Victorian man dies while cave diving

Police say a man who died while cave diving in the south-east of South Australia at the weekend was from Melbourne.


His body was found about 50 metres from the entrance of Tank Cave near Tantanoola after police were called in on Sunday afternoon.


Police Superintendent Trevor Twilley said the man's diving buddy surfaced and when the other man failed to do so, the buddy went back down and found the body.


Police divers have now retrieved all the equipment the man was using, including his air tanks, and a report is being prepared for the coroner.


Authorities say the victim was a 40-year-old man from the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster.


His death is the second in Tank Cave this year and the third in the region since last year.


South Australian Police Superintendent Trevor Twilley told ABC Radio police were investigating the cause of the man's death. He has been identified but his name has not yet been released.
"(The man) was only 50 metres into the cave and the circusmtances surrounding this death are still unclear at this stage," he said.
Supterintendent Twilley said he had spoken with Cave Divers Association of Australia's national director John Vanderleest this morning, adding that the association's Tank Cave safety regulations appeared "to be suffiecient" in restricting access based on divers' experience.


An illustration, from the time of Ms Milowka's death, shows the make-up of Tank Cave.
"Tank Cave is one of the more complex cave systems in the southern hemisphere," Superintendent Twilley said.
The cave is located on land purchased by the Cave Divers Association of Australia earlier this year. The association bought five acres of land surrounding the cave's entrance, and there is access to the land from the Princess Highway.
Mr Vanderleest yesterday informed members of the fatality in a statement on the association’s website.
"I regret to inform the membership that today saw the tragic loss of one of our friends whilst they were cave diving in the Mt Gambier region," he wrote.
Mr Vanderleest added that no details about the dead man or the circumstances could be released until the family had been notified and police had cleared the information.
The man is the third Victorian to die in cave diving accidents in south-east South Australia in the past 19 months.
In February 29-year-old Melbourne woman Agnes Milowka died, also while diving at Tank Cave, Australia’s longest underwater cave system.
In March last year, Melbourne doctor Robert McAlister died in a sinkhole at Mount Schank near Mount Gambier.
The 51-year-old was diving with a friend when he is believed to have become tangled in a rope. His friend tried to free him as both ran low on air, however he was unable to be saved.
Agnes Milowka was well-known in diving circles both in Australia and around the world, and had worked as a stunt diver on James Cameron’s 3D diving film Sanctum.
She had dived many times previously in Tank Cave, a twisting series of underwater passages of which 11 kilometres have been mapped. Ms Milowka’s body was found the day after she disappeared, about 600 metres inside the cave system.
The Cave Divers Association of Australia advises on its website that Tank Cave is for advanced divers only.
It is thought to rank among the longest cave diving sites in the world.
The Cave Divers Association of Australia has been contacted for comment.