UECWA Newsletter

25th March 2026

Upcoming Dives

Night Dive (Dinner Fishing Boat Harbour) - Fri 27th March

Sandy Cave & Yellow Buoy Shark Cave  - Sat 28th March

The Maze & Goon Bag Double (Rotto Drop Off) - Sun 29th March

The Annual Rottnest Pilgrimage

March 14th - 21st 2026

Photo credit - Phil Clark

It was a very busy, sun-blessed morning as the Rotto folk made their way to the marina to load their gear and themselves aboard Cape Cruiser for the annual pilgrimage.

It was great to meet up with another UEC contingent who were involved in the marina clean-up—well done, and thank you to those members. You pulled out some amazing, fun stuff.

Sixteen people departed the marina at 11 am sharp with the usual collection of dive gear, personal luggage, a coffee machine, 11 bikes and an e-scooter. The group numbered 18 all up, with Cathy D and Mike making their own way to the island.

Luck was on our side upon arrival, with 2 out of the 3 chalet keys available for collection, so after unloading the Thompson Chalet people and their belongings, we chugged around to Geordie.

Arrival always hits the Geordie jetty with military precision, and it wasn’t long until C.C. had discharged her contents other than dive gear.

Whilst Zita, Hetty and I stocked the chalets, the remainder of the group went for a sneaky dive to Malcolm’s Maze, where we collected 11 crays.

That evening, we enjoyed a communal dinner under the stars while we made plans for the next day and saluted Hewey.

The salutations worked—Sunday morning loomed bright and sunny, and we headed off to Baby Jackson Tunnel and Transit Reef. Sunday night was somewhat quieter than the preceding evening, with the air filled with the delicious sizzling aroma of steak and sausage along with a sneaky side of cray. Our intrepid cray hunters bagged 22 crays that day.

Kerry’s Caverns and Mabel Cove were the destinations for Monday, an exploratory day, and our hunters grabbed 11 crays.

Tuesday, the sun shone again and we tootled off to the Carpet Emporium and Sandy Hole Complex. The Emporium was fabulous, with grey nurse sharks, a large wobby and a visiting bull ray—a truly magnificent encounter. Everyone was buzzing. I saw my first blue bastard (thanks Phil G for identifying it for me). The Sandy Hole Complex, another exploration site, was a bit hit and miss, with only a few divers finding the enormous cave complex we knew to be there. We bagged 13 crays that day.

Wednesday we tried to get into Martin’s Arches, but the swell was up, so we dropped back to Cray Canyon, which was also a bit surgey but just as beautiful as the last time I visited. Our second dive of the day was a return to Sandy Hole Complex, where we searched and found an enormous cave quickly christened “Sandy Hole.” It was stunning—I now have a greater regard for that site. We bagged out on cray, reaching the boat limit of 24.

Thursday saw us off to Radar Reef and Mortimer’s Lump. I hadn’t been on the Mortimer’s Lump site for at least 15 years and was thrilled to find it as beautiful as I remembered. One of our divers told me she felt as though she was diving an overseas site—TBH, I guess we were. That day we removed 17 crays from the ocean’s depths.

Friday, our last dive day (always a bit sad), we dropped in at The Hanger—again another stunning site, but it was surgey. I think I spent most of my time being pushed backwards at a great rate of knots, but despite this I enjoyed it. We asked our skipper for a less swelly site for our final dive and he delivered, dropping us into the water at the City of York wreck. Although quite a large vessel once, there’s not much of her remaining; however, we did get to see several good-sized fish, including a large bull ray on our ascent. And that was it—done and dusted… we got 6 crays that day.

None of these trips are possible without the cooperation of our skippers and DOs. My grateful thanks go to Geoff Geard, Steve Day, Jeff Weston and Malcolm Roberts. Thank you, crew.

Thanks must also go to Zita Dobson, who assisted with key collection, distribution of chalet commodities and many other tasks, and Hetty Geard for key collection and other support.

