Australia Diver

‘I HATE TO USE THE WORD PRISTINE AS IT TENDS TO BE OVERUSED, BUT…’

ROM MY FIRST DIVE at the Left : Pristine corals are a First discovered by Anglo-Irish naval A marine park, Rowley Shoals consists Rowley Shoals I knew I was feature of the Rowley officer Captain Josias Rowley (later of the Mermaid, Clerke and Imperieuse Shoals. Fexploring somewhere very special. Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet, reefs. Each of these is oval-shaped and For a start, there were fish everywhere – Above : Soft corals and GCB, GCMG) from the ship HMS covers an area of around 35sq miles. The colourful reef fish and large pelagic fish, schools of five-lined Imperieuse in 1800, the three reefs of the reefs lie 20 miles apart, and while all offer plus a very healthy population of sharks. snapper at Plectropoma Rowley Shoals lie 190 miles west of spectacular diving, Clerke and Mermaid However, because these creatures see so Pass. Broome, off the northern coast of are the most popular with visiting few divers at this remote destination, they Western Australia. charter-boats, as they have sheltered Below : True North moored proved to be extremely camera-shy. in Clerke Reef Lagoon. Like the wonderful Coral Sea Reefs lagoons for safe overnight anchorage. Less shy were the corals – fabulous found off the country’s east coast, the Divers first started to explore the gardens of hard corals, beautiful Rowley Shoals were once the peaks of Rowley Shoals in the 1970s, and gorgonians and spectacular fields of soft ancient mountains, which slipped discovered reefs very different to those corals. I hate to use the word “pristine”, beneath the waves after the end of the last elsewhere in Australia. They comprise a as it tends to be overused and not Ice Age. Located on the edge of the mixing pot of species from both Australia appropriate to most dive destinations, but continental shelf, these reefs rise from and Asia, with more than 230 species of this was the perfect word to describe this deep water and attract a great variety of coral and close to 700 species of fish. underwater smorgasbord . ocean wanderers. Only a handful of liveaboards visit these remote reefs each year, and only in the months of September, October and November, when calm conditions prevail.

NE LIVEABOARD THAT makes Othe journey is True North , which I joined for a six-night trip in September. True North is easily the most luxurious NIGEL and well-appointed liveaboard I have MARSH been on. has just The vessel is 50m long, and has large spacious cabins spread over three levels, visited plus a huge dining room, comfortable one of lounge, bar, helipad, alfresco dining area and a massive dive-deck. It operates the most remote dive destinations in Australia, to discover a collection of corals, fish and sharks that blew his socks off UNDERWATER SMORGASBORD 72 www. di vErNEt.com 73 AUSTRALIA DIVER

only a limited number of trips to the Rowley Shoals each year, as it also ventures to Kimberly and other parts of Australia, and makes trips to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. After a day spent seeing the sights of Broome, I boarded the boat in the afternoon and met my fellow-passengers, a mixed group of divers, anglers and snorkellers. I quickly discovered that this was a typical mix for a voyage on this vessel, and more than half the passengers were repeat customers. We were soon underway, enjoying a glass of champagne as the sun set, and then the first of many fabulous meals cooked by the three chefs. The overnight crossing was very calm, and the next morning we arrived at Clerke Reef to be greeted by a pod of migrating humpback whales. Once moored in the lagoon the six tenders were launched and we got ready to explore.

UR FIRST DIVE Top : A whitetip reef shark at Blue Lagoon set emerges from a cave at Othe scene for four days of brilliant Jimmy Goes To China. diving. This was our check-out dive, but unlike any check-out dive I had done Above : A black-blotched before. porcupinefish surprised on a night dive. The site offered coral gardens and coral heads to explore in less than 25m, and Right : A blue-spotted I was first impressed by the fish life – lagoon ray shelters under spiky soft corals because they have the Another site with wonderful coral schools of trevally, barracuda, sweetlips, a coral head at The most exquisite colours, and all around me gardens was Plectropoma Pass, which had fusiliers and snapper, plus potato cod, Bommie. at Blue Lagoon were red, pink, yellow, an even better collection of soft corals, coral trout, mackerel, wahoo, garden eels white and orange examples. and I was surprised to see a gang of six Below, from left : and a great range of reef fish. Schools of fusiliers at The Not only that, but the water was warm juvenile grey reef sharks that were less I was also impressed to see numerous Bommie; colourful soft at 27°C and the visibility was more than than 50cm long. sharks – several whitetip reef and grey corals. 40m. Now I could see why divers raved It was good to see so many sharks on reef sharks zooming around the reef. about the Rowley Shoals. each dive, even if they were frustratingly And finally, the corals made a big Blue Lagoon was typical of the dive- camera-shy. Whitetip reef sharks were impression. Healthy hard corals, sites we explored at Clerke Reef, because particularly abundant, and several of the gorgonians, sea whips, whip corals and, each one had great corals, wonderful fish females were observed with fresh mating best of all, spectacular soft corals. I love life and numerous sharks. bites around their gills, a good sign for

