“Half way there”, “Keep going” read the signs of encouragement along Busselton Jetty. This is because it’s the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, stretching almost 2kms out to sea.
Every morning, we strapped our dive gear onto trolleys, and did the therapeutic stroll out towards the horizon. Jumping into the cool clear waters at the end of the jetty was immediately refreshing, and then slowly our eyes adjusted to the different world we’d plunged into.
Underwater forest
The timber pylons form an underwater forest, bursting with colour. Over time, a colourful community of soft corals, ascidians and sponges have enveloped each pylon, in turn creating homes for blennies, octopus and nudibranchs. Schools of old wives, bullseyes and trumpeters take refuge under this man-made reef, and an occasional giant cuttlefish peeks out from under a fallen plank.
Bullseyes
Cuttlefish
Nudibranch
But one particular resident stole our attention. Scott spotted an octopus hiding in a hollow log, and he settled down to watch it for a while. As the octopus slowly got more curious, it started reaching its tentacles out towards him. It walked its suckers all over his camera, then his hand, trying to learn more about these strange objects. It’s impossible not to smile, when a wild animal chooses to trust and interact with you like that.
Australia has a variety of amazing jetty dives all around its coastline, from Chowder Bay in Sydney, to the famous Exmouth Navy Pier. The added bonus of Busselton, is that you don’t even have to get wet to experience the underwater world. Inside the Underwater Observatory at the end of the jetty, we descended a spiral staircase all the way to the ocean floor, and watched through thick glass windows as the critters passed us by.
Trumpeters
Boxfish
Photos shot on Olympus OMD cameras by Rosie Leaney & Scott Portelli