt with knife attached, rubber gloves and small fins. The brand name of the regulator now escapes my memory. I think it may have been an old British Sealion and from that moment as I gazed at the equipment something inside me changed forever, and lasted for over sixty years. After buying the outfit for approximately fifty pounds ($100) sales representative said to me. Well, son, you have just bought our entire stock of scuba diving equipment. My reply was, Is there any air in the cylinder? He said: I don’t know, try it out in Gordon’s Bay near Closely. I did the next day, Saturday. Within minutes of entering the water, without a wetsuit, in the middle of June, I could not see a thing. The inside of my mask fogged, water was beginning to get up my nose, my ears began to pain, the air tasted bad and was hard to breathe. After about fifteen minutes underwater, breathing became extremely difficult. I started to swim toward the surface as fast as I could and found myself out at sea a long way from land, or so it seemed. The swim back on the surface was difficult, particularly when free styling. Back on the beach with lungs half full of seawater, pondered whether I had made the right choice in buying diving gear that cost more than a months wages. A week or two later I decided to have another attempt at scuba diving, but there was, little air in my cylinder and I knew of no one who could fill it for me. I thought there were bound to be one or two people in the telephone directory who could fill my cylinder but there was nothing. What a mess, a brand new scuba unit I cannot use, so back I went to Mick Simmons with the cylinder under my arm hoping they could fill it for me, or would know of someone who pumps air into diving tanks. The person behind the counter was most helpful. He said he did not know of anyone in Sydney. So why in hell did you sell me the unit?" I said, and left the shop. Well, that’s it. My career as a deep-sea diver had ended.

The following weekend I took my girlfriend Renee, to Clovelly Sea Pool for a day’s outing, and, you guessed it, there, as large as life, was another scuba diver. He had air in his cylinder and I did not. When he came out of the water I said G’day mate where did you get the air in your cylinder. He told me that at Clovelly was a person who had one of those things that pumps air into diving cylinders. Later he said to me it was in his backyard, and introduced himself as Col Peard. After he finished mucking about underwater in the sea pool, I followed him back to his house and there it was. He charged me two shillings and six pence (26 cents) to fill my tank. I thought it was a bit of a rip-off at the time. That was my first introduction to scuba diving.

The first underwater training school in Australia was Melbourne Diving School. It started business in 1948, three years before the introduction of amateur air breathing equipment into this country. Its involvement in diving was the importation of professional underwater equipment and training commercial divers. Practical lessons were conducted at Melbourne City Baths. In 1954 the school started teaching sport scuba diving to those interested in the new pastime.

Bob Wallace-Mitchell of Melbourne, a sporting goods importer and a Victorian pioneer spear fisherman was chosen to distribute Porpoise regulators and other products manufactured by Ted Eldred Air Breathing Appliance Co. Bob suggested commencing a training school for divers buying the new equipment. This particular school established in about 1955 provided teaching and promotion of the new sport. The first all sport scuba diving school in Victoria began on September 16, 1953 and was named Victorian School of Underwater Diving and Swimming. Its first class had 20 students and instruction sessions ran for six weeks.

The availability of cylinders in those days was somewhat doubtful, except for World War Two oxygen tanks. A small number were imported into Victoria, and a scheme developed whereby these cylinders were shared with other divers. This type of agreement whilst it helped many was not beneficial to owners. The thought was that many divers might never buy their equipment and use other people’s gear for their own pleasure. In Sydney the first commercial scuba training classes started in 1954, known as the Under Water Swimming School of Sydney (USS of S). Founder and proprietor was Edward Du Cros. The school employed two male and two female self taught instructors, using all Porpoise equipment supplied by the Melbourne manufacturer. The school and all its gear were eventually sold to a newly formed club, the Underwater Research Group of Sydney (URG) for use in their scuba diving tuition.

This was about the time when Australian divers first saw a safety belt, (early BC unit) manufactured in this country by Dick Charles, founder of the Underwater Spearfishermen’s Association. The vest was capable of supporting a 15 stone individual with 25 lbs of lead around the waist. Inflated orally it also had a C02 inflator and saved as many as 211ives.

Most instructors during the late 1950s and through the 1960s were self taught and labelled themselves as scuba instructors. There were no instruction agencies in this country in those days. They did not begin until about 1970. It was left up to clubs to teach scuba diving. The more experienced members selected to do the teaching, reading straight out of textbooks purchased overseas. During this period, many divers taught themselves to dive. The simply strapped a cylinder to their backs, turned the air on, put the regulator in their mouth, and went scuba diving, it was all very simple.

