Melbourne Scuba Diving

The second smallest state in Australia, Victoria is generally over-shadowed by other states as a dive destination. However many excellent diving centers service the southern coastline such as Wilsons Promontory, Melbourne, Port Campbell, Warnambool and Portland.

The remains of hundreds of ship wrecks (including a few submarines), colorful sponge gardens, rocky reefs, sea caves, pinnacles, kelp forests and piers with plenty of invertebates and fish species are found along the coast.
You can also enjoy diving with the fur seal population and the occasional southern right whale. Captain Cook first sighted Victoria in 1770, when he sailed past Cape Everard in the Gippsland region of Victoria. Although many explorers surveyed the coastline in the years that followed a small number of sealers and whalers established small settlements, the state was not truly settled until after 1826, when a party landed at Phillip Island. The possibility of a russian invasion in the 1880's promted the building of forts, tunnels and a gun emplacements.

One of these unfinished forts in Port Phillip Bay (Popes Eye) in now a very popular dive site, and part of a marine reserve. Melbourne the capital of Vicctoria was established in 1835 after a treaty with the local Aborigines, but the population of the city and state did not increase dramatically until gold was discovered at Ballarat in 1851.

The population of Victoria grew rapidly diring the gold rush that followed, and Melbourne soon rivaled Sydney as the most important city in the colony. After Federation in 1901, Melbourne was named the capital of Australia, until Canberra was founded in 1927.

Queensland Has a new Wreck!

"We've always had diving off the Great Barrier Reef and that will continue, but diving off ship wrecks is something that is internationally attractive.

"It's like a magnet and therefore what we are going to do with this is put the Sunshine Coast and put Queensland on the world map."Mr Beattie said while July 31 was the preferred sinking day, the exact date would depend on weather, wind and sea conditions closer to the time.

The vessel, which now has many man-made holes in it close to the watermark to aid the sinking, will be sailed from Brisbane to Mudjimba Island, off the Sunshine Coast, where it will be sunk in 28 metres of water.

A conservation park will then be created around the sunken ship to ensure access to the site is well-managed and activities that could damage the site, such as fishing or anchoring, are restricted or prohibited.

"The only other dive wrecks in Australia are in southern waters - real cold waters - so I have no doubt that Queensland's ex-HMAS Brisbane conservation park will be a tourism drawcard to millions," Ms Boyle said.

The Queensland government had spent about $2 million on the project and the federal government had contributed around $3 million, Mr Beattie said.

"The returns to the state are expected to be many, many times more than that."