Cave Diving

UK requirements are generally that all people wishing to take up cave diving must be competent cavers before they start cave diving. This is primarily because most British cave dives are at the far end of dry caves. There are individuals that begin cave diving directly from the recreational diving, but they represent a minority in the UK, and represent only a few percent of the Cave Diving Group (CDG).
Australian cave diving and the CDAA
Australia has many spectacular water filled caves and sinkholes, but unlike the UK, most Australian cave divers come from a general ocean-diving background. The "air-clear" water of the sinkholes and caves can be found in the Mount Gambier area of south-eastern Australia. The first cave and sinkhole dives here took place in the very late 1950s, and until the mid 1980s divers generally used single diving cylinders and homemade torches, and reels, resulting in most of their explorations being limited.