Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving - Hundred Thousand $ Point
In Vanuatu there is a dive location call Million Dollar Point. This is located on Espiritu Santo, just seaward from the wreckage of the SS President Coolidge. This site gained its name from the then value of the surplus World War II equipment dumped there by the departing US forces in late 1945 or early 1946.
Elsewhere in the Pacific there are a number of similar dumps (but none rivalling Million Dollar Point in size or fame). In the Solomon Islands there are at least three more. One of these is a spot on the northern end of Tulagi Island in the Florida Islands group. Prior to the start of WWII, Tulagi was the colonial capital of the British Solomon Islands. The island is quite tiny, less than a kilometre across and not more than four or so long. There is only one road and that snakes its way around the outer edge of the island.
Tulagi is separated from the main island of the group by a small channel. The channel is quite shallow on the north-east corner of the island but it then deepens as you head west to the open sea or south to Tulagi Harbour.
At the end of the War, a whole lot of equipment and supplies was dumped off the road just seaward of the shallow water (say about a kilometre at the most), just past the small village and petrol sale building visible from the sea and road. It has also been used as a rubbish dump since then as there are post-1970s items (beer cans for example).
You could do this dive as a boat or shore dive. The site extends over about 200 metres along the shore and to a depth of about 30 to 35 metres. Things to be seen include at least six trucks or jeeps, including at least one 6 wheel drive truck, a number of very large engines, dozens of complete wheels and tyres, many wheel rims, many tyres, some pontoons, thousands of Coke bottles, aluminium (?) canisters with screw lids at both ends of unknown purpose, girders, trailers, at least one tip truck,
All in all, a very interesting second dive after a deep dive on the USS Aaron Ward or USS Kanawha.
I dived with Solomon Sea Sports. This operation changed ownership in early 2002 and is now called Solomon Islands Diving, Dive Tulaghi and is run by a number of (ex-)Sydney divers. They have moved location to Tulaghi. See my Tulaghi page for more information. It could also now be done as a shore dive following the dive operation's move to Tulaghi.
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