Western Australia was not far behind the eastern states in early diver education. Jack Sue founded the first school in that state in 1954. The Underwater Explorers Club of Western Australia started training their members in 1955. Equipment was limited and units lent to other people to have a go on a roistered weekend system that eventually proved unsuccessful and the situation did improve in later years as more equipment became available.

South Australia followed when pioneer diver Dave Burchell first started Adelaide Skin diving Centre. He trained many divers until Paul Lunn purchased the shop. Dave Burchell is one of only two Australian divers to receive the British Empire Medal for services to skin and scuba diving in this country. George Davies from Newcastle in New South Wales was the other. In 1963, Dave installed Australia’s first diving tower at his shop. It was 22 feet high and eight feet wide and stood for many years as a landmark for scuba divers.

Throughout the 1960s a number of firsts were accomplished by divers in all states of Australia, everything was adventurous, new and exciting. The first recorded deep dive by amateur divers occurred at Western Port Bay in Victoria. The team was Bob Wallace Mitchell and Ted Eldred. On March 20, 1954 they reached a depth of 100 feet using Porpoise regulators. Then four months later in July three Sydney divers Dave Rawlings, Ron Harding and D. Brown dived to a depth of 200 feet breathing compressed air. It was about this time that rivalry between New South Wales, Victorian and Western Australian scuba divers developed.

Approximately one year later, midway through 1955, two divers from Western Australian, Gordon MacLean and Graham Anderson established another Australian deep record by descending to a depth of 250 feet.

The firsts kept coming J. Brooks of South Australia was the first Australian scuba diving champion. The event was held at Port Lonsdale, Victoria. The first divers to enter the world famous Kiama Blowhole south of Sydney were Keith White, Jack Mathisson and Ron Clissold on January 13, 1957. The first woman in Australia to make a free controlled ascent from 75 feet was M. Gallaspie of the Underwater Explorers Club in September of 1957. During 1958 two divers Don MacMillan and Noel Cook discovered the wreck of SS Yongala off Cape Bowling Green near Townsville in North Queensland. The first woman to become an Australian scuba champion was 19-year-old Caroline Giles in 1958. She won the championship against all participants male and female. Also in 1958 the first course in underwater oxyacetylene cutting and welding for amateur sport divers was held under the direction of Howard Couch a member of the Underwater Research Group of Sydney.

Heron Island held its first Annual Underwater Convention in 1959 and has conducted the event ever since.

Cave diving started at Jenolan Caves in New South Wales. First into the cave siphon were Keith White, Owen Llewellyn and Russ Kippax followed by Don Linklater, Dave Roots and Mad Mick Shanahan. The following day Lois Linklater became the first recorded woman in Australia to dive inside an underground cave.

Theo Brown from Western Australia attempted to better the world underwater endurance record. He stayed below for 7 hours and 6 minutes then collapsed from stomach cramps.

Midway through 1954 a number of scuba clubs formed in various states of Australia. South Australia’s first club began in July 1954 and was named the Under water Explorers Club, followed by the Northern Territory, calling theirs Arafura Skin Divers. They established their club in September 1954. Also there were the Underwater Explorers Club and Underwater Research Group both from New South Wales along with the Underwater Research Group of Queensland. All these began within one or two years of each other.

The USFA of Western Australia commenced as a spear fishing club, and then formed a scuba diving section, in late 1953. The Underwater Explorers Club of Western Australia (UEC) was the first all scuba club in that state, commencing in early 1953. Victoria began with the Sub Aqua Group in 1953, and in 1995 celebrated its forty-second birthday. Jim Agar owner of Airdive Equipment Pty Ltd was one of its original members.

A change in scuba diving took place during the decade between 1960 and 1970. It came from farsighted filmmakers realising that perhaps fame would come from making movies about life under the sea, either documentaries or fiction. First, there were the early series of Hans Hass films on television. ABC Channel 2 ran the programs in all states. Cousteau and his team of divers aboard the Calypso followed one or two years later. Their numerous movies were both educational and exciting. About the same time, Ron Taylor began his career as a moviemaker, shooting documentary shark films and so did Ben Cropp. Both were very successful and have entertained TV viewers in Australia and overseas for the past fifty years. The one that had the biggest impact upon the diving community and the public was the long running TV series titled, Sea Hunt. Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) was its hero. He always got his man, but there was no extreme violence and no one was murdered. Each episode was packed with the thrills and excitement of underwater exploits against giant sea creatures and criminals. It was an exciting and excellent series and did more for the promotion of scuba diving in Australia during the early days than any other single event in television, radio, newspapers or magazines. As these television shows ran through the 1960s people off the street began to learn scuba diving and take up spear fishing as a sport. The demand was there. More shops opened, specialising in diving equipment and scuba classes. By the end of the decade instructor organisations had appeared in each state. Clubs became popular among individuals completing scuba diving course during that time a number of dive shops formed social groups associated with their particular business. In some circles this was criticised. Today nearly every dive shop has a social club.

