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Colin Piper's interest in diving had been sparked when his English teacher at the Conservatorium High School assigned an essay on a chapter of Cousteau’s book (The Silent World) about cave diving in the Fountain of Vaucluse in Provence. He is a long-term member of the Underwater Research Group of NSW (URG),
Before the URG came into being in its own right in 1956, there was a 1948 organisation called the Underwater Skindivers and Fishermen’s Association whose members were heavily involved in spear fishing and underwater snorkelling. In 1953 a group from the USFA formed the Underwater Explorers Club. They were more interested in making diving equipment than spear fishing and it was that same group that formed the URG, thus attracting people who were more interested in the scientific possibilities of diving than spear fishing.
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| Colin Piper’s relationship with URG began in 1966 when Howard Couch was the (non-diving) President. One of his diving instructors was Clarrie Lawler on the weekend before decimal currency introduction on 14th February 1966.
When he first joined the URG, diving gear was pretty basic compared to today. A wetsuit (not necessarily a warm and well fitting one!) fins, a mask, a snorkel, a knife, a lead belt, an air tank and a regulator.
Evolution of diving gear. Gear has come a long way in 50 years and things were very simple (AND COLD) in February 1966.
This was the era before buoyancy compensators became widely used and the equipment was really only a generation away from that pioneered in 1943 by Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan.
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| Their open-circuit SCUBA was developed at a time during WW2 when Italian and Royal Navy Frogmen were using closed circuit equipment, that we know today as re-breathers, that did not emit bubbles. The Cousteau equipment featured a twin hose set-up (one hose for inhale, the other for exhale) with the air coming from a back-strapped tank.
The two underwater photos shown left are diving 1967 style and include the twin hose regulator arrangement. The photo shown below right is of URG diver wearing modern diving gear. (images from Colin Piper)
In Australia Ted Eldred developed a single hose regulator, the Porpoise (released in 1952) and single hose gear is used by 99 percent of divers today.
Colin stopped diving regularly in 1970 for career and other activities but returned to it in 1981.
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| | On his return, he found the URG had become more of a social diving club. However, there were still the occasional projects undertaken. Colin took part in several in the 1990s. One was Commonwealth funding to do baseline studies of the benthic and fish life in the North Harbour Aquatic Reserve that stretched from North Head to Clontarf and Manly. Colin’s part was to look at a toxic weed called caulerpa taxifolia which had made big headlines in the 80s after the Monaco aquarium cleaned out its tanks and the weed took hold in the Mediterranean Sea.Â
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While the algae was, and is potentially damaging (see the BBC program The Killer Algae) and could potentially choke fish nurseries, in Sydney Harbour it was not seen to be such a problem as in the Mediterranean, and this was confirmed by Fisheries when it was rechecked in 2007-8.
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| Another project that drew on Colin's study of and interests in marine archaeology involved a team of professional Maritime Archaeologists and URG members diving in South-West Arm in Port Hacking, looking for 30,000+ year old submerged Aboriginal rock shelters hypothesised by archaeologist Jim Wheeler.
Left:URG members Colin Piper (L) and Tony Wright (background) with Maritime Archaeologist Cosmos Coroneos at one of the underwater overhangs found in South West Arm in 2005 (photo from Colin Piper).
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| Left: Wayne Hack with a measuring pole at an underwater overhang in South West Arm. Twelve possible sites were identified. Photo by Aengus Moran.
They did find some potential sites, which were documented by the archaeologists and presented to an archaeology conference in 2007 at Sydney University.
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| This research showed that experienced recreational divers who are comfortable in, and knowledgeable of, the underwater environment and whose search activities are supervised by a maritime archaeologist, can be more effective in visual diver surveys than an archaeologist who has little experience in diving.
Interacting with a large cuttlefish (Right) and a Port Jackson Shark (Below) at North Head - two examples of the wonderful diving opportunities and a preponderance of marine life so close to a large city. Images John Turnbull).
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| Colin Piper was interviewed for A Question of Balance by Ruby Vincent. Summary text by Victor Barry September 2017.
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