Feeding everyone is always a big job. My thanks go to Malcolm Roberts for his endless supply of pickled cray, BBQ’d cray, and generously sharing his intimate knowledge of our island; Jeff Weston for his delicious red cray curry; Dimity for another great Thai green curry; and Deb for her pasta bake. This made life easier for me, as did all those who helped out on dish duty and the many other tasks involved in making the trip as seamless as possible. A special thanks must also go to Martin Smith, who became our Mr Fix-It—he mended all the chairs in 952, the door, rear lights on Deb’s bike, and several punctures. Thank you all.

Many of us made it to Sunsets on Wednesday night. Booking seats was easy; getting there and back was totally exciting and very unusual. Our lovely Secretary, Michele Hardesty Munday, is a nursing sister on Rotto. She met up with us that evening while we were waiting at the bus stop—and guess what—eight of us piled into her ambulance, which is how we arrived at the front door of Sunsets. Thank you Michele, that was so kind and so much fun, and thank you for the three bottles of wine.

Our return to Geordie Bay wasn’t quite so impressive but was outstanding in its own right. Malcolm had told us about the Quokka Hopper, which Deb had managed to book for us. Now, the Quokka Hopper is a golf cart and can take seven passengers; however, it had broken down and wasn’t available, so instead we got one of the expansive tourist coaches. Certainly a trip in style—Nancy, Phil, Martin and I rattled around a bit as the coach crawled past Lake Baghdad and up the hill in hot pursuit of Deb, Malcolm and Mike on their deadly treadlies… our driver lighting their way and dropping us off at the bottom of our walkway.

I know some of you are interested in stats, so here are a few. If stats are not your thing, skip the following:
• Number of participants: 18
• Number of divers: 13
• Number of crays caught in total: 104 (thanks to all our cray fishers—you kept us fed like royalty)
• Number of dive sites: 12 (Sandy Hole cave complex x 2)
• Number of air fills: 120
• Number of tanks on board: 40
• Number of bikes making the crossing: 11
• Number of e-scooters: 1
• 7 salutes to Hewey

So that’s a wrap for another year. Thank you to all who came along—I so hope you had a great time. I did!

Cheers, Liz Davey

Photo credit - Liz Davey

Dive Report - Sunday 22nd March

Photo credit - Filip Welna

With Cape Cruiser freshly back from the “Rotto Pilgrimage” it was time to go to Rotto again!  Not even the road blocks hampering access to the marina have stopped the 14 divers eager to get wet again. 

The conditions were more favourable on the northern side of the island, so we abandoned the planned dive sites and made it for “The Goon Bag” to be followed by “The Maze”.

Almost everyone dived the full hour at the first site, reaching a maximum depth of 24 meters. A staggering 14 crays were brought back, 5 of them by Marie beating Damo by 1.  Since the wind kept getting fresher, skipper Carl kept the party going by stopping over on the Geordie Bay jetty, where Marie delighted the divers with the lobster cook-off with her special sauce. 

Refreshed and well fed we anchored on our second site, “The Maze”. Everyone enjoyed the underwater conditions and good visibility here and all but one diver have used up their time limit here, reaching a maximum depth of 19m.  8 Crays were caught here, with Shane bagging 3, and Damo and Marie having to settle for second place at 2 each. 

The wind kept getting stronger throughout the day and the crew’s time on board was much less pleasant than the divers experience. The journey back home was touch on the rough side, but no one has complained.  Many thanks to the trainee, DO Anthony, who made this day much easier for me!   

Filip Welna

Important Information for Dive Bookings

• Please do not book dives for other divers. If we receive double bookings from one diver, the second booking will be automatically cancelled.
• If you would like to receive notifications about dive cancellations, please email divebookings@uecwa.com.au with your name and phone number to be added to the WhatsApp group.
• Important to note that you cannot cancel dives using the dive calendar. Cancellation needs to be made by email directly to divebookings@uecwa.com.au

Please note our cancellation policy below as per the club bylaws:

Cancellations between 07:45 and 16:00 the day before: 50% cancellation fee.

Cancellations after 16:00 the day before: 100% cancellation fee.

No-shows: Full event fee.

If you have any questions, please check out our FAQ's, Contact Us or chat with your Committee members when you see us on the boat! All current club members are welcome to attend monthly committee meetings. 

Newsletter Editor

Mel Daws - Public Relations