Well Funsters,
Got out for a double dive on the wrecks of the
Ozone and Dominion at Indented Head on the Bellarine peninsula yesterday. You can see the wrecks clearly in the map above. They are in about 4 metres, Dominion at the top and Ozone (with paddlewheels) at the bottom.
A little history.
The Ozone was a popular paddlesteamer which took mostly day trippers to the [then] sea side towns around Port Phillip Bay between 1886 and 1918.
It was considered a luxury vessel in its day but it demise came about with the introduction of larger and faster paddle steamers.
It was withdrawn from service in 1918 and sold for scrap in 1925. The hull, paddlewheels and boilers being sunk as an intended breakwater at Indented Head, however the sinking didn't go according to plan with the vessel sinking in shallow water. (
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The Dominion was a wooden barque built in Canada in 1876. I can't find much on its history other than it was towed from Fremantle to Melbourne in 1902 to be used as a coal lighter.
It was sunk together with the Ozone and was set on fire by vandals and burned to the waterline sometime later. (
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Our dive.
Conditions looked perfect when we arrived on site, light W-SW wind, surface like glass, coming up to high tide and vis looked pretty good. Unfortunately the vis wasn't as good as hoped once we got in, but still was ok.
Phil checking out the boilers on the Ozone.
Not much life about, I think with the on set of colder water they've all buggered off somewhere to hide. Water temp was 12C!! Did see a cute little skate/ray (not sure which) about the size of my hand. Unfortunately that pic is not very sharp.
Plenty of toad fish.
All up 2 good dives, might be my last for a while as I'm going away.