THE SCUBA DIVING INSTRUCTOR ...... N.A.U.I. Australia

Terry Morrison also known as "the frog"

A pioneer diver who even gets fan mail from former students.

Terry does not believe in the fast 4-day courses and reckons snorkel skills will save a life and therefore should be emphasized during scuba training.

Another tip. "Combine scuba talents with another skill such as outboard motor mechanics, first aid, etc and you have some hope of finding a decent job, perhaps, maybe, aboard a luxury private ship traveling the globe".

That was a dream-comes-true example for one of Terry's Australian students on the Gold Coast.

These top boating jobs require multi-skills beyond that of being just a "dive master".

For example the captain of the private vessel in this story was also the ships' doctor.

Terry has seen other talented students become scuba instructors, then get dragged over the coals in a coroners hearing when some diver 'in their care' got into trouble and drowned. A double tragedy as the instructor's promising career was also ruined. A good excuse is not enough in such matters.

With a background in conventional medicine Terry Morrison is well suited to write about the sport he loves.

His early underwater experiences were like that of many pioneers, a Sydney club spear fisherman, then a FAUI member and eventually NAUI.

When Terry Morrison gets his blog happening it will make very interesting technical reading.


Copyright2008 on 17.05.08 @ 04:32 AM AEST [N.A.U.I. Australia">link]

SEA SNAKE ....... Former hard coral garden destroyed

Christine Danaher handles a sea snake at Great Keppel Is (1986)

On the northern side of Great Keppel Island is/was this coral garden. Occasional venomous sea snakes would be seen here. Further offshore at Man and Wife Rocks the snakes were far more common.

Latest report from a local diving friend this month says all this beautiful hard coral around Great Keppel is virtually DEAD. Possibly killed by a vast flood of fresh water coming out of the Fitzroy River.



Copyright2008 on 15.05.08 @ 03:13 AM AEST [Former hard coral garden destroyed">link]

TRADEWIND TREE..... Great Keppel Island, Queensland

Christine Danaher lived on the island for many months

The eastern side of Great Keppel, offshore from Yeppoon very near the Tropic of Capricorn. The island was advertised as a party destination which encouraged binge drinking for the under 30's - "Get Wrecked on Great Keppel" being one of the former slogans. All that is finished now. The holiday resort auctioned most of the contents and moth-balled the empty accommodation.

The prevailing SE trade wind has an obvious effect on vegetation high on the hill. The island in the distance is the most easterly of several in the Keppel group. Further offshore are the 'barrier reef' islands of Nor' West and others, including Heron Island.



Copyright2008 on 15.05.08 @ 03:04 AM AEST [Great Keppel Island, Queensland">link]

MYSTERY CONTINUES...... More giant groper deaths reported

NEWS: Giant groper are dying in north Queensland from an as yet unknown cause. Nine of the huge fish have been found washed ashore in a 100km stretch of the coast between Cairns and the Daintree River in the past eight weeks.

One carcass found at Wonga Beach gave a clue to it's death. A high level of the bacteria septicemia was present in the organs.

Please report any sightings of Queensland giant groper deaths to Richard Knuckey (DPIF) 13 25 23



Copyright2008 on 13.05.08 @ 08:07 PM AEST [More giant groper deaths reported">link]

VALERIE T. ..... Blue-spot coral trout, 1967

Valerie T. shown in one of her early wet suits. She was reasonably fresh from her stage acting era at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre, here.

The picture was with a newly released Nikonos 28mm lens - one of the first to be sold in Australia.

Large blue spot trout were everywhere in shallow water on the northern Ribbon Reefs back then.



Copyright2008 on 08.05.08 @ 03:53 AM AEST [Blue-spot coral trout, 1967">link]

FATHOM ERA ADVERTISING ....... Pro Diving Services

Casandra Styles (left) and Marlene Saunders as they eventually appeared in a modeling assignment advertisement in Fathom.

Scuba product advertising has changed a lot since the Fathom era when we did the photography in Australia with local models.



