About Us

The CDAA was formed in September 1973. At the time landowners throughout the Mount Gambier area of South Australia, were contemplating the closure of all holes to diving for fear of legal liability following a spate of diving fatalities in the water filled caves. With the forming of the CDAA, sinkhole divers hoped to prevent the wholesale closure of the dive sites by presenting a united voice in defence of their sport. They wished to indicate to landowners and the public at large that they were able to regulate their activities to acceptable standards of safety and training. The newly formed CDAA set up a series of criteria and testing procedures. Initially these were a listing of all the popular cave diving sites divided into three different categories* based on their degree of difficulty. Cards were issued to divers to display to landowners to indicate their competency. The landowners gained confidence in the ability of the CDAA to produce safe divers and, as a result, the holes remained open.

* This later expanded into four levels of training: Cavern, Sinkhole, Cave, and Penetration. More recently this has been refined back to three levels: Deep Cavern, Cave and Advanced Cave.

Aims and Objectives

The main aims and objectives of the CDAA are to foster the development, advancement, promotion, mapping, education, exploration, conservation, safety and research of underwater caves and related features.

CDAA Structure

The CDAA is managed by a National Committee of five directors who are appointed by membership vote on a bi-annually basis.  The National Committee manages the day to day affairs of the association and are bound by the Association's Constitution.

Membership is available to all persons who complete a membership application form and are accepted for the CDAA Deep Cavern (entry level) certification  Members are required to abide by the CDAA regulations and to renew membership annually which includes payment of an annual membership fee.