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Australia’s best wreck dive?

As I glide through underwater cabins, past indecipherable control panels and signs explaining redundant safety requirements I give myself a metaphorical pat on the back for managing to dive down 30 metres and inside this wreck without having a panic attack.

I’m a novice diver and (I’m certain my partner would claim) a slow learner, so you would be within your rights to ask what the hell I was thinking of when I decided to attempt this. But this wreck dive, the former HMAS Adelaide, is certainly the most accessible in Australia (possibly the world).

The Ex-HMAS Adelaide was scuttled on 13th April 2011 to create an artificial dive reef and my dive experience here is only six months later. In that short time the ship has already attracted an enormous amount of marine life to its cabins and cavernous holds, including its own resident grouper.

It’s incredibly accessible. The trip out to the wreck is only 5-minutes from Terrigal Beach and our dive-master, Bob Diaz, from Pro Dive Central Coast has things set up so well that access to the wreck is possible even to the most inexperienced of divers.

He’s also got a very calm, reassuring manner that settles my nerves when my air starts free-flowing on the surface and my dive-computer stops working 20m down (okay so I may have had a teeny panic attack).

Being a tad claustrophobic I tell myself to take it easy and if it’s too scary when I get down to 30 metres I can just hang around outside while the other foolhardy individuals explore the interior.

But I end up going for it. The openings are wide and Bob is wider than me so I feel reassured following him. There is also plenty of light permeating each chamber so I don’t ever feel trapped or claustrophobic.

It’s quite an amazing thing to float along the deck of a sunken vessel – especially one so large. I can even lean over the prow and pretend to be Kate Winslet, peering down into the deeper, less accessible blue.

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