Through the mid 1960s hundreds of scuba divers obtained fishing licenses to collect abalone, and the great race was on to gather this tasty crustacean for overseas markets. Popular abalone areas were Eden in New South Wales, Mallacoota and Warrnambool in Victoria, Port Lincoln and Streaky Bay in South Australia, the Bass Strait Islands and the West Coast of Western Australia where abalone were located in their thousands. It was a risky but profitable business and many inexperienced divers lost their lives at the end of a hookah hose.

Because of the upsurge in popularity of scuba diving, new equipment became readily available over a short time. Designs changed every year or so. As more women entered the sport, underwater wear also changed. For example, instead of basic black wetsuits worn for so long by men, colours appeared and suits were made especially for women. Diving hardware also altered to better suit both male and female. The trend moved towards dive education, and certification cards became compulsory as each diver graduated from various schools throughout Australia. Scuba schools began to teach advanced diver training, conducting deep and wreck diving courses and cave diving along with an assortment of scuba educational programs right through to instructor level.

There were few restrictions placed upon divers by governments or local authorities during the 1960s and 1970s. It was a relaxed and adventurous time, and some divers became more daring in their actions. Deep diving records were being attempted again in nearly every state. Wally Reynolds of Sydney set a new Australian deep diving record on March 12, 1961; he reached a depth of 327 feet. Dave Burchell of South Australia followed this in 1962 when he dived to 215 feet off the coast of Cape Woolamai, creating a new state record. A young and beautiful 17-year-old fair-haired girl by the name of Kathy Trout. In the early part of 1965, set a deep diving record for women. She reached 302 feet, which was a courageous effort for that time.

New dive locations were being discovered. Dive travel had not yet become popular but was not far away. There were no specialised dive charter boats but every scuba diver seemed to have a boat or know someone who did. The sport as a whole enjoyed success.

Around this time the fear of shark attacks had abated in the minds of most, as no scuba divers so far had been reported maimed or killed. Perhaps this was the sport’s golden era.

During the latter part of the 1960s Dave Burchell from South Australia conceived the idea of locating and diving upon the wreck of HMAS Perth that lay at the bottom of Sunda Straits between Sumatra and West Java. Both Perth and Houston where sunk in action against Japanese cruisers and destroyers on March I, 1942. Eight hundred men and two captains went down with their ships.

From the 1960s era evolved a new type of diver, The Wreck Diver, a special breed of his or her own. Old shipwreck sites particularly in Western Australia became popular among treasure seekers. Wreck fever gripped Western Australian a diver, spurred on by finds of treasure on many old ships that littered the West Coast of that state. Divers were out to locate sunken galleons, yet undiscovered. The coast was so rich with wrecks that they were almost as profuse as coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Many were looted before legislation was brought into effect to protect those remaining. Ancient shipwrecks such as, the Gilt Dragon, Batavia and Zuytdorp were all robbed before legislation was applied to stop offenders from further plunder.

In the early part of 1970, scuba diving became more commercial, touching people on the street through the medium of television. Channel 9 was the first with a telecast each Saturday morning Channel 2 also had a program in Sydney, as did Perth in Western Australia. These and other interstate dive programs reached into many homes to such an extent that the country had a diver as Federal Treasurer, Mr. Harold Holt, who later became Prime Minister of Australia. The sport had never seen such an upsurge in popularity, becoming regulated as time passed, then eventually turning toward restrictions and red tape. One ruling, a ban placed upon spear fishing combined with scuba equipment was probably the biggest upheaval in the history of diving seen in this country. Since the birth of scuba in Australia, divers carried spear guns for protection against sharks attacks, a psychological crutch, but it worked for most divers. To have this protection taken away was the last straw.

For a long time, there were reactions throughout the sport to such an extent that a breakaway association from the Australian Underwater Federation (AUF) was formed to support scuba divers in obtaining the right to carry spear guns. However, the ruling was never changed no matter how hard the new association fought and it remains in place today.

