Camilla Wreck Shore Dive, Howies Scuba

NOT ENOUGH TO PUFF

Scuba Diving Perth WA

Shore Diving

Camilla Wreck

Shore Dive: Wreck Dive.
No# of dives at site: 1.
Depth: Max @ Wreck 4 meters, the paddle grass areas slopes off as you head out to open ocean.
Dive Flag @ Site: No.
Dive Conditions: I have dived this once and this was a really easy site on a nice calm day, I do not believe it would have any protection with any sort of wind or swell though. It is next to a working jetty but I would be surprised if any sizeable boats would get that shallow, however it is known as a fishing beach.
This site is protected by Maritime Legislation, not that there is anything to take but if you find a gem please leave it there and do not disturb the site. You also need to take a dive flag as no flag at site.

Directions

To get to this shore dive is simple enough, you need to get onto Challenger Beach, which is off Sutton Road and this is off Cockburn Road, South Fremantle.
Drive all the way to the bottom of Sutton Rd until you can go no further, you should see the entrance gates for ALCOA one on your left and one straight on .
Now I have been informed by a guy we spoke to on the beach that the other car parks on Sutton Rd have a terrible reputation however, he said that the one that we parked up in was ok and he had been using it for years without a problem.There are security cameras and signs stating this here so obviously a good deterrent.
That said make sure all your valuables are out of sight and the car is locked. There are two car parks at the end of this road, I am unsure if they are both public or one is used for ALCOA, they are only partly separated by a small tree line that juts out about two meters, its not fenced or barriered off. Anyhow you want to be close to the beach so pull in just by the slip road onto the beach, this was barriered and locked so no vehicle access to the beach, but you could walk around.

Kit up in the car park and make your way down onto the beach. To find your entry point, you walk along the beach in a Northerly direction after approx. 120 meters on your right you will see some obvious erosion in the sand dune due to what looks like some type of waste or outlet pipe this is an excellent marker for your entry point.

As soon as you are in line with this turn left, take a bearing of 270 degrees (bang on West) walk and swim out for approx. 80 meters in total and there she lies in the vast 3.6 meter depth of the ocean. If you scroll in on the marker in Google map above you can actually see the shadow in the water.

Dive Review:

Easy enough this shore dive, nice and shallow and overall not worth some of the effort required. The main concern here I guess is the fact it is next to the ALCOA Jetty, some big ships dock next to this thing and we did see a couple of tug boats or trawler like ships a couple of hundred meters away, that said we where in very shallow waters, but just be aware that you could get some type of boat traffic.
When I first read about this dive site I read that is was in 22 meters of water, that was either a) a typo or b) the author was confusing it with somewhere else, as that 22 meters quickly turned into about 22 inches, ok I joke but it was only in 3.6 meters of water, not quite the vast depths I was hoping for and, I really should of known a bit better as I did check it out on Google earth first and, it clearly looks like its in shallower than 22 meters of water. (just copy and paste these co-ordinates into Google earth E115°46.45152, S32°11.26554). That all said you don't know until you get there I guess and, I have said it many times before seek out as much information before you dive and don't just take another persons word for it.

Dive Site

Kit up in the car park and make your way to the barrier, cut through here and down onto the beach. Including car park and slipway you have in total approx. 160 meter walk to the entry point. None of the Wreck is obvious above the water, apparently on a very calm day you can see a shadow in the water, we couldn't and it was pretty flat calm that day. Anyway to find your entry point, you walk along the beach in a Northerly direction after approx. 120 meters (last part of the 160 meter walk) on your right you will see some obvious erosion in the sand dune due to what looks like some type of waste or outlet pipe, I am unsure what it is however this is an excellent marker for your entry point. As soon as you are in line with this turn left, take a bearing of 270 degrees (bang on West) walk and swim out for approx. 80 meters in total and there she lies in the vast 3.6 meter depth of the ocean.
The wreck itself is tiny about 10 meters in length give or take, it took me four minutes to swim around it and film it at a very casual and leisurely pace. There is nothing of the wreck really left, just a hunk of scrap, we have now fondly called it the "Chicken Carcass" as its picked clean and pretty much all of it is buried in the sand, the wreck looks like it broke off into two parts and there is another piece North Westerly from the main piece but it is just a line in the sand. You could be in and out of the water in about ten minutes. That said Stevie G and myself went for a little wander and checked out the paddlegrass and sand bank as it slopes off down to approx. 8 meters.
Apart from actually finding the boat, which I was impressed with (my navigational skills aren't always the best) the bit I enjoyed the most was actually exploring the paddlegrass that covered a fair bit of the seabed, not that we saw much but it was good use of navigational skills, underwater communication and just overall diving skills, just one of those dives when you and your buddy are in sync.
Overall the vis was ok, approx. 4 meters. The important thing is not to kick up the sand, as it is silty and quickly impairs the vis and, the fact that it was very shallow helped.

Marine Life

There wasn't a vast amount of marine life, little schools of Stripey's, Cardinal fish, Wavy Grub fish and a few other bits and bobs. I was able to get some nice pictures of the sea Anemone that was in the paddlegrass, be careful with these as they are related to jellyfish and have stinging cells.

Around the Wreck