Hells Gates (Macquarie Harbour)

Meet the site

Hells Gates is the narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour, named by convicts bound for the Sarah Island penal settlement. The harbour drains a huge catchment of tannin-stained water through the gap, and breakwaters built in the late 1800s and early 1900s to train the channel have created shifting sand spits either side.

The Marine Life Network guide describes the SS Devon (1894), stranded on the South Spit and now mostly buried by sand behind the breakwater, with her stern and steering gear visible at low water in 2-3 m, and the SS Kawatiri (1907), thrown against the breakwater and onto the North Spit (now Kawatiri Shoal) in 2-4 m. It rates the Devon as an interesting snorkel with occasional strong currents, and the Kawatiri as worth a look only on an exceptionally calm day because of freak waves. Visibility is limited by the dark harbour outflow.

Tasmania's west coast faces the full Southern Ocean, and the Marine Life Network guide notes that most of it is diveable only after easterly winds have flattened the swell - an uncommon event largely confined to summer. Macquarie Harbour and Cape Sorell provide the only reliable shelter from south-westerly swell. Crayfish grow large here, abalone are common and fish life is thin on exposed reefs, which are battered by constant swell.

There is no dive shop, air station or chamber anywhere on the west coast; the nearest hyperbaric chamber is the Royal Hobart Hospital, about 4 hours from Strahan by road. Every west coast dive should be treated as remote: carry oxygen, a radio and an EPIRB, and have a realistic evacuation plan.

What you might see

Limited - brown algae, abalone, estuarine and reef fish in tannin-stained water

Location

The narrow, tide-swept entrance to Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania's west coast, flanked by breakwaters and shifting spits that hold the wrecks of the SS Devon and SS Kawatiri.

Facilities nearby

Macquarie Heads campground (basic). Strahan: ramp, shops, fuel, accommodation; no air fills.