Tas Uni Dive Club

Hidden in the Derwent river under the shadow of the Tasman Bridge lies the MV Lake Illawarra.

On the 5th of January 1975 at 9.27 pm the MV Lake Illawarra, under the captaincy of Boleslaw Pelc, crashed into the 18th and  19th pylons of the Tasman Bridge bringing down a 127 m span of the bridge and sinking the ore carrier, you can read more of the story here.
Today the Illawarra rests on the silt under the bridge in 35 m of water. Light here penetrates down to around 26 m (but a torch is still essential!) which is conveniently level with the ship deck at the bottom of the bridge. The bridge itself spans up to 15 m with numeroues port holes to look into on the way up. The smoke stacks on top raise up to around 10 m. Moving from stern to bow, and with some close examination, the ships radar domes and hoists can be found. The ship itself is home to a surprising amount of marine life including yellow jewel anenomes, crayfish and cowfish.

Taking advantage of a mixed tide where we have large slack tide we’re going to launch from the Cenotaph and dive part of Hobart’s history.

Due to the low visibility, high currents, being a wreck and higher than usual psychological stress this is STRICTLY limited to advanced open water dives with recent low visibility experience, at least 50 dives and deep diving experience, the committee will be confirming all divers meet these requirements before the dive.

We’ll be closing the dive on Wednesday the 20th of April to give us time to complete the appropriate approvals.

You can get some idea of what you’ll see from this Navy video.

You can start getting familiar with the dive site from this video.

Due to depth limits we will only be doing a single dive. If you need a tank pick the ticket for $30, bringing your own tank – jump on for $25.

Use of club Regs, BCD and weights are included in the cost of the dive if needed, you will need your own wetsuit, fins and mask.