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the future generations. At other dive-sites we explored dramatic coral canyons, but with Clerke Built on pearls Reef rising 390m above the surrounding Broome is a very colourful town with a history seafloor, most dives were wall dives. to match, and it’s one that many divers will find Drifting along Clerke Wall there were interesting. It was established in 1883, after wonderful corals to be seen – large pearl oysters were found to be abundant in the gorgonians, sponges, whip corals, sea surrounding waters. The area quickly grew to whips and more beautiful soft corals. have the largest pearl lugger fleet in the Numerous reef fish were on show, plus country. a constant parade of pelagic fish such as The pearl oysters were collected to be turned when plastic buttons were invented. Spanish mackerel, trevally, dogtooth tuna, into buttons, and were first gathered by Aboriginal However, the town survived and is today famous rainbow runners, wahoo and jobfish. freedivers. Later Japanese divers arrived and used for its cultivated pearls. I found myself constantly scanning the standard dress to collect the shells. It’s one of the only places in the world where bluer, hoping to see either a humpback Many died from the bends or drowning, and pearl-divers are still employed to collect shells. whale – which we could hear singing on today rest in the Japanese Cemetery. Broome is located some 1400 miles north of every dive – or some other magnificent During World War Two, Broome was attacked on Perth and is a popular tourist town, with people beast of the deep. The anglers were four occasions by Japanese aircraft and not long coming to see the pearl farms, the famous Cable fortunate to hook, and duly release, after the war the pearl-shell industry collapsed Beach and to explore the nearby Kimberly region. a sailfish, but we divers didn’t get to see

Above: Broome is famous a feast of food. Many of the divers also for its oyster pearls. enjoyed the snorkelling and fishing, and whale-watching was also popular, with Left: A broadclub many pods of migrating humpback cuttlefish encountered at Clerke Wall on the whales spotted each day. final dive. We also visited Bedwell Island, a long spit of sand that is home to hermit crabs Below: This Forsters and nesting seabirds. hawkfish was one of the The crew hosted sunset cocktails on the few fish that was not camera-shy. island one afternoon, which led to a few sore heads the next morning. Our final dive at Clerke Wall provided a nice farewell to the Rowley Shoals. Drifting along the wall we saw the usual pretty corals, reef and pelagic fish and reef sharks, but right at the end of the dive we one of these incredible creatures. found a fabulous broadclub cuttlefish. Also cruising this wall were grouper, This wonderful cephalopod was Maori wrasse, humphead parrotfish, unconcerned to have three excited turtles, whitetip reef sharks and grey reef underwater photographers blasting it like sharks. The crew informed me that manta a group of paparazzi, and flashed a rays also appeared – we saw none while dazzling array of colours. diving, but quite a few feeding on the After five minutes with this amazing surface, and managed to snorkel with two. creature we reluctantly surfaced, sad to be On other wall dives at the Bommie, fusiliers. Our bottom time was way too departing the Rowley Shoals when we had South Park, Sheer Delight and Main short at this action-packed location. so much more to explore. But with only a Channel Wall we saw moray eels, sting Each day at the Rowley Shoals we did few hundred divers getting to enjoy these rays, gropers, sweetlips, coral trout, three to four dives – not hardcore diving, spectacular reefs each year, I felt I had schools of snappers and fusiliers. I didn’t but balanced out with other activities and joined a very exclusive club. see that many invertebrate species, but confess that I mainly used a wide-angle lens, so wasn’t looking that hard. I did see coral and hermit crabs, clams, FGETATINCG TTHERFE 8IChLarteE r-boats visiting the feather and seastars and a few Rowley Shoals depart from Broome, which is nudibranchs, and a night dive revealed an regularly serviced by domestic flights in Australia by assortment of crustaceans and molluscs. Qantas and Virgin Australia. DIVING & ACCOMMODATION 8True North has been HE MOST EXCITING wall-dive we taking divers to the Rowley Shoals for more than 30 Tdid was at the northern end of Clerke years, www.northstarcruises.com.au Reef, at a site called Jimmy Goes to WHEN TO GO 8 Trips are generally offered only in China. Strong currents rip around the September, October and November. reef at this site, and we dropped down CURRENCY 8 Australian dollar. the wall to 40m to be surrounded by PRICES 8A six-night Coral Atoll Cruise on True North a dozen grey reef sharks and two larger starts from AU $5695 (around £3500 at the time of silvertip sharks. writing). Return flights London-Broome from next This site also had wonderful corals and September from around £830. schools of barracuda, snapper and VISITOR INFORMATION 8www.westernaustralia.com

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