CDAA Deep Cavern & Sinkholes
Back in 2010 I went to Melbourne, Australia to visit my friend for a month. While there I took one week to complete the CDAA Deep Cavern & Sinkholes course.
About the Course
The Cave Divers Association of Australia's introductory training is the Deep Cavern and Sinkholes course. It's 5 full days of training with theory, confined water session and at least 6 dives in caverns and sinkholes.
The name of the course has since changed to CDAA Basic Cave Diver.
The Gang
The class was done with Ocean Divers in Melbourne. Jane Bowman was the main instructor and Warrick McDonald did the pool session part of the course. Both are extremely experienced divers and instructors and I felt right away that I was in good hands.
I did the class with three other students, Dave Gilmour (Australia), Len (UK) and and a guy from Netherlands who's name I've lost.
Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier is about halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide along the coast. The drive from Melbourne to Mount Gambier took about 5 hours and we saw lots of kangaroos and other animals along the way. It's a small town and I don't know if it has any reputation beyond its caves and sinkholes. We were nicely accommodated outside town and were joined by other cave divers that would explore some of the caves and sinkholes in the area.
Goulden's Hole and Little Blue Lake
We started dives in two holes known for bad visibility. However, at Goulden's Hole the visibility was much better than usual. Unfortunately we spent a lot of time with masks off or blacked out practicing out-of-gas scenarios in zero visibility. We did three dives at this hole, practicing all skills we had done previously in the pool. There was a fine sediment on the bottom so we did our best to not stir it up too much. I think we did a good job, although reeling in with no masks and sharing gas might need some work.
At Little Blue Lake we had perhaps 1 meter visibility and the only thing I saw during the dive was some traffic signs at 30 meters. A good place to practice team awareness! I'm not sure if I was in a cave, sinkhole or just a lake... but I guess it counts.
One Tree Sinkhole and Kilsby's Sinkhole
One Tree is a very cool sinkhole in the middle of a cow pasture. It was probably my favorite dive during the class. It's amazing that such a hole exist and at the bottom there are machineries and other structures. We went to 40 meters but I think it's a little bit deeper. To be able to dive we first had to pick up the key to the paddock at the owner's.
The legendary Kilsby's was also a very good dive with amazing visibility. It's a bit small so felt a bit crowded. The desire to continue down into the darkness was great but we stayed in the light with a maximum depth of 40 meters. This was the last dive of the course and in the end we all got certified as CDAA Deep Cavern divers.
Ewen's Ponds
As extra curriculum me and Len dove one of Ewen's Ponds at night. Visibility was amazing and there were at least some fish and crayfish to look at. Apart from that it was a shallow dive with some algae.
Piccaninnie Ponds
After finished course I had an opportunity to put my new skills to practice. Together with Len, I applied for permission to dive Piccaninnie Ponds. As the environment is a bit fragile, permission is needed in order to limit the amount of divers per day. The ponds are basically cracks in the ground with a cavern in one end. It becomes a proper cave deeper down but the permission limits the depth to 30 meters.
The dive went really well and the cathedral, which the cavern is called, is beautiful. We spent some time 'exploring' it and taking pictures before heading out into the open water.