Townsville, September 2002

I only planned a flying visit to Townsville, so I decided to stay at the YHA at the bus terminal. It's convenient and they'd spruced it up since I was last there. It now had a new paint job, a back projection TV with cable and a small bar. My bus got in around 6pm, so I went to find something to eat and then had an early night. The next day I was going diving and had an early start.

I had booked on Adrenaline Dive's day boat to do the wreck of the SS Yongala. The Yongala sank in a cyclone in 1911 with the loss of everyone on board. No-one is entirely sure why it went down. It was rediscovered in 1958 to the south of Townsville near Cape Bowling Green. It's well known for its fish life, because it lies on a sandy bottom away from the reef and so acts as a magnet for fish.

We sorted out the few pieces of gear that I needed and got on the boat. It's a long way and the boat took almost three hours to get there at a speed of just under 20 knots. I was buddied up with an English guy who lived in Townsville. One of the crew went down to tie the line in and we were given the dive brief.

The wreck lies in 28m, but the top is in 14m, so it really isn't a difficult dive at all. It is illegal to do any form of penetration on the wreck and there are huge fines. You're only allowed to swim around the outside. We were warned that there was a strong current and that we should hang on to the line going down and coming up. We were also told to do safety stops at 5m and 10m.

Having put all my kit together and checked it, I was less than happy when they insisted on moving my tank valve just before I jumped in. I trust myself to turn my air on properly. I don't trust anyone else, let alone the onboard cook. I made sure I checked it again on the surface before I went down.

The predicted strong current wasn't very strong at all. We went down the line to the stern and the ship was laid out in front of us. It was covered in soft corals and clams. There were loads of trevally and snapper swimming around. There were big groupers, though I didn't see “Grumpy”, the grouper that swallowed another diver's head about 6 months earlier. Some of the other divers saw him though, so he was around. There were also several sea snakes, a turtle and a big stingray.

Swimming along the wreck towards the bow, there were some big holds which were just begging to be entered and explored. Inside the wreck, I saw the row of toilets and various bottles. The masts were laying down on the seabed and there was the opening to the funnel. As we neared the bow, the current around the bow was just strong enough for me to decide not to swim right around it. We made our way back shallower, more or less level with the top of the deck.

Coming back up the shotline would best be described as chaotic. There were about 20 divers, all trying to use the same line to do about 8 minutes of stops at once. The current, slight though it was, meant that you had to hang onto the line. I ended up at 10m surrounded by a load of others, unable to move up or down until they got out of the way. Their buoyancy control wasn't very good either. I found I was being pulled up or down depending on who was around me. My buddy was totally underweighted and spent the 5m stop clutching the rope in a more or less upside down position. He hit the surface about 20 seconds after letting go. I spent somewhat longer coming up from 5m. Our maximum depth was 27.4m and we had a 39 minute dive.

After the dive, lunch was served and then it was time to get back in again. We were told we had to have a surface interval of an hour, which is low in my opinion. With 55 minutes since our first dive, we were being told to get into our kit again, so even though I went as slow as possible, I still only had a surface interval of 1 hour and 2 minutes. One of the other people onboard tried to get back in after only 55 minutes and was stopped.

On our second dive, we stayed shallower and only went down to 23m. This time we were able to get around the bow as the current had dropped off. Then on the way back from the bow, we came along the starboard side, and saw the portholes and all the life there. The were loads of grouper, including one was 2m (6 feet) long. There were also a couple of turtles, a couple of sea snakes and just clouds of smaller fish such as snapper. Our dive time was 41m this time and the line was less crowded as we hadn't all got in at exactly the same time. My buddy's buoyancy was still terrible though.

Back on the boat, I overheard one English woman tell her buddy how she'd ended up with 8 minutes of deco stops and only 40 bar left. This struck me as exceptionally stupid, especially on a second dive with such a short surface interval. She was also the woman who had tried to get back in too soon. I later discovered that she was a backpacker and had been working on her Working Holiday Visa as a instructor in Cairns. The mind boggles.

The Yongala is a very nice wreck, but it's more a dive for the fish life. I found it quite frustrating having to swim past all those inviting holes that were just crying out to be explored, but unfortunately that's the law. It is over hyped though. I don't believe it's one of the best 10 wrecks in the world. When you consider Truk, Bikini and the President Coolidge in Vanuatu, there's just too much competition.

The day cost me $199, which is a bit expensive but it is a long trip, so fuel costs must be quite high. They picked up from Townsville and Magnetic Island. One good thing about Adrenaline is that they'll refund or reschedule if they can't make the Yongala. They won't just take you to a nearby reef if you don't want to.

Sunday night is pretty quiet in Townsville, so after a beer in the local pub, trying to avoid having to talk to the local nutter, I had a reasonably early night. I was off to Airlie Beach in the morning.

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