Copyright2008 on 07.05.08 @ 01:20 AM AEST [Pro Diving Services">link]

SANDRA .....Popular model: Fathom Magazine

Copyright2008 on 07.05.08 @ 01:03 AM AEST [Popular model: Fathom Magazine">link] [236 Comments]

KAY MARGARET OVERELL

Kay O. made an stunning appearance in the Aquarius documentary, with a shark as did Sandra Greentree (above) who saved several baby sharks at a time when it was considered very 'unfashionable' to do such things.




Copyright2008 on 06.05.08 @ 08:13 PM AEST [link]

SHIPWRECK BOILER ..... Seal Rocks

How exciting is this? An old boiler on the beach. Not the girl, the rusty chunk of metal at Seal Rocks, which is about four hours north of Sydney, by road.

Long assumed to be the remnant of an 1864 paddle steamer called Rainbow which dragged her anchors and went aground. Now another theory has the boiler as having belonged to Trio wreck a few years later in 1870.

The girl is Trina Fleischmann - often seen in Ben Cropp's underwater documentaries on TV around the world.



Copyright2008 on 05.05.08 @ 01:40 AM AEST [ Seal Rocks">link]

200 PAGES "fathom" PICTURES ...... The covers, some ads

Copy and paste into your browser's address bar: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21203433@N04/

Note All pictures were made before very wide angle 35mm lens were in common use. Ektachrome film quality was not quite equal to modern standards either. Never-the-less after 36 or more years we have a record of the quality of early underwater photography in Australia, a time when subject matter was more abundant. My best pictures were with a Rolleiflex with Planar lens. The 6x6 cm image being classed as medium format. Ron Taylor's wide angle Rolleiflex gave superb results too. Dome lens ports were the latest thing in 1972. We should also remember the best magazine printing was being done in Hong Kong and Tokyo at that time which is why Fathom was the first quality underwater magazine in Australia, using the style of Surf International which was 16 pages of color, 32 pages in black and white.









Copyright2008 on 01.05.08 @ 04:23 AM AEST [The covers, some ads">link]

PEOPLE UNDERWATER ...... unlimited scope

Sabine



Copyright2008 on 29.04.08 @ 04:36 AM AEST [unlimited scope">link]

FISH PIC ...... photographing fish - where they live

Coral Cod



Copyright2008 on 29.04.08 @ 04:32 AM AEST [photographing fish - where they live">link]

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY ...... in fresh water lake

The Blue Lake - North Stradbroke Island, 1995



Copyright2008 on 29.04.08 @ 04:26 AM AEST [in fresh water lake">link]

SOLOMON ISLANDS CROC....... very old, a large specimen

In a nearby museum were relics for sale. Coca Cola bottles stamped San Francisco 1943, piles of hand grenades.... oops one hand grenade was heavier than the rest. A live one.



Copyright2008 on 28.04.08 @ 03:34 AM AEST [very old, a large specimen">link]

GIANT FAN CORALS ..... Eupi Island, 1985

Christine Danaher, 25 meters Eupi Island, Morovo Lagoon

While in Honiara we waited almost two weeks before getting on a flight that would eventually have us on Eupi Island - a dive resort.

We brought back pictures for a travel feature in People Magazine and another couple of pages for the Melbourne dive mag.

Eupi has some unique features. The resort is on an island with a deep channel separating it from another island. Strong currents flow through this deep channel.

I was a bit fuzzy from the anti-malarial medication we were taking during the entire month in the Solomons, although at the time was not aware of this. A bit of a pity.



Copyright2008 on 28.04.08 @ 02:40 AM AEST [Eupi Island, 1985">link]

HONIARA ..... Big Night Out, 1985

The Sailing Club (or yacht club) was the best joint in town. Everyone was there after work on Friday. Diplomats, engineers, secretaries. Reg Thomas (center left) worked with Wally Gibbins for several years before starting his own salvage and dive tour company, Don Tas.

Like many professional divers of the era, Reg began as a free diving spear fisherman in a Sydney club, (North Shore Sea Hawks). In those days there were plenty of opportunities for anyone who could use a face mask and flippers/fins. Everything was self-taught or under the guidance of older guys ex-navy or military. A pioneering time.

With plenty of shipwrecks from World War 2 the Solomon Islands was an attraction for adventure divers like Reg and Wally Gibbins who made good use of the unexploded torpedo's, depth charges and mines by detonating them within the sunken ships and collecting the scrap metal for sale.

One huge chunk of metal flew through the air and crashed through the thatched roof of a locals house. Wally thought he may have upset the owner. Quite the reverse, the chunk of metal was large enough to be used as a table so it stayed where it landed.

Definitely nobody was injured. I heard a claim (from a North American diver) saying a person was killed in a house by Wally's actions when detonating the torpedo inside a submarine's tube in ten meters of water. Such rumors often persist once started.



Copyright2008 on 28.04.08 @ 12:22 AM AEST [Big Night Out, 1985">link]

SOLOMON ISLANDS

Copyright2008 on 28.04.08 @ 12:04 AM AEST [link]

SOLOMONS SHIPWRECK ...... Honiara region

Christine Danaher (1985) at the stern of the deeper of the two Bonegi wrecks.



Copyright2008 on 28.04.08 @ 12:00 AM AEST [ Honiara region">link]

SOLOMON ISLANDS ...... Japanese battle shipwreck site

Battle shipwreck site near Honiara. Probably one worked-over by "Our Wal" as it would be hard to miss. One wreck finding tactic Wally Gibbins used was to search for oil leaks from sunken naval ships.

When Wal said he could "smell a shipwreck" he was only half-kidding. He could smell the oil in the otherwise clean ocean air. An underwater explosion would also loosen up oil and reveal other wrecks nearby.

www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php?page_id=374
A researched site with much historical info on SI war shipwrecks, it often spells Wally Gibbins surname as Gibbons (sic).



Copyright2008 on 25.04.08 @ 01:29 AM AEST [Japanese battle shipwreck site">link]

PRIVATE MARITIME MUSEUM .... Wally Gibbins collection

Collected after years in the Solomon Islands and elsewhere as a commercial salvage diver. Many stories were brought home and told to friends, family and visitors to the former private museum at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

What became of all these goodies is a bit of a mystery. Wally's typewritten memoirs still exist and await a publisher's interest.

The Yongala bell was sold to a maritime museum in Townsville, we believe.



Copyright2008 on 25.04.08 @ 01:10 AM AEST [Wally Gibbins collection">link]

WALLY GIBBINS COLLECTION .... USA - Japanese shipwrecks

Copyright2008 on 25.04.08 @ 01:03 AM AEST [USA - Japanese shipwrecks">link]

WALLY GIBBINS (Cont.) .... WW2 relics from shipwrecks

Copyright2008 on 25.04.08 @ 01:00 AM AEST [WW2 relics from shipwrecks">link]

PRIVATE MUSEUM DAYS ...... Wally's Yongala bell

Copyright2008 on 25.04.08 @ 12:46 AM AEST [Wally's Yongala bell">link]

THE YONGALA BELL ...... with Wally Gibbins

Wally Gibbins(1930 - 2006) was making films with Ben Cropp when they both dropped in on the Yongala shipwreck, SE of Townsville, Queensland.

The ships' bell had not been found. Wal had a fair idea where it should be. He'd studied the layout of the ship and swam to where the bell should have been. Nothing there.

Out on the sand was a large clump of barnacles and a part of the ship. It looked as if this had broken away from the structure. Judging by the shape and weight Wal concluded it must be the prized bell.

Getting it to the surface would have been an effort for most people. For Wally, who'd salvaged giant shipwreck props (in 250 feet of water on air) this would have been a walk in the park.

When being cleaned, the delight on the faces of Ben and Wally would have been a memorable sight.

Here was the prize find of the most famous shipwreck (for divers) in our Australian waters.

The above picture is a reconstruction in 1983 under the Coffs Harbour Jetty.

The bell had been removed from Wal's own former sea shell and shipwrecks museum, especially for this picture. Some 16mm footage was also made - which has remained in archives.

John Sumner (a shipwrecks expert and long term friend of Wally Gibbins) is considering publishing a limited edition postcard using this image, and others featuring shipwreck bells.

All information readers may care to send on the ownership of such shipwreck bells will be forwarded to John Sumner for his research. A worthy cause indeed, even if only partial details can be obtained.






Copyright2008 on 23.04.08 @ 03:55 AM AEST [with Wally Gibbins">link]