Dive Safety in Australia: Emergency Numbers, Recompression Chambers and Evacuation Times

Australia has an excellent but sparse network of hyperbaric chambers, and for many dive sites the nearest one is hours away by air. Knowing the procedure and the distances before you need them is part of planning any dive here. Every site page carries the nearest chamber for that site.

The procedure

For any suspected decompression illness or diving injury: give 100 per cent oxygen, keep the diver lying down and hydrated, and call 000 (Australia's emergency number, which works from any mobile including without credit or a local SIM) for ambulance. Then call the Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific diving emergency hotline on 1800 088 200 (or +61 8 8212 9242 from overseas), which is staffed 24 hours by diving physicians who coordinate with the chamber network and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Do not drive a symptomatic diver to a chamber yourself; retrieval is coordinated through 000 and DAN. DAN membership is not required to use the hotline but pays for the evacuation, which in remote Australia can run to tens of thousands of dollars.

Evacuation times that should shape your diving

From Cairns the nearest chamber is 350 km away in Townsville; from a Ribbon Reef liveaboard it is a helicopter to Cairns then a fixed-wing flight south. From Osprey Reef or the Rowley Shoals the vessel must first steam toward the coast for many hours before a helicopter can reach it. Christmas Island, Cocos and Norfolk Island are a day or more from treatment. Exmouth is a two-hour RFDS flight from Perth. Lord Howe is a two-hour flight from Sydney. The practical consequence is that on remote trips divers should stay well inside their tables, do their safety stops long, avoid the last-day deep dive, and carry their own DAN or equivalent cover. Every liveaboard carries oxygen and satellite communication; check that the day boat you are on does too.

Flying after diving

Australia's distances mean nearly every dive trip ends with a flight. DAN's guidance is a minimum 12-hour surface interval after a single no-decompression dive and 18 hours after repetitive or multi-day diving; most Australian operators and liveaboards apply 18–24 hours. Driving over mountain passes (the Great Dividing Range from Cairns to the Tablelands, or the Blue Mountains from Sydney) counts as altitude exposure.

The local hazards

Marine stingers (box jellyfish and Irukandji) in the tropics from November to May: wear a stinger suit, keep vinegar on board. Estuarine crocodiles in every northern river, creek and mangrove, and occasionally beaches and islands, north of about Rockhampton and Broome. Blue-ringed octopus and cone shells in every rock pool. Stonefish on tropical reefs. Sharks: incidents involving divers are rare, but great whites are present along the whole southern coast and follow-local-advice applies around seal colonies, and bull sharks live in the tropical estuaries and the Gold Coast canals. Cold, current and boat traffic account for far more diving incidents in Australia than any animal.