The last part of my trip meant exiting Australia from Brisbane, so I had contacted some friends of mine from Saudi days who now live there, one of whom was a regular dive buddy back in the 90s.
My daughter and I flew down from Townsville and stayed at their house in North Lakes. The following morning, we left nice and early to go to Mooloobala to dive with Sunreef, first on a reef near Mooloobala and then the next day on HMAS Brisbane.
On arrival all we did was present our C cards as we had done all of the paperwork online when we made the bookings. My friend Karen had already done a couple of dives with them the month before and gave us a heads up regarding how they run their show.
As we had been forewarned about the water temps too, so we were all hiring 5mm suits as we were expecting 23C. Once we got all of our kit together and sorted out the wetsuits we then boarded the small catamaran and started heading out of the canal system, which takes around 15 mins before we hit open sea.
The boat safety briefing is one of the funniest I have ever heard, and was excellent, it was nice and refreshing to have something different.
The boat is also nicely designed for exiting via two doors aft each side by doing a giant stride. There is a good dry space forward and a head.
Once the boat was out of the canal system and into the sea, it got a little choppy but nothing serious.
The plan was to dive a local reef, visibility looked awesome with around 15-20m of clear water ….. wow the first clear water since I arrived, absolutely stunning. However, our maximum depth was only 12m and it was still choppy at these depths so trying to focus on something was extremely challenging. We did find lots of nudis, huge bull / marble rays, eagle rays, a wobbegong shark, and lots of fish I had never seen before, two great dives but once again limited to 50 mins. The water temp was a nice 24C, so we were comfortable to a point.
Some nudis on the reef
We stayed in Mooloobala overnight and a major storm came in with a fantastic lightening show plus lots of rain. The dive op Sunreef had mentioned that this was due and informed us later that the departure time on Friday for HMAS Brisbane was going to be changed to an earlier time as more bad weather was expected later that afternoon.
The ride out to HMAS Brisbane the next morning was slightly longer than the day before, however it was much choppier and some of the other passengers were having some issues with this, including my daughter who was fine the day before.
After the briefing we quickly splashed and headed down one of the mooring lines to the wreck. It was cold! 21C, and we felt it. Visibility was also very poor, around 3m, so compared to the reef dive the day before it was terrible, but every cloud has a silver lining and my daughter mainly focused on macro, finding many nudis around the wreck, but today my bad luck with wide angle continued.
Forward gun on the HMAS Brisbane
Soft corals on the gun turret
Whilst the fish life on HMAS Brisbane was nowhere near that of the SS Yongala, it was still pretty impressive with some huge batfish around the safety stop, as well as many other species.
We only managed to do 40 mins on the second dive as we were all very cold, and it was so nice to remove the wet gear and dry off once we were back on board "2 Easy". Back at the dock, we posed for the group photo and then had some snacks whilst filling log books and having a beer. Meanwhile the staff washed all of our gear for us, ten out of ten for that
The staff at Sunreef are super friendly, and hats off to Dan for running a great trip with our DMT Ross on both days as well as Robbie the boat captain, not forgetting Jess the instructor, who was on the boat on the first day with a couple of OW students.
Despite the conditions both dives were awesome, and I have no hesitation in recommending Sunreef to anyone who may be considering diving in this area for their very professional attitude and the way they manage their dive trips.
I had several conversations with the owner Dan, and he told me that they also do frequent trips to Flinder's reef near Brisbane, where they allow longer dives. Flinders Reef is an approximate 90 minute boat ride away, something worth considering if anyone lives in Brisbane area or is planning to dive in this area.
My daughter and I flew down from Townsville and stayed at their house in North Lakes. The following morning, we left nice and early to go to Mooloobala to dive with Sunreef, first on a reef near Mooloobala and then the next day on HMAS Brisbane.
On arrival all we did was present our C cards as we had done all of the paperwork online when we made the bookings. My friend Karen had already done a couple of dives with them the month before and gave us a heads up regarding how they run their show.
As we had been forewarned about the water temps too, so we were all hiring 5mm suits as we were expecting 23C. Once we got all of our kit together and sorted out the wetsuits we then boarded the small catamaran and started heading out of the canal system, which takes around 15 mins before we hit open sea.
The boat safety briefing is one of the funniest I have ever heard, and was excellent, it was nice and refreshing to have something different.
The boat is also nicely designed for exiting via two doors aft each side by doing a giant stride. There is a good dry space forward and a head.
Once the boat was out of the canal system and into the sea, it got a little choppy but nothing serious.
The plan was to dive a local reef, visibility looked awesome with around 15-20m of clear water ….. wow the first clear water since I arrived, absolutely stunning. However, our maximum depth was only 12m and it was still choppy at these depths so trying to focus on something was extremely challenging. We did find lots of nudis, huge bull / marble rays, eagle rays, a wobbegong shark, and lots of fish I had never seen before, two great dives but once again limited to 50 mins. The water temp was a nice 24C, so we were comfortable to a point.
Some nudis on the reef
We stayed in Mooloobala overnight and a major storm came in with a fantastic lightening show plus lots of rain. The dive op Sunreef had mentioned that this was due and informed us later that the departure time on Friday for HMAS Brisbane was going to be changed to an earlier time as more bad weather was expected later that afternoon.
The ride out to HMAS Brisbane the next morning was slightly longer than the day before, however it was much choppier and some of the other passengers were having some issues with this, including my daughter who was fine the day before.
After the briefing we quickly splashed and headed down one of the mooring lines to the wreck. It was cold! 21C, and we felt it. Visibility was also very poor, around 3m, so compared to the reef dive the day before it was terrible, but every cloud has a silver lining and my daughter mainly focused on macro, finding many nudis around the wreck, but today my bad luck with wide angle continued.
Forward gun on the HMAS Brisbane
Soft corals on the gun turret
Whilst the fish life on HMAS Brisbane was nowhere near that of the SS Yongala, it was still pretty impressive with some huge batfish around the safety stop, as well as many other species.
We only managed to do 40 mins on the second dive as we were all very cold, and it was so nice to remove the wet gear and dry off once we were back on board "2 Easy". Back at the dock, we posed for the group photo and then had some snacks whilst filling log books and having a beer. Meanwhile the staff washed all of our gear for us, ten out of ten for that
The staff at Sunreef are super friendly, and hats off to Dan for running a great trip with our DMT Ross on both days as well as Robbie the boat captain, not forgetting Jess the instructor, who was on the boat on the first day with a couple of OW students.
Despite the conditions both dives were awesome, and I have no hesitation in recommending Sunreef to anyone who may be considering diving in this area for their very professional attitude and the way they manage their dive trips.
I had several conversations with the owner Dan, and he told me that they also do frequent trips to Flinder's reef near Brisbane, where they allow longer dives. Flinders Reef is an approximate 90 minute boat ride away, something worth considering if anyone lives in Brisbane area or is planning to dive in this area.
I did my initial certifications with Sunreef, and Dan did my Advanced. Flinders is definitely worth doing but you're better off launching from Bribie island rather than the Sunshine Coast.
