Category: Scuba & Instruction


Here’s a mixture of pictures selected by PIX (a weekly picture-news magazine in Australia) editors.  Once selected I’d be asked to tell a staff reporter like Syd King, Ben Mitchell or later, Jim Oram what it was all about.  The magazine paid sufficiently.  They were a good crew.  Editor Bob Nelson especially.  Meanwhile I was shooting 16mm film footage for my future project, a documentary that would enable travel as well as an income.  It was a good plan but eventually there was home video which made cinema films expensive for families.  (click to enlarge pages).


FATHOM magazine was compiled by divers.  For the first time in Australia, dramatic pictures and stories kept accurate by the people who wrote and published the material.  All original pages now online for students of the sea.  A benchmark to help understand the slow but steady changes occurring in the marine world. From shark hunting of 1963 to the beautiful underwater photo images of today.

http://fathomoz.wordpress.com


Kameruka Creek on the far South Coast of New South Wales is trickle more often than not.  It flows to the Bega River which is tuns enters the sea at Tathra.  My first underwater view with a face mask was in the fresh water river about 1952.  A memorable experience.  Every diver remembers the first time they looked underwater.  Although babies watch marine films these days, long before entering deep water.


Vic Ley was filmed by me  spearing this Black Cod in 1969 at Fish Rock, South West Rocks – now a sanctuary. The sequence appeared in my first film Aquarius – People and Wildlife of the Sea but was dropped from later editions.  Today it should be of interest to environmentalists.  Vic Ley remembers how prolific marine life use to be at this now famous scuba location.  New South Wales mid north coast.
Brian Davies was a professional fisherman, surfer and free diver who lived is a cabin at Seal Rocks, New South Wales.  His father was a local pioneer professional fisherman – a true man of the sea as was Brian.  Brian took a job in Japan which involved working with toxic chemicals.  A few years later, back in Australia his liver packed up and Brian passed away – just a short time after his father.

The young fellow takes a Rock Blackfish ashore for his father, Geoff ‘Boots’ Towner, our long term friend.

Conditions for ‘rock hopping’ are not ideal, as the picture illustrates.  A strong NE sea breeze has made the water choppy.

Early morning’s are a better bet for calm conditions although during bthe summer, the NE breeze starts early too.

ROUGH SEA

restless.jpg (32k image)

**Coffs Harbour today**

seatang.jpg (54k image)

Seal Rocks (New South Wales) is an established grey nurse shark location. Since 1986 the sharks began returning in outstanding population numbers as compared with the previous two decades when they were very scarce.

So began a dive tour business that has flourished since. Not only here but elsewhere along the coast.

Boats run down from the twin towns Forster-Tuncurry, pick up the punters from the beach at Seal Rocks and head offshore to Big Seal or Little Seal Rock.

Latest information suggests sea lions (fur seals) have returned after an absence of more than thirty years.

Good news, yet still unconfirmed.

ourviking.jpg (26k image)

**JM Harding** (driver) and **Bob Grounds** race past the Bundeena wharf

OK for the short distances and relatively calm conditions around Sydney and the New South Wales coast.

Videos, Slideshows and Podcasts by Cincopa Wordpress Plugin