HMAS Swan Wreck Dive at Dunsborough

Before winter arrives, we decided to proceed with our plan to visit the HMAS Swan wreck at Dunsborough, 3 hours drive south of Perth. The HMAS Swan was a River Class Frigate Destroyer of the Australian Navy. After serving 26 years, it was decommissioned in 1996 and in 1997 it was sunk 2.4km off the South West Coast in 30m of water.

The destroyer HMAS Swan - my first wreck dive!

This being a 300+km road trip, we couldnt possibly rely on our 'fast' and 'furious' non-airconditioned babies to see us there, n therefore we borrowed from the Magna 4 Gang, their bling-bling Mitsubishi Magna, with airconditioning woh...

my turn to take the wheels in the bling-bling Magna

The dive operator Cape Dive, is based in Dunsborough, which means we had to set off at 6am in the morning in order to reach there by 9am. With some difficulty towards the last stage of the drive, we finally made it there, abeit 30 min later than our expected time. Thankfully, the morning's dive had not set off yet, and after paying A$170 (inclusive of all equipment) for the 2 dives , we were on our way to the dive site.

The dive gang outside Cape Dive

As usual, a 10mm wetsuit is a must, although this time round the water was not as cold. Right at the beginning of the dive, we saw a 1.5m creature that we thought was one of the bottom feeding shark the dive master was talkin about earlier, called Wooggogog or something. Till now we still cant confirm whether we were correct, but whatever, as long as its not juz any boring fish rite?

yep its been confirmed by Lawrence, its a kind of shark called spotted wobbegong

...more not so boring shark........

U cant run away from us even when hiding under the wreck

While the visibility wasnt really very good, at least in terms of things to see, n marine life, it was much better than the Rottnest Dive. And as usual, we spent way too much time posing for our cameraman Mr KK but it did take away the boredom when there was nothing to see sometimes.

pose number 1




Pose number 2

unknowingly pose number 3

pose number 4 - the mast behind looks like a skull head in this pic

mast of Swan Wreck

In terms of marine life, other than the thing dat we thought was a shark, there was a huge school of porcupinefish, some filefish, 3 to 4 small rays, most probably black-blotched rays, some batfishes and travellies hiding under the rudder of the ship. In terms of exploring the interior of the wreck, we didnt venture deep into it, as we didnt follow the operator's dive master, and was advised by him that some of the walls of the wreck are old and might juz collaspe.

huge school of porcupinefish




batfish

inside the wreck

I guess this dive would be the last dive i would be doing for now. Any other dive sites are further than this, and as winter approaches, more dive sites would be closed for diving. I'm just glad that at least for this dive, it was much more fun and different from the Rottness Dive. Hopefully i will have more chances to dive in Australia, perhaps Ningaloo Reef or the Great Barrier Reef in future?