Scuba diving with spear guns was the accepted thing between 1951 to the late 1960s. Few divers of that period would have chosen to leave their trusty old gun on dry land. These were the years of going out there with all them sharks, yer game mate. Spear guns carried by scuba divers were mainly anti-shark devices, but a few divers were slaughtering fish for profit, particularly rock and reef dwellers. First it was a minority but the practice soon gained momentum and, human nature being what it is, saw large money making industry. This is when the Australian Underwater Federation (AUF) and government authorities stepped in and passed an act of parliament banning spear guns carried underwater by scuba divers. Some states legislated against power heads. Now there was no protection from shark attacks. Some divers took shark billies with them, a pole about 3 feet (1 meter) in length with a sharp object protruding from one end. These were discarded when no shark attacks occurred upon scuba divers. The general thinking at the time was that sharks do not attack scuba divers and at that point in time, there was no real evidence to prove otherwise, but the Scuba Divers Association was still fighting the ban. The Association, a New South Wales based organisation, eventually spread to other states in Australia.

An increasing number of new dive shops began to open in all states. Underwater photography was just beginning to become popular and numerous underwater photographic competitions were held around the country mostly through clubs and dive magazines.

Hydrostatic testing of cylinders once a year became compulsory. Many new scuba clubs began to appear and divers started moving away from the once popular sport of spear fishing. During the 1970s, the industry changed completely from the pioneering days. Spear fishing gradually lost its popularity as a competitive sport, although Australia produced many fine champions both men and women. New dive shops opened throughout many suburbs in each state, proving that a successful dive shop need not necessarily be near the ocean. Through the 1970s, scuba diving established itself as a fast growing sport. Divers were swimming winter and summer as wetsuits improved in warmth, design, and comfort. Many participants were now seeking new locations around the Australian coastline. The introduction of specialised dive travel began with Allways Travel agency in Melbourne. It was owned and operated by the late Anthony Newley who died in 1989 of a diving-related accident. His assistant was Jan Breavington, she worked for Allways Travel in 1978, then started the very successful Aquarius Dive Travel Company in Melbourne during 1980, with her husband Peter Stone, went on to establish the company as a trailblazer in scuba travel. Unfortunately in 1988, eight years after commencing business, Aquarius closed its doors. By this time other agencies had followed in its footsteps, bringing Australian divers a popular variation to the sport and opening up many sought-after locations both locally and overseas.

Queensland dive charter boats started to improve and moved away from the trawler type of sea transport to specialised dive live-aboard boats, the main emphasis being on services, better accommodation and first class scuba location.

Instructors and their agencies became highly organized and more aggressive in selling their products. Teaching had progressed from the individual instructor and clubs to the professional dive shop.

Through the 1960s and early 1970s there were few if any restrictions placed upon divers, as mentioned before anyone could dive where they wished, in ocean waters, lakes, rivers, harbours, underground caves and sink holes, and they did in their thousands. During this time, the Underwater Research Group of Queensland created an unusual artificial reef at Cowan Cowan behind Moreton Island in Southern Queensland, naming it Curtin Reef, after Queensland pioneer diver Frank Curtin. The reef consists of car bodies, trams, and a number of barges, tire’s, tugs, pontoons, concrete pipes and old ships.

In the early part of 1970 the sport started to change again. The number of deaths over a short time at Mt Gambier’s freshwater sinkholes was to become a catalyst for government intervention through legislation or self-regulation of the sport. This was the stimulus for the foundation in late September 1973 of the Cave Divers Association of Australia.

The Association was instrumental in the formation of procedure, training, and licensing of divers to participate in underwater activities at Mt. Gambier’s sinkholes and underwater caves. The South Australian State Government had directed that voluntary regulation of the sport of cave and sinkhole diving was worth attempting before embarking upon a legislative program.

As scuba diving grew in popularity so did tragedies. The decade of the 1970s was the most distressing in the history of sport diving in this country. Many lost their lives Australia wide, particularly at Mt. Gambier.

Australia’s first cave diving accident happened in an underwater cavern known as Kilsbys (a sinkhole) at Mt. Gambier on April 6,1969. It was a double tragedy involving two 18-year-old youths. Their bodies were discovered the next day, after they both failed to surface. The victims were located at a depth of 45 metres about 9 metres from their guideline.

Another death followed two years later at Piccaninnie Ponds on January 29, 1972 after two divers entered a confined cave in the depths of Piccaninnie, called Turtle Pond, without a safety line with one diver holding onto his companion’s tank. The area had become silted to such an extent that both divers found themselves in total darkness. The victim then let go of the cylinder, and was not seen again until recovery of his body the following morning.

Then a triple fatality followed at S-126 or Death Cave on October 9, 1972, when a group of four inexperienced Adelaide divers entered a dark underwater cave. Three men and one girl descended the tunnel. The water was clear on the way in but when they turned around toward the tunnel opening, they found themselves completely lost in thick silt. For half an hour, they searched for the exit in total darkness until their cylinders ran out of air. The sole survivor, in the last moments of his air supply, saw daylight and ascended to the surface through a hole in the tunnel

If that was not bad enough, seven months later, a quadruple fatality occurred on May 28,1973, at a popular and spectacular dive location known as The Shaft. The impact and ramifications upon sport diving were enormous. Those drowned, all from New South Wales, including two instructors, one a woman. This was the worst diving tragedy in Australian history. There were nine divers in the group, some from the South Pacific Divers Club of Sydney. No back-up cylinders or guideline were used for the dive when they descended into The Shaft. At 68 metres one of the group indicated all should return to the surface. Three of them did and found themselves trapped on the roof of the cave. The survivor of this trio descended whilst the other two remained where they were. That action saved his life. When he saw lights from other torches flashing and swam towards them, they were making their way toward the exit. Two others failed to surface, including a brother-sister couple. The last body was recovered eleven months after the downing’s. Following this terrible tragedy another fatal accident occurred on December 23, 1974, again at Piccaninnie Ponds when a single person died entangled in a guideline. Two divers reached 33 metres where a tunnel began, finally reaching a depth of 60 metres. Ascending to 45 metres the victim became entangled in lines made of thin nylon. His buddy almost ran out of air trying to assist him, then ascended quickly to a spare tank that was at 9 metres below the surface during which time his buddy drowned. By March 1970, it had become obvious that a plague of crown-of-thorns sea stars had invaded the northern and central areas of The Great Barrier Reef. The sea stars were first noticed in unusually large numbers at Green Island near Cairns about 1960. The southern limits of the thorns seemed at the time to be Broadhurst Reef that lies off the coast opposite Townsville. Measures were taken to try to stem the plague, but when the Queensland State Government became involved in the issue, it became political. After some time it became bogged down in discussion and debate, the initiative was lost and somehow the sea stars over time eradicated themselves to a tolerable level. Midway through the 1970s abalone diver Terry Manual became Australia’s first underwater breathing (hookah) victim of a shark attack. His body was never found. It occurred at Streaky Bay, South Australia. The general idea among scuba divers that they were somehow immune from shark attacks was now shattered forever. Many years before this tragedy on November 26, 1964, a great white shark attacked Henry Source whilst snorkelling with seals at Lady Julia Percy Island off the coast of Victoria. He was with a group of scuba divers filming seals when the encounter took place. Bource survived but lost a leg. Even then, it was still thought that sharks do not attack scuba divers, as Bource was snorkelling among scuba divers in shallow water. In 1972, the first organised cave diving expedition consisting of six divers and 30 cave explorers investigated Weebubbie and Cocklebiddy underground lakes, penetrating several hundred metres without reaching the end of either cave.

Through the middle to late 1970s new penetration techniques were established enabling special diving groups to explore further. In 1977, cave divers pushed the world record to 1350 metres in Cocklebiddy Cave. Then, only one month later, Western Australian divers broke the record by another 500 metres. Again in 1979 two separate expeditions reached an amazing 3150 metres. Hugh Morrison, Keith Dekkers and Simon enabling special diving groups to explore further. In 1977, cave divers pushed the world record to 1350 metres in Cocklebiddy Cave. Then, only one month later, Western Australian divers broke the record by another 500 metres. Again in 1979 two separate expeditions reached an amazing 3150 metres. Hugh Morrison, Keith Dekkers and Simon Jones led one of these expeditions. In 1982, divers reached 3700 metres and again the same year, 4100 metres. In 1984, Hugh Morrison, Ron Allum and Peter Rogers with a backup crew extended the record to an astounding length of 6240 metres, a world record that remained for 10 years. In the latter part of 1995, cave divers led by Chris Brown broke the old record, a total distance of 6.26 kilometres. Many other accidents and downing’s occurred throughout the country among snorkellers, spear fishermen and scuba divers, but it seemed that the deaths at Mt. Gambier were the focal point of news media.

Western Australian divers searched for various old shipwrecks along their lengthy coastline with a certain amount of success. Then legislation was introduced claiming all wreck sites the property of governments, the finder having to disclose their whereabouts. Rewards were paid in cash for divulging locations. All artifacts found by divers belonged to the states. One well-known wreck hunter of the time and author of the book, Treasure Is Not For The Finder, Alan Robinson, for seventeen years clashed with bureaucracy. He was arrested sixteen times and assaulted by police five times, threatened,