South West Rocks - Fish Rock Cave

Fish Rock Cave at South West Rocks is voted among the top ten dives in Australia, and you can expect to dive with friendly turtles (all year round), grey nurse sharks (especially April - November) and masses of schooling fish which feed in the passing currents. Expect to see schools of pelagics, giant Queensland grouper, rare black coral gardens, anemones, clownfish, shells, lionfish, lobsters, large stingrays, migrating humpback whales and much, much more.

Fish Rock cave is only true ocean cave dive in Australia running 125 metres right through Fish Rock which lies two kilometres south-east of Smoky Cape.

Well I was extremely excited about my weekend away to SWR, I had heard so many great things about the diving and was very much looking forward to 2 days away. Jamie and I set off from Sydney at about 4pm, slightly delayed as we wanted some of Carls birthday cake :o))

First days diving wasn’t great as we knew it wouldn’t be due to the high seas, vis was pretty poor and very surgey but the water felt like bath water it was so warm, but we decided to only do one dive. Once we’d all showered and changed we headed out to a local pub to celebrate ANZAC day, we ate, drank and played two-up (my first time ever and I lost every call well I am a Pom!!!) An early night was called for as it was another early start the next day….

This time the seas were much calmer so we decided to go down into the gutters on the first dive and spend time with the Grey Nurse sharks. We descended down and knelt on the bottom, vis was about 2m and slightly green still BUT when you see a Grey Nurse suddenly appear out of the gloom 1m away from you it’s amazing. They were swimming above and below us, just skimming the sandy bottom. Awe -inspiring. All too soon we were running out of deco so had to go back to the boat. We decided to do the same on the second dive, great call! Another brilliant encounter with the sharks, I’m now a GNS convert!!

That night Jamie cooked us a great BBQ and we all had a great evening, finished off by some great tasting hot chocolate and a Roo even joined in (they really do hop!!).

Back out the next day for our final dives, as we’d only done one on the first day we decided to do three as vis should be much better. As we headed out we could see how much calmer it was, not the exciting wet ride out this time!!

We hopped in and descended down to the gutters ready to head into the cave (sooo exciting!!) torches on and in we went. There were lots of Painted Crayfish and bullseyes at the start, then we ascended up the tunnel and the most amazing site… a HUGE Turtle blocking our way (I’m surprised you didn’t hear me in Sydney “it’s a turtle” – I tend to point out the obvious!) we had to go under him to get past! We carried on toward the exit, where we see the famous picture spot, unfortunately no sharks but hundreds and hundreds of fish, next minute we’re ascending in the cave, and we pop up in the bubble cave, we have a chat (very bizarre when your computer is reading 5.3m!!) then descend back down and slowly out of the cave, on the swim back to the boat we saw a huge variety of fish including lionfish, lots of eels (Green and Mosaic Moray) and even a wobbe or two. I even had a very brave clownfish bite me!! All too soon it was time to go up. We did another dive with the sharks and the final dive back through the cave, all amazing. Whilst we were waiting for the other group to come up we had a pee break, at this point the DM threw the left over biscuits in, and all the Batfish that hang around under the boat came up to eat, I grabbed a small chunk and held it out and one came and ate out of my hand! Such a great way to end the weekend. :o))))