To get there, you travel out to the north-west from the boat ramp to GPS Reading xxxx (TO COME). This is using WGS84 as a datum. If you do not know what this means, read my GPS Page.

A view of Bicheno from the town's lookout Trap Reef is just to right of the photo

We did this as a live drop and pickup, meaning that we did not anchor. We dropped to the top of the reef and then headed down with the dive shop owner, Bruce, leading the way.

The top of the reef was in 13 metres and there are a number of gutters that run east to west. We dropped down into one (it turned out to be the southern-most gutter) and followed it to the west. The bottom of the gutter was 17 metres at first but as we headed west, it dropped to 21 metres and then about 29 metres on the sand.

At the sand's edge, we headed south and then east along the southern side of the reef. The reef is covered in kelp like all Tasmanian dive sites I visited, but there are a few sponges and some small gorgonias. On these Kelly found some yellow sea spiders. We also found some yellow nudibranchs.

There were also a lot of bastard trumpeters,yellowtail, seapike (large), wrasse and leatherjackets. There were some banded morwong, lots of old wives and one large long-snouted boarfish.

As this is a pretty deep dive site, we soon had to start coming up the reef a bit to stay out of decompression but a couple of divers on the boat were low on air so the dive ended a bit earlier than it would have normally. We did our safety stop in blue water and then surfaced to be picked up by the waiting boat.

The gutter at Trap Reef	The wall at Trap Reef

Another excellent dive site, but only very average visibility of about 10 metres. This is rare, as Bicheno has a reputation for great visibility. Water temperature in February 2008 was 17.5ºC, warmer than Sydney when we left a few weeks earlier. The seas were absolutely millpond.

I thoroughly recommend the services of the Bicheno Dive Centre. Click here for more information on Bicheno and